What problem should the software solve?
Before you compare products, write down your own problems. Common ones are: donor reports that take weeks, costs coded to the wrong grant, approvals in email, bank balances that do not match the books, and auditors asking for evidence that is hard to find.
Rank the problems. The software should fix the top three. A product with many features that fixes none of them is a poor choice.
Does it track money by grant, project and fund?
This is the main difference between NGO finance software and business accounting software. Ask:
- Can each entry carry a project, a grant, a budget line and a fund?
- Can you see spent, committed and available per grant?
- Are restricted and unrestricted funds kept apart?
- Can you report by donor without rebuilding the data?
Our article on restricted and unrestricted funds explains why the last two matter.
Which controls should be built in?
Controls that rely on people remembering will fail. Look for ones the software enforces:
- Balanced entries. Debits must equal credits.
- Approval chains with limits you set.
- Separation of duties. A requester cannot approve their own request, and one person cannot approve two steps.
- Closed periods that stop posting.
- Reversals, not silent edits to posted figures.
- An audit trail showing who did what and when.
Ask for a demonstration of each, not a promise.
How does it handle multiple currencies?
Most NGOs spend in several currencies. Ask:
- Does each entry keep the original currency, amount and rate beside the converted amount?
- Who maintains exchange rates, and how often?
- How are revaluations recorded?
- Can you report in the donor’s currency?
A clear trail from the original amount to the reported amount saves time at audit.
What can donors and auditors see?
Giving access by email attachment is slow and hard to track. Look for controlled, read-only access, limited to a grant, a period or a project, with a record of what was viewed. Ask how you grant, review and revoke it.
What reports does it produce?
List the reports you need each year: budget vs actual per grant, a donor financial report, financial statements, a cash forecast and a restricted-fund summary. Ask to see each using your own data. Our guide to donor financial reports lists what such a report needs.
What are the limits to ask about?
Every product has some. Ask directly:
- Does it meet statutory accounting and filing rules in your country, or is that a separate job?
- Does it calculate payroll tax or produce payslips?
- Does it make bank payments, or does it record approvals only?
- What happens to your data if you leave? Can you export it in a usable form?
- Where is data stored, and who can access it?
A vendor who answers these plainly is easier to trust than one who says yes to everything. See grant ledger vs statutory accounts for why the first question matters.
How should you test it?
- Pick one live grant and enter a month of real transactions.
- Run an approval with a requester and two approvers.
- Close the period and try to post to it.
- Produce a donor report and check that totals match.
- Give an auditor access to a limited scope.
- Ask a new staff member to do a task without help.
Score each step. Where the software fails, ask whether it is a gap or a setup issue.
How should you weigh the answers?
Do not add up feature ticks. Weigh each answer by how much it matters to you. For many NGOs, grant dimensions, controls and honest limits count most, while a long list of extras counts least.
Watch for three warning signs. First, a demonstration that uses sample data you cannot change. Second, answers that start with “we can build that”. Ask what exists today, and judge only that. Third, a refusal to say what the product does not do.
Also think about who will run it. A tool that only one specialist can use creates its own risk. Ask how long a new finance officer needs before they can post, approve and report without help, and what training and support are available in your language. Interface coverage often varies by language and screen, so check the languages your staff use.
Where EMPOBase fits
EMPOBase’s Finance module is a double-entry ledger built around projects, grants and restricted funds, with approvals, budget vs actual, multi-currency, bank reconciliation, period closing and financial statements, plus External Access for scoped, read-only, logged donor and audit review. It is not statutory accounting, does not compute local tax or social contributions, does not produce country filing formats, and does not make bank transfers. Our platform page and pricing page give more detail, and you can ask us to test it with your own grant.