Open Forum

Hello AAM - I am looking for advice about financial and accounting applications used by museums associated with universities such as the Harn. This combination brings some unique challenges when it comes to the various funds and grant management. We are upgrading our current system and are wondering if there are better systems we should be considering. What applications do you use and are you happy with the product and support?

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Matt Herring
Director of Information Technology
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art - University of Florida
Gainesville FL
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We've been saddled with some pretty cumbersome or unreadable financial programs.  Unfortunately we are required to use the University's designated system, which ties together all grant income and associated salaries and purchases.  It also ties together all the University oversight for grants - Grant Administration, Development and the receiving department (i.e. Museum).  There is no way around this without doing double duty which is discouraged.  So when our office receives a grant or project funding, the financial/business administrator assigned to grants does all the accounting in the University system and generates the monthly reports to the relevant parties.  Those of us who are in charge of spending the grant funds use Excel to keep track of the day-to-day items as well as any purchasing.  It's basic, easy to use and essentially free.

Might want to check with the relevant University Financial departments to see what your options are before investing time looking at systems.  While the University has always had control everything financial, our Members database centralized into University Development's system right after they did an upgrade to a new system. 

Chrisso Boulis
Registrar Records
Penn Museum
University of Pennsylvania


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Chrisso Boulis
Registrar, Records
Penn Museum - University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-09-2021 01:29 PM
From: Matt Herring
Subject: Looking for advice on financial and accounting software or services

Hello AAM - I am looking for advice about financial and accounting applications used by museums associated with universities such as the Harn. This combination brings some unique challenges when it comes to the various funds and grant management. We are upgrading our current system and are wondering if there are better systems we should be considering. What applications do you use and are you happy with the product and support?

------------------------------
Matt Herring
Director of Information Technology
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art - University of Florida
Gainesville FL
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We use QuickBooks Online for our internal financial management. Our host institution doesn't integrate reporting between our state government funds and our foundation funds - there also tends to be a lag in reporting revenue from the foundation. QuickBooks allows us to view the big picture of our many funds in real time while also giving us the opportunity to classify revenues and expenditures in order to track program specific financials across multiple funds. It does require some double duty on our part but we are able to catch any discrepancies when reconciling our records with our university's reporting systems. QuickBooks isn't the best for building out budgets, but we've adapted some resources from strongnonprofits.org that have served us well! TechSoup offers a steep discount for QuickBooks and other services to non-profits - you may be able to claim non-profit status and gain access via your university's foundation.

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Kaylee Lass
Assistant to the Director & Chief Curator
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art
Charleston SC
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-09-2021 01:29 PM
From: Matt Herring
Subject: Looking for advice on financial and accounting software or services

Hello AAM - I am looking for advice about financial and accounting applications used by museums associated with universities such as the Harn. This combination brings some unique challenges when it comes to the various funds and grant management. We are upgrading our current system and are wondering if there are better systems we should be considering. What applications do you use and are you happy with the product and support?

------------------------------
Matt Herring
Director of Information Technology
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art - University of Florida
Gainesville FL
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