Nonprofit finance teams track restricted grants, report to several funders and keep the board informed, often on accounting software built decades ago. When board reports take hours and grants cross fiscal years, the system becomes the bottleneck. The Sage Intacct Buyer's Guide is a white paper for nonprofit CFOs, controllers and finance directors who suspect it's time to replace their accounting software and want to make that call without costly surprises.
Written by Sage Intacct, a provider of cloud financial applications for nonprofits, the paper combines expert guidance with comparison tables and checklists you can use in a real selection process. It is short enough to read in one sitting and organized so you can return to the parts you need as your search moves forward.
Why legacy nonprofit accounting software holds finance teams back
The paper starts with a problem most finance leaders already feel: older financial management systems make good information hard to get. You'll see why expensive customizations, vendor lock-in and rigid reporting are built into many legacy packages. You'll also see what that costs your organization when decisions about programs, fundraising and staffing wait on month-end numbers.
It then turns to the first real decision in any software search, which is the delivery model. A side-by-side comparison of on-premises, hosted and native cloud (SaaS) systems covers implementation, upgrades, integration, IT support and more. That makes it easier to judge which approach fits your size, budget and in-house IT capacity. The paper doesn't assume the cloud is right for everyone, and larger nonprofits with their own infrastructure get a fair hearing.
What the Sage Intacct Buyer's Guide helps you decide
If you're leaning toward cloud accounting software, a set of gut-check questions helps you test that instinct. They cover remote work, integration with tools like Salesforce, dashboard access for executives and board members, inefficient processes and growth on a limited budget. Answer them honestly and you'll have a clearer view of whether a move makes sense now or later.
From there the guidance gets practical. You'll come away understanding:
- How to build requirements and an RFP that let you compare vendors on equal terms
- Which attributes separate a dependable cloud vendor from a risky one, from data ownership to security
- How to frame ROI and total cost of ownership when weighing cloud against on-premises
- The contract and pricing traps that tend to appear after the first year
If you need to build a business case for leadership, the cost sections are especially helpful. They explain why a license fee is only part of the picture and how capital and operating expenses differ across the three models, giving you language a finance committee will recognize.
Get service level agreement terms right before you sign
For anyone close to the contract stage, one of the most practical sections is a checklist of seven service level agreement must-haves. With cloud software, your vendor runs the financial system, not your IT department. The SLA is what protects you when something goes wrong. The paper explains which areas to get in writing and what reasonable vendor commitments look like, so you can negotiate from a position of knowledge.
You'll also find a customer story from a youth-serving nonprofit that moved off an on-premises system and heavy spreadsheet use. It shows what changed for a small finance team and its board reporting, and why the CFO pushed for the switch.
Download the free guide to get the full delivery model comparison, the cloud readiness questions, the vendor vetting criteria and all seven SLA must-haves in one place. Use it to shape your RFP, prepare for vendor demos or make the case to your board before you speak with a single sales rep.