It didn't work for our school. We don't have enough help to even enter the info that we collect on paper into the system. I had trouble with it, but it was new then. Not many of the families in our school use a computer on a regular basis or have one at home, so email doesn't seem to work in mass. There are only about 4-6 people who I even know respond to email in a school of over 600 students. I think it depends on your area and demographics. I would have love to see it work, because I love email because it is such a quick way to reach many people with the same message.
I am thinking about this topic too as I ponder the renewal of this service. The first year, we bought both but the Finance Manger just wasn't suitable for our purpose. My Treasurer uses quick books or excel.
this year, we just got VB which I love. I loved it so much that at our district meetings, I tooted the horns so loud that our district negotiated a fee for all our schools that wished to purchase it in our district.
we even hold workshops on the software or the capabilities of VB. now the high schoolers don't like it as much because they have so many different booster groups so PTO today suggested each group purchase their own software. that's kinda pricey for each football, wrestling, performing arts, etc... to purchase it on their own!
but for an elementary school, it's purpose is great. I use the mass emailing almost once a week whether it's sending out PTO newsletters or reminders for restaurant nights or even when we have lock down drills so parents may want to me mindful of their schedule on a particular day otherwise they will be locked down in the school during this drill!
the interest options are endless and you can really modify any aspect of where you need volunteers.
I like the ability of the volunteer search option where I can just pull up a specific grade level or class so I don't mass email every registered user for a kindergarten event!
I can't say enough about VB. I only wished I got a referral fee for the 12 schools that I got to sign up!
Finance Manager does not have a 990 report per se but in the example you give below, Manager certainly could easily provide you the data that you need as long as you set it up properly. Feel free to call us at 800-557-2670 and we can set up a time to walk you through the program to answer any of your questions.
Does Finance Manager help specifically for filling out Form 990 for the IRS?
I'm currently struggling with Quicken (what the previous treasurers used) and trying to extract "gross receipts", actually for Form 1023, but I assume the same information is required for Form 990. Quicken shows your net for the time period, but it's tedious and manual to figure out gross receipts. Eg, if you had a $1000 deposit, but then a $10 clerical error and a $50 bounced check, then you spent $440, it's easy to get the net $500, but gross receipts should be $940.
