Abila MIP - Not my first choice
Updated April 17, 2018
Abila MIP - Not my first choice
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with MIP Fund Accounting (formerly Abila MIP)
MIP is the accounting software we use for our organization's general financial needs. We maintain all accounting, for both operating finances and charitable endeavors, with this system. Its use is restricted to the Finance Department in our relatively small organization, but the reports we produce using this software is used by all members of our extended staff. All reporting to our Board of Directors is also used with MIP reports that we have developed ourselves over time.
- MIP Fund accounting is functional and robust. In terms of it's efficiency, it can provide the flexibility you'd want in regards to customizing it's functionality. But I do admit that I sometimes find it unwieldy to learn, and perhaps not the most intuitive software that I've ever come across.
- We found the pricing to be competitive when compared to other softwares, and it has improved over the years we've used it, but at times the support could be better. I've noticed a big difference in ability between customer reps in the times I've called them.
- I find that MIP is not at all robust when compared to its competitors. I find a lot of the functionality limited when compared to other similar software suites, like Microsoft AX for example.
- There are glitches with MIP. Our auditors noticed that the bank reconciliation reports did not match the financial statements. When I called MIP customer support to find out why this was, he was evasive when I asked him whether this was a glitch or not. He finally admitted this was "a problem that had to be remedied".
- MIP have been strict about their pricing. We did not use their customer service option for 11 months out of a 12 month period. We tried to negotiate a better service price based on this (we are a cost sensitive non-profit) but were refused. I would've expected better flexibility considering what we paid to MIP.
- MIP enabled us to easily update our accounting system with minimal issues. It was easy enough to change the chart of accounts, and there were no glitches afterwards.This was much appreciated, as we realized this could've presented us with a big learning curve we'd rather not waste our resources on.
- We completely upgraded versions of MIP this year and their work with our own IT team was good, although we did pay a premium for this service.
I suppose so. There is a lot of functionality of MIP that we do not use...I don't find the interface particularly intuitive to be honest. We do use MIP to keep track of our financial assets in terms of the grants and scholarships we award on an annual basis, but perhaps not to the extent that we could. I do think we could do a lot more, and I think that perhaps MIP's support could've helped us better use the software's functionality in this regard.
- Microsoft
I would have to say that at this point, I do prefer Microsoft. Better product, a much more handsome and intuitive interface. Plus, I find Microsoft products are not only better suited to learning their functionality, but that you also benefit from the larger talent pool of professionals who are skilled/knowledgeable with this product.
MIP Fund Accounting Feature Ratings
Support from Community Brands
Once of their product reps is very knowledgeable, so I was happy when I got him because the issue was 'resolved' quicly
Using MIP Fund Accounting (formerly Abila MIP)
1 - We have an in-house contractor who deals a lot with the backend issues related to this software. I do know he's generally positive in regards to MIP's performance in this regard. He does not know a lot of the front-end report building functionality of MIP, he's not a developer in that sense, but he's stated that that kind of end user report design/creation is not easy to pick up with this software.
- Financial reporting for the organization, most notably to upper management.
- Documentation of the financial operations of the organization (general accounting, record & information storage, etc...)
- None really.
- Better reporting and related functionality.
- Better integration with our interrelated peripheral management information systems. For example our Paypal account, website, etc...
2 - Directly, only the Finance Department uses our MIP software. Although the other departments show varying interest and involvement in terms of creating and analyzing our organization's financial reports. This is another aspect of integration into our business protocols where I thought there could well be improvement in terms of how we used this product.
Evaluating MIP Fund Accounting and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Prior Experience with the Product
MIP had been adopted from before I had started working for the company. It had replaced a very basic software suite that had been in use previously. We'd used the same version for years, but eventually the version's age necessitated it being upgraded. We did have the option of switching products, something I wanted to look at more in depth in hindsight, but we decided for overall ease of implementation, we would purchase the newer version licenses.
If I had to do it again, I would've paid much more attention at fleshing out what functionality we would like to get out of the new software system, rather than how well it integrated to the current system. Admittedly we were happy that our upgrade went smoothly, conversely I don't think we improved our use of the software as perhaps we could've. As a smaller organization, we were sensitive to these kind of costs to consider.
MIP Fund Accounting Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Problems get solved Kept well informed | Difficult to get immediate help Slow Initial Response |
Yes - No, the bug was merely confirmed after some prodding