LASSO's Crew Management delivers a platform used to schedule, communicate, onboard, time track, travel, payroll, and book labor.
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MIP Fund Accounting
Score 8.9 out of 10
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MIP Fund Accounting™ is a configurable fund accounting solution. The solution includes functionality for fund accounting, procurement, budgeting, payroll, human resources, timekeeping, fixed asset management, grant management, and dashboards for nonprofits and government agencies.
Transition to LASSO Crew was a real bear, but once we had all the pieces and parts in place and staff new how to use it, it solved the majority of our staffing headaches. We work on events across NYC and often have several events going on at the same time. Prior to LASSO Crew it was not uncommon for a supervisor to show up to a call with only a limited understanding of who was booked on the job, or for an employee to not be sure who or where they needed to report to that day. LASSO Crew-facing app and supervisor-facing website have entirely eliminated these headaches. Our staffing process is more streamlined than before, our rates and scheduling more transparent. Once you get past the initial hurdles of crew/team buy-in and implementation, the upsides are enormous.
MIP Fund Accounting works very well for general fundraising. The form creation process is easy and allows you to set parameters and add fees, quantities, images, etc. This process is smooth on the customer (forward-facing) side as well. Reports are generated once the transactions have gone through, making tracking and reconciliation with accounting easy.
Some of the page layouts are clunky, especially the crew list page
LASSO Crew has a calendar feed that can link to gcal, iCal, etc but it’s very limited and doesn’t reliably update the calendar when the schedule changes.
I would like it to push automated clock-in/clock out alerts to my team. I can set these up manually by scheduling messages but it is a very cumbersome process.
With the payroll process, if there is an error in sending the stubs through email, there is no option to resend without a restore. That really needs to change.
Being able to void encumbrance at the same time as a PO would be an incredible time saver.
I give MIP a 10 because Our organization use MIP Fund Accounting ever since I've been there and that's been for over 20 plus years for all of our accounting and payroll. MIP has stayed on the cutting edge of technology, ever evolving to meet the needs of the times, especially post pandemic, while many are working remotely! MIP support staff are very knowledgeable and efficient. Even new users can get up to speed quickly with MIP Fund Accounting.
The app is perfectly useable, if a bit limited in its functionality. The website, which functions as the "back end" of the app, takes awhile to learn. I carve out at least an hour of training on it for every new supervisor and fully expect to spend the first several weeks they use it to send them little reminders about how and when to do things. I have a few (older) supervisors who just out-and-out refuse to engage with LASSO Crew, but I think that has more to do with their aversion to change than it does the overall usability of the website.
I have used this system for about 12 years now and I still learning how to use it. It always surprises me how there is another report to learn to achieve my data reporting goals. It is great to have a system that you have used long enough to feel comfortable with but also a system that allows you to learn new ways to report and enter data into the system
I have rarely encountered any issues accessing MIP Fund Accounting over the years. On the rare occasions when availability was interrupted, the reasons were always found in-house when using the on-premises version. Since we have migrated to the MIP cloud, we have had no issues with availability. Any maintenance or updates are always communicated to us and are usually done outside of business hours.
We have 18 programs and the CFO has the ability through MIP Fund Accounting to generate separate and/or collective reporting for those programs. Each program has its own grant or funding source. Each has its own reporting guidelines that must be met so the ability to run reporting separately or collectively is a plus.
LASSO Crew takes customer support very seriously. My dedicated account rep responds to any issues directly, usually within one business day. When a crew member has an in-app problem they can't resolve the technical support team responds very quickly to any issue, usually with clear instructions about how to resolve the issue.
I have not reached out to MIP for technical support; however, their website offers great help resources so I can solve an issue on my own. Another team member reached out to MIP for support and was helped quickly. The transition process took longer than expected due to a lag in communication.
There are no specifics on what happens if you make one choice or another to know which is the best selection. This is true for JVs and AP. In training we were not given specifics of what happens when one possibility is selected over another.
Denise O'Malley provided training for the HR module when we added it to our system. Denise also gave us a demo of the EWS module which we were able to see that it would not meet our needs. She was very kind about and understanding regarding the functions we needed with a time clock system.
Don't waste your time with MIP. There are plenty of other softwares out there that will do the job better. Do your homework. Get references from actual users. Make sure that what you choose will truly integrate. Make sure that there is local support. Get training. You will be glad that you passed this one by. Trust me.
We explored using IntelliEvent for crew management but their platform just wasn't as robust and they didn't seem to have timekeeping and payroll partners in place to support the back end. Other than that, I haven't found another platform or software that does what LASSO Crew does, it was built for the event industry, by the event industry, and that focus on audience really shows through.
I've utilized other ERP accounting software like Infor, NetSuite, and MS Dynamics, to name a few. MIP Fund Accounting offers flexibility and room for growth while not being overly heavy on your team to maintain it. And, we're now learning more about the add-on's and more advanced capabilities to leverage with our team.
The flexibility to create certain features are helpful and are designed to be easier on MIP Accounting Cloud. It has been easier than the MIP Accounting classic version. I may have not fully utilized the software to deploy across multiple departments other than generating revenue reports or expenses. As well as developing budget worksheets for our departments. Which are great as it is, but have not gone farther than that.
We've had some complaints from crew members that the communications they receive through the LASSO Crew system feel less personal than when we used to handle everything through direct emails and text messages.
LASSO Crew branding is super prominent on every communication we send from the platform, I wish they would center the client/employer a bit more and not make the LASSO Crew logo and color scheme the most identifiable thing on the page/email/message.
We converted to the cloud version a few years ago to reduce our dependency on a dedicated internal IT server which needed to be replaced. The cost of the product switched to a monthly fee which increased cost somewhat but probably is matched with IT savings over time in doing upgrades.
We have an efficient team of two people doing the transactional work, so we don't really have much incentive to further automate our processes. And with the turnover in the CFO position we have had, has helped us maintain consistency in our processing.
Once I learned how to memorize and recall transactions it was a huge timesaver and increased the accuracy and consistency of our entry.
The cost of training is sometimes prohibitive. Example is my accounting clerk MIGHT benefit from additional training but at about $200 for a lot of the courses, it is more than we have budgeted.
