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Maximize your abilities with Abila MIP
July 27, 2016

Maximize your abilities with Abila MIP

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Abila MIP Fund Accounting

It is used across entire organization for accounting and payroll. Reports are invaluable for managing budgets, AP, departments, projects and grants. Payroll handles salaried, hourly, part-time and seasonal employees easily and facilitates required government reports. W-2 and 1099 preparation is a pleasure.
  • Unlimited number of account segments makes it possible to capture data at a level of granularity that hugely improves the quality of management decision making. The ability to have numeric, alphanumeric or alphabetic codes is extremely helpful.
  • The point and click report writer makes creating standard and custom reports a pleasure, and easy to teach to new users.
  • Security is flexible enough to be able to assign specific tasks to specific employees, improving security. Executive view cuts down the need to produce voluminous reports for managers, who can easily look at information on-line.
  • Purchase order module is limited in functionality and not especially intuitive to use. I'd look for a review of workflows and functionality that actual users want/need.
  • Would like to see ability to do balance sheet and cash flow forecasting.
  • Much better information has led to making fewer costly wrong decisions.
Having segments for funding source and project makes it possible to manage and report on total funding from a funding source, total funding for a project, or funding for each project of a funding source or each funding source for a project. It takes a little time to lay out schema to create the appropriate account codes for this, but it's been a worthwhile investment.
We only looked at the Blackbaud product as we use Raiser's Edge but decided on MIP because of its flexibility, ease of reporting, absolute data integrity, SQL database and outstanding consultants who did on-site implementation and customized training, not easily available from Blackbaud.
Especially appropriate in nonprofit and governmental entities that have complex reporting needs along multiple axes--e.g., natural account, project, program, department, location, grant, restriction. Probably less appropriate in organizations where there is not trained bookkeeping/accounting staff.

MIP Fund Accounting Feature Ratings

Using Abila MIP Fund Accounting

2 - Executive Director, finance
  • Board reports
  • Management reports
  • Payroll
Flexibility, comprehensive suite of functions, data integrity, security, ease of reporting

Evaluating Abila MIP Fund Accounting and Competitors

Yes - Quickbooks Pro. Organization had outgrown ability of QB to produce good reports. Needed better data security and audit trail.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Vendor Reputation
Prior experience with product over 20 years gave considerable confidence in ability of product to meet needs of organization. Prior experience with vendor gave security.
I would not do anything differently.

Abila MIP Fund Accounting Implementation

Allow plenty of time. Expect to go over budget. Don't rush planning, as it leads to conceptual errors that can be challenging to correct/change.
  • Vendor implemented
Yes - Analysis of COA needs, development of COA, implementation of basic GL modules, development of PR needs, implementation of basic PR fulnctions, implementation of advanced accounting modules. Training at each stage, with touch-up training as needed at each successive step.
Change management was a major issue with the implementation - Users were scared at change from QB which had been in place for years. Careful explanation of changes, getting user buy-in, demonstration of improved management and board reporting were crucial, as was continual positive reinforcement during implementation and training.
  • Fear of change
  • Difficulty comprehending multi-segment account structure
  • Difficulty comprehending utility of table-driven account structure

Abila MIP Fund Accounting Training

  • In-person training
excellent consultant with many years of experience in accounting and MIP. great conceptual skills made setup design a breeze. patient and insightful with training, intuitive sense of pace of training--never too fast, never data overload.

Abila MIP Fund Accounting Support

Although senior analysts have in-depth knowledge of product, often times first line analysts either do not understand the issue and have to have it explained several times or have to go off line to do time-consuming product research. At the wrong time of the day, or at calendar year end, wait times can be quite long.
ProsCons
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Support cares about my success
Escalation required
Need to explain problems multiple times
No - Affordability for my organization.

Using Abila MIP Fund Accounting

For the well-trained user, the system is generally intuitive and full of built-in error checks and good online help.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Lots to learn
  • AP invoice entry and payments
  • Payroll timesheets, payroll calculation
  • AR invoices
  • Receipts on AR
  • Allocations
Yes, but I don't use it

Abila MIP Fund Accounting Reliability

Barring server crash, system almost never fails. Recovery is easy, and data doesn't get lost.
Very rare application errors; quickly resolved with tech support or KB research. Updates are easy. Outages due to power failures are not MIP's problem.
If using a workstation with adequate RAM, system works like a dream, quick page loading, fast report generation. We do not integrate with any other s/w or systems.

Relationship with Abila

skilled knowledgeable consultants with understanding of accounting or payroll processing, together with loads of MIP knowledge. patient, thorough teachers with individualized agendas for teaching. willingness to brainstorm during conceptualization and setup.
always available on a timely basis by phone, text or email.
price of s/w, timing of implementation, amount and type of training, price of training, price of ongoing support.
be explicit, be clear about needs, be clear about staff skills and capabilities. ask questions until you understand something and don't assume that it's your fault if you fail to understand something the first time.

Upgrading Abila MIP Fund Accounting

Yes - Smooth implementation and minimal down time. No unexpected impacts.