Quicken for Nonprofits vs QuickBooks for Small Nonprofits

Quicken works for a very small nonprofit that only needs to track one or two bank accounts, but it has no nonprofit edition, no fund accounting and only one login. QuickBooks Online Plus costs an eligible US nonprofit $80 a year through TechSoup, gives five users, and tracks programs and restricted funds with classes. For most nonprofits with a board, a grant or an audit, QuickBooks is the better buy, and your Quicken history can move with it.

That is the short version of a question treasurers ask every year when the books change hands. Below is what each option really costs a nonprofit in 2026, where Quicken runs out, and how to bring years of Quicken transactions into QuickBooks without retyping them.

Can a nonprofit use Quicken?

Yes, a nonprofit can use Quicken, and many small churches, clubs, booster groups and PTAs do. Quicken will track bank and credit card accounts, categorize income and expenses, and print reports you can hand to a board. It was built for households and sole proprietors, though, so anything nonprofit-specific has to be improvised with categories and tags.

That improvisation holds up while the organization has one bank account, one volunteer treasurer and no restricted money. It starts to strain the first time a funder asks how a specific grant was spent, or the board wants a budget-to-actual report by program.

Is Quicken good for nonprofits?

Quicken is adequate for nonprofits with simple cash books and weak for anything beyond that. Its strengths are a low price and an easy register. Its gaps are real for nonprofits: no fund accounting, no restricted versus unrestricted net assets, no Statement of Activity, a single login per data file, and no built-in way to give your outside accountant access.

Quicken Classic Business and Personal also adds invoicing and Schedule C reports, which matter to a sole proprietor and do nothing for a 501(c)(3). You are paying for features designed for someone else.

How much does Quicken cost for a nonprofit?

Quicken costs a nonprofit the same as anyone else, because Quicken does not sell a nonprofit edition and does not list a nonprofit discount on quicken.com. Quicken Classic Business and Personal, the tier most organizations pick, lists at $12.49 a month billed annually, or $149.88 a year, and the current offer price of $10.99 a month runs to November 6, 2026.

The cheaper Deluxe and Premier tiers also work for a simple cash book. Our Quicken pricing breakdown lists every plan and what it renews at.

Is QuickBooks free for nonprofits?

QuickBooks is not free for nonprofits, but it is close. Through TechSoup, eligible US nonprofits pay an $80 yearly admin fee for QuickBooks Online Plus with five users, or $170 for Advanced with 25 users, instead of $1,680 or $4,080 at list price. Intuit sets the eligibility rules, centered on 501(c)(3) status, and TechSoup verifies the organization.

Payroll, QuickBooks Payments and other add-ons are not part of the donation. If you pay staff, budget for the payroll add-on at Intuit's normal price. The full price ladder is on our QuickBooks Online Plus pricing page.

Is Quicken or QuickBooks better for a nonprofit?

QuickBooks is better for a nonprofit that has a board, grants, staