Abila MIP Fund Accounting™

Many of the nonprofit and governmental organizations that we work with have unique and challenging fund accounting and reporting requirements, especially if funded through multiple sources and revenue streams.  In such cases, we suggest True Fund Accounting™ via MIP Fund Accounting™ software to fully support your financial management requirements.

Please explore this page and determine if Abila could be a good solution for your organization. 

A Closer Look at Abila MIP Fund Accounting™

Abila MIP Fund Accounting™ is regarded by nonprofit accountants as the gold standard of its genre and consistently receives top ratings from independent sources, such as TrustRadius and CPA Practice Advisor. It has a long history as a solid solution for small- to mid-size organizations that require true fund accounting. Some of its erstwhile competitors have faded but MIP has thrived by delivering what customers demand and staying up-to-date with technology.

A Choice of Two MIP Versions

Abila supports two versions of the software, MIP Fund Accounting™, and MIP Advance™. The former is the venerable original version that has evolved from its creation to a feature-rich product that can be acquired via a traditional perpetual license or by subscription and hosted on-premises or in the cloud. MIP Advance™ is Abila’s more recent browser-based version that is hosted in the Abila cloud and can be run on PCs and mobile devices. Both versions use a common SQL database and can be used interchangeably for maximum flexibility. 

Your job is different and so is MIP Fund Accounting™

Scale – MIP Fund Accounting™ can change and grow with you through your most difficult fund accounting, human capital management, and payroll challenges.

Choose – Our software can be hosted in the cloud for maximum data security and accessed anywhere, or on-premise, based on your specific needs.

Decide – Comprehensive, accessible data empowers you to make better financial decisions and execute financial management with greater precision.

Know – Track, analyze, and report on the data that is most important to your board, your organization, and you.

Modularity

With  MIP Fund Accounting™, you only buy the functional modules that you need for your organization with the option of acquiring more as you grow. Most organizations begin with the core modules including:

  • General ledger
  • Accounts payable
  • Budgeting
  • Bank reconciliation
  • Accounts receivable reporting
  • Data import/export

Other popular modules are:

  • Accounts receivable billing
  • Payroll*
  • Human resource management (HRM)*
  • Employee web services (EWS)*
  • Allocations
  • Fixed assets

*Payroll, HRM and EWS modules constitute the integrated Human Resource Suite. Payroll and HRM can be implemented together or separately. EWS requires that HRM is implemented first. To learn more about integrated HR Management click here or complete the form below.

For a list of downloadable Abila MIP Fund Accounting™ brochures and recorded demos, click here.

Product Particulars

Find out how MIP Fund Accounting™ can help you make better financial decisions; execute financial management with greater precision; and better track, report, and manage finances across your entire organization.

Flexible Plans for Purchase and Deployment

Contrary to other solutions on the market, Abila has not taken a “one size fits all” approach and offers flexibility in product licensing and deployment.

Licensing Options Deployment On-Premises Third-Party Single-Tenant Hosting Abila Multi-Tenant Hosting*
Perpetual – one-time licensing fee and annual M & S fee Yes Yes No
Subscription – software monthly subscription fee Yes Yes No
Software as a Service (SaaS) – combined software and hosting monthly fee* No No Yes

*MIP Advance

Pricing

The cost of MIP Fund Accounting™ is scaled to make it affordable to organizations that range from small to large (less than $1 million to $100 million annual operating budget). However, final pricing depends on several variables: number of users, modules used, how licensed and deployed. 

Benefits of True Fund Accounting™

Most nonprofit organizations, especially in their earlier stages of growth, rely on general accounting software designed for commercial, profit-oriented enterprises.

For nonprofits and special government organizations, making a profit is not the main focus. Nonprofits have to provide accurate and timely financial information to many stakeholders, satisfy special regulatory requirements, and conform to restrictions imposed by funders.

True Fund Accounting™ software was designed, specifically, for satisfying a nonprofit’s needs. Some of the main pain points addressed are:

  • Budgeting and accountability by funding source and program
  • Tracking and reporting of donor and grantor restrictions
  • Ability to establish self-balancing funds within an organization when required by law or operational considerations

Making the switch to True Fund Accounting™ software relieves the hassle of trying to make a commercial accounting software system perform tasks it was never designed to do.

