Item: MIP Fund Accounting
Rating: 6
Author: Carol Dougherty

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used for finance, AP and AR, integration of payroll data into general ledger expenditure and budgeting functions, budget management and reporting, and for government and internal reporting requirements. We are a government funded agency that has had to maintain our accounting in accordance with government reporting and record keeping requirement. MIP was purchased because it provided a format that was consistent with these requirements. We have four users.

Pros and Cons

MIP manages the cost accounting data management and reporting functions exceptionally well. The data is easily translated into our government reporting format, allowing for quarterly reporting efficiencies.
We invested in MIP because it also had good functionality for medicaid billing and accounting requirements.
It integrates with Single Audit Accounting requirements.
Our IT staff has been able to develop links to the MIP data to maintain current actuals to budget information.
Service and support staff has always been on target and effective in managing any problems.

The product was hard to learn and initially was not well known so new staff need a longer learning curve. MIP is fairly well used in our industry especialy with small to midsize not for profits and therefore we have been able to hire new staff without have the challenges during early use. A great improvement.
We do not use the budgeting module because when we tried to it was too complicated. My staff has not tried since the initial period because it was easy to load the budget but because of our challenges with our state's budgeting requirements, changes to the budget makes it more of a hassle to change. We have been discussing trying to use the budgeting feature again and will investigate if the product has improved since we last tried.
We have not tried the cloud product because the present product meets our needs. There may be features that make some of the features I have noted easier to manage.

Return on Investment

We have not transitioned to MIP Advance. Our accountant thought that our accounting needs were too simplistic to justify the move.
The initial investment and annual renewal has had a very positive impact on our overal business objectives. We are aware of the other modules and are presently facing a business transformation that may require additional features.
Overall the integration of the data for the reporting and analysis requirements of our business has been highly effective. We believe that this was one of the best investments we have made in business software.

Effectiveness at Managing Multiple Fund Sources

Initially no, however as our business grew we have really appreciated this benefit. It has helped us keep costs down by making our management of the fund income and expenses from multiple sources more efficient and easily managed by one person.

Reconciliations have been very easy to maintain and internal audit has also been very easily completed.

Alternatives Considered

We check out the top three products. MIP won because it was geared to Not for Profits and at the time few other products recognized the differences that MIP captured in their products. We were impressed by the fund raising features, however due to the nature of our government funding this feature was required, until recently.

Interesting enough the other two products were subsequently bought by MIP.

I must add that the fact that MIP contracted with local registered agents to help their customers to train employees on the product, integrate and manage the implementation of the product to the unique need of the company was a huge plus and an overall savings.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Access, Microsoft Exchange

Likelihood to Recommend

We have not used the payroll function because it is easier to outsource this task. I do know other similar companies that use MIP to do payroll, internally but I wonder why. I see no value to this feature.

Users and Roles

Finance (AR, AP, Budgeting, Reporting (Internal, State Reports, Funder (Grants reporting)

We have had to create and manage individual budgets for the people we support. This system provided an efficient and effective way of managing a very labor intensive task.

Single Audit requirements were easily managed by internal staff and contracted accounting firm. Remote Access allowed for users to get work completed, reducing cost of labor that onsight visits often incur.

Support Headcount Required

We had a bookkeeper who was using Quickbooks when we converted to MIP. We used trained and certified MIP techs to train, install and implement the product into our company. We have had a few transitions of staff but the more MIP became known, it was easier to find staff that had some experience with the product or a similar product that allowed for generalized translation to MIP.

We have trained non college level, clerical staff to use MIP. Data entry was a simple skill to train. Reconciliation feature did require experience in accounting or business training of some type. Reporting function was easy to train with staff that had some computer experience in Excel, Quickbooks or Peachtree. Custom reports did require a little more training and staff demonstrated a reduction in productivity if they did not have to create reports on a regular basis. Some time was lost in re-learning.

Business Processes Supported

Accounts Receivable (Managing the Invoicing and Cash Receivables)
Accounts Payable (Managing the Invoicing, Accrual Accounting, Aging)
General Ledger and Reconciliation
Budget Management and Reporting to Funding Source

Innovative Uses

Not sure if this is innovative but one of our Directors who was quite proficient in Excel was able to develop a system (formulas in Excel) that pulled the data from our Payroll data base and upload it into our MIP general ledger. A two hour task took 5 minutes with the bridge program he developed. It has been hard to maintain because of recent reorganization that has resulted in position shifts and he was the only person that could do this level of Excel programming. He no longer is with the company.

Future Planned Uses

We are beginning Fund Raising and will be exploring the module that integrates with this.
The Budgeting Module is also on our radar.

Likelihood to Renew

We will renew for the next two years, however we are in the process of becoming a subsidiary of a larger company and may undergo an integration into the accounting system that it uses. Until this happens we will stay with MIP.

Products Replaced

Yes - Quickbooks

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Usability
Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Third-party Reviews

We knew our government reporting and accounting requirements were going to become more complex. We needed to integrate our reporting requirements with our government funder. MIP performed the highest in our inquiry from the Single Auditors we used, the State Contracting Reps and other similiar companies that we reached out to who were using MIP

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Wouldn't change a thing. This was one of the best process outcomes this agency has achieved in our business management.

Implementation Rating

None that I have not already mentioned

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Professional services company

I really can't remember. I know we used an accounting firm that had one person certified to implement, but I can't remember the name. In fact we also used another company (certified agent) and since it was 15 years ago I can not remember either. The Accounting Firm we used was merged with another company and changed names, so I am at a loss.

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled

Implementation Issues

The coding (charting) of the departments. It caused some difficulty in accurate reporting. We learned to keep it simple.
The learning curve was a little long.
The Budgeting Module was very challenging and was ultimately abandoned. Our implementation person was more focused on the accounting implementation and was not concerned about the budgeting feature.

Support Rating

We have been financially challenged in the last few years and we have always renewed our support contract, even if it was a financial stretch. The fact that MIP has been flexible in their renewal accommodation has been greatly appreciated. Every single time we have needed help, it has been effective and efficiently delivered. The service team has worked well with our all skill levels of our staff and I have only heard positive outcomes in our 15 years. Never a bad outcome. I would say this an achievement MIP should be very proud of.

MIP Fund Accounting Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Immediate help available Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times

Premium Support

Yes

Bug Resolution

Yes - It took some time but it was a concerted effort on both sides and yes we were satisfied.

Exceptional Examples of MIP Fund Accounting Support

We had an IT melt down and almost lost all our data. It took a long time and a lot of work with our IT contractor, our finance team and the MIP staff but they worked through all the glitches and were able to restore all the data.

Usability

When MIP is not available because of computer challenges my team freezes. They rely that heavily on it on a regular basis. It is the foundation of our entire cash management, budgeting, our entire finance accountability system. It is the go to for data to track vendors, use, customers over the last 15 years. It is one of the key bricks in our business management foundation. It has never let us down.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

AP
AR
Journal Entries
Reporting

Difficult Tasks

The Budgeting Module was cumbersome and difficult and therefore abandoned.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes, but I don't use it

One of the strongest supports in our House

Overall Satisfaction with Abila MIP Fund Accounting