MIP -- A must for grant-funded organizations!
Updated April 05, 2016
MIP -- A must for grant-funded organizations!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
15.1.1.0
Modules Used
- Accounting, Payroll, HR, EWS
Overall Satisfaction with Abila MIP Fund Accounting
MIP Fund Accounting is used by the Fiscal Department for agency-wide financial/accounting tracking and payroll processing. It is used by all employees of the organization for electronic time sheets and leave tracking purposes. MIP Fund Accounting is good for this agency in that it has the ability to track the financials for all the various grants administered by the agency.
- Tracks the financials for many grants and funding sources. Allows us to have one combined checking account since MIP keeps all the resources of each of grants separate.
- The reports are very flexible and can be rearranged and filtered in many different ways to get the information that we need.
- There are a few glitches in Employee Web Services, but Abila has been working hard to find and correct those.
- I don't like that we have to purchase each module separately, and then the more modules you have the more your technical support cost is. I would rather the software just include the option to have all modules without purchasing separately.
- Helping to save paper, and therefore money, by converting electronic timesheets and leave requests.
- Staff are able to enter Personal Activity Reports (PARs--description of job activities for the day) on their electronic timesheet as required by our grant funders. We were using a paper timesheet before and there was no room for PARs.
- Fiscal staff have the ability to export many of the reports to Excel and sort and filter the information. Additionally, our auditors request all information we send to them be in electronic format, and their preference is in Excel format, so our investment in the Export module was a good one.
For our nonprofit organization, being able to track funds and expenses by grant is crucial. MIP Fund Accounting gives us that capability. With MIP, we are able to track the resources of each of the grants within MIP, which gives us the option to keep all of the cash in one checking account rather than having a separate checking account for each grant, which would be a nightmare!
I used PeopleSoft at my last job for a short period of time. The reports were very rigid and I did not have the ability to sort and filter as I do with MIP. Other than that, MIP was already being used at my current job, and I would not consider changing to any other program.
MIP Fund Accounting Feature Ratings
Using Abila MIP Fund Accounting
2 - The Fiscal Director and Fiscal Clerk use MIP Fund Accounting in our agency. We only have a few modules, but they work for us. We have the general ledger, payroll, accounts payable, export, HR, and Employee Web Services (EWS). The Fiscal Director and Fiscal Clerk use all the modules listed. All other staff in the agency use EWS to enter work time, leave time, and leave requests.
1 - The Fiscal Director is generally the person who performs all software updates. If we run into problems during the update, the MIP support people are always very helpful in that process. If we are having some issue with the server interacting with MIP, we have an IT firm that we contract with to help, and he would call the MIP support personnel to resolve the issue.
- Accounting and financial management tracking to report to our grantees
- Work time and leave entry by all staff, so staff can be paid for time worked.
- Payroll processing
- Accounts payable to be able to process payments to vendors
- Able to switch to electronic timesheets and eliminate paper timesheets
- Leave requests are available in EWS, so we were able to eliminate the carbon duplicate forms we were using for leave requests
Evaluating Abila MIP Fund Accounting and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
I feel the single most important factor in choosing an accounting program is product features. As a nonprofit grant funded agency, we need the ability to track revenues, expenses, and cash for each grant separately. MIP has the ability to help us do that, while allowing us the flexibility to run reports in different ways to get the information we need.
I was not at this agency when MIP was initially selected and implemented. However, I was involved in the decision to purchase the HR and Employee Web Services modules. We discussed the price, as well as features and usability of the module. Additionally, we discussed how these programs could improve efficiency for staff, reduce paper usage, and meet our needs for timesheet requirements. If we had to do this again, I would not change our decision making process.
Abila MIP Fund Accounting Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - We just have the standard support plan, and I feel that is sufficient to meet our needs. The support team is responsive when we call, and if the initial person we talk to does not know the answer, they will escalate the issue on to someone else who can help us. Sometimes when I call, I will have to wait on hold to talk to a person, but they do have an option to leave a message and they will call back. They are very good about returning calls.
Yes - I have found some issues with reports in Employee Web Services (EWS). We have had EWS for a few years, so we bought that module when it was fairly new, and still had some bugs to work out. The MIP team usually has a list of fixes that are included in the software updates, which occur at least two times each year, sometimes more.
I have recently been working with the MIP support person who specializes in working with the Employee Web Services (EWS) module. I have a few employees who needed a way to split out their work time in some complex ways. The MIP support person was able to help me set that up to make it easier for the staff person to record their time
Using Abila MIP Fund Accounting
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- I like the flexibility I have with all the filtering options on reports.
- The export module gives me the ability to export data to Excel where I can perform additional operations. Additionally, when I have my annual audit, the auditors want all my reports exported into Excel.
- Some reports have the ability to be viewed with unposted transactions included. Others do not have that capability, such as the expenditure journal. I would like for the "unposted transactions" option to be available on all reports.
Yes, but I don't use it