It’s likely that the commercial accounting software you are using now is characterized by a convoluted chart of accounts, multiple databases, excessive dependence on off-line record-keeping and reporting in Excel, and producing financial statements that are not in compliance with GAAP.

The result of switching to True Fund Accounting™ is greater operational efficiency, removing an impediment to growth, and achieving your mission.

Those, in a nutshell, are the BIG benefits. But there’s an important side-benefit as well. You join a community of users, providers, funders, educators, and others who all speak the same language, helping everybody become better nonprofit accountants.

Types of Organizations That Require or Can Best Benefit From MIP Fund Accounting™

At its core, MIP Fund Accounting™ is an enterprise-level accounting system and can support the accounting needs of most organizations: nonprofit, governmental or commercial; although the reverse is not true.

Nonprofits

Not all nonprofit organizations need or can fully benefit from a true fund accounting solution. These are often smaller entitles characterized by a single or main revenue source, usually donations supplemented by program generated funds.

Other nonprofits in the startup or early growth stage need true fund accounting but do not possess the human and financial resources to implement and operate it effectively.

For these organizations, having their accounting outsourced to a qualified provider is a viable alternative. Click here to learn more about NFP Partners’ outsourced nonprofit financial management services.

So, what are the main characteristics of organizations that can most benefit from MIP Fund Accounting™?

The following list is non-inclusive but generally supports Abila’s and our own experience:

  • The organization receives funding from multiple sources, donations, government and private grants, endowments, and program revenue.
  • Funds are restricted as to how or when they are expended by the donor or grantor.
  • Significant funding is received directly or indirectly from the Federal government.
  • The nonprofit has professional and capable personnel resources in key departmental positions including finance. (See the previous reference to using professional outsourced accounting services).
  • The organization receives an annual audit and a single-purpose audit if a recipient of federal funds.
  • Multiple related 501c(3) legal entities operate as a single organization.

What are some of the nonprofit sub-sectors that gravitate toward MIP Fund Accounting™? Actually, there are no limitations as MIP can handle the accounting needs of most organizations regardless of mission.

But, there are sub-sectors, as labeled by the NTEE classification system used by GuideStar, that choose MIP Fund Accounting™. The big users are:

  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Human services
  • Housing

One can safely make the correlation that the above subsectors also meet many of the characteristics listed earlier.

Government

Simply stated, legal, regulatory, and accounting standards require fund accounting for governmental entities. There is no option.

Whether MIP Fund Accounting™ is a good fit depends more on the mission, size, and scope of the agency. MIP is not designed as an enterprise solution for government.

Therefore, it better fits a niche for organizations that serve a singular mission. The following types of organizations are great candidates:

  • Special taxing districts that provide public services such as:
    • Fire protection and rescue
    • Libraries
    • Urban renewal
    • Water conservancy
    • Sanitation
    • Recreation
  • Native American tribal government
What Can NFP Partners Bring to the Table When You Get MIP Fund Accounting™?

Working with NFP Business Partners adds significant value to the customer relationship that is not available in working with the software vendor alone. Here are a few of the benefits we bring to the table:

  • Advocating on behalf of the client to the software vendor
  • Offering truly personalized services beyond those of the vendor
  • Responding more quickly and intelligently to client needs
  • Building lasting personal relationships with clients and facilitating a community of users for networking and sharing information
  • Providing knowledge and insight that goes beyond the software

For a more in-depth look at NFP Partners, please visit Our Company page.

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What do outsourced nonprofit accounting and Abila MIP Fund Accounting™ have to do with one another? To the outside observer, probably nothing other than both residing in the nonprofit finance and accounting community. As a purveyor of both, serving as an Abila Business Partner and providing outsourced accounting services to nonprofit organizations, we are experiencing a powerful synergy, something […]

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NFP Partners, in partnership with Abila, ran a marketing campaign among potential customers focusing on financial fraud in nonprofit organizations. Namely, there were three mailings dealing with general awareness, risk statistics, and its detection and prevention. We think the information would be of value to current users of Abila MIP Fund Accounting™ and to users […]