Aplos Pros and Cons

Aplos is much more nonprofit friendly than QuickBooks. It is tailored specifically for nonprofits and is especially helpful for those with bookkeepers who aren't full-time. We are a relatively small organization (few staff and no building but managing over $1M annually in donations). The Aplos staff have been incredibly helpful on multiple occasions. They also offer applicable classes each month in addition to supplying a database of previous classes. Start up was fairly straightforward. I use this product five days per week and have already recommended it to other in some nonprofit support groups I frequent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There's been a few glitches along the way, but we just contacted the help team and we've always been able to work it out. In addition, they are actively making upgrades and taking suggestions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I used to use QuickBooks and hated it. This is so much easier to do accounting. Very straightforward, easy to see at a glance, and know what is going on. Reports are easy to come by and if you cannot figure something out support is easy to get. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish there was a checklist on setting up a system for us from the beginning. I did not initially start using bank reconciliation and now to go back and start using it is a time difficulty for me. Would be good to have a list for businesses. I am a nonprofit: 1. organize and set up chart of accounts, 2. enter beginning balances, 3. set up purposes in contributions, 4. make sure to use our bank reconciliation. One thing I have never been able to figure out how to use is the events program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software itself is easy to learn. I'm not an accountant, and it was so good to be able to learn from the Customer Relations Director how to use the various modules. I loved the concierge package which gave us a dedicated implementation trainer who also oversaw the upload of our data from our previous platform. Their team went above and beyond many times in making sure that we could use Aplos to our best advantage. We have some specific needs which the VP of Operations himself took much time in helping make a way for them to be met. The customer support has always been prompt, knowledgable and engaged whenever we have run into an issue or had a question. I have around 50 funds to keep track of, so I am using Aplos daily to stay up to date. We like having the features like depreciation, customizing reports for our needs, and bank integration, to name a few. Lastly, we like the price - it has been so worth it to change over from our previous platforms - separate CRM and bookkeeping platforms. That is the BEST part for us: Aplos is bookkeeping AND CRM all integrated together in one platform! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have to say that the third party partnership with the payroll platform Gusto was not at all a positive experience for us. In fact, it was quite a frustration. We have clergy and non-clergy on our payroll, and for more than one of them, Gusto could not get the payroll taxes correct for the whole nine months that we went with them. I spent many, many, ultimately futile and frustrating, hours on the phone with the Gusto support people, not all of whom really knew how their software worked. For the 1099 and W2 forms, I had to re-do many of them because they were inaccurate in spite of the fact that the monthly payroll had always been correct.

At the end of the nine months, they finally admitted to me, in writing, that their software simply could ot correctly calculate the state and local taxes for one of our clergy who lives in Pennsylvania. When I asked if they were going to improve the software so it could do so, the reply was "No." Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I started with Aplos in the very early years and have loved the progression it has taken over the years - adding new features, improving existing features, and responding to additional requested needs. Having no accounting background Aplos, they made it easy to learn and to implement our accounting. Aplos is easy to use and understand. I use it every day either for transactions, reports, or looking up something. Customer Support has responded quickly and with thorough easy to understand answers. When an issue was bigger and took time to resolve they followed up in between letting me know the status of the "fix". Recently we integrated our Bloomerang account with Apols and all worked well. I became known for saying "Don't You Just Love Aplos" every time a feature worked so well for me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

HAve not found anything yet and do not expect to. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is very user friendly and easy to navigate Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Like any new system implemenation it was little rough in beginning. But the amazing support staff and team was incredibly helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the way it handles restricted fund accounting. It is easy to set up and once it is all mapped correctly it works every time. Reports are easy to use and they keep getting better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I am not thrilled with the check-in system. It is too basic and pulling reports from it isn't available. I also with it had a check out system as well so that we could use it in our kids program efficiently. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I support two churches with Aplos. Both have donor-restricted funds that need to be tracked; one also requires tracking by program, and also has projects and events to track. Aplos' fund accounting, tags, and integration with PEX Card and Gusto Payroll make this easy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Reporting has some limitations I have to overcome by exporting to Excel and reformattting, such as only a few columns can be included (one church has too many funds for the print area), whole dollar reporting isn't available, and imprecise terminology (equity--even though nonprofits don't have owners). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really appreciate the attractive and simple layout. Everything is easy to find and work with. I love how the donor section integrates seemlessly with the bookkeeping side of things. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Really the main downside is the price. As we are looking to start a new nonprofit ourselves, it's hard to justify the price as compared with Quickbooks Online as a nonprofit. It also would be helpful if more things integrated. We get a lot of Zeffy donations and having to manually input addresses and such is a bit of a pain. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

User friendly and less time to enter things Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Certain things are not customizable and I am still learning Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best thing about Aplos is the financial fund accounting side. Entries are very easy to import from your credit card or bank statement through the bank integration tool. I also love that it merges with our Gusto payroll system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We sometimes have trouble with donors' recurring transactions. There is little to no explanation when a transaction does not process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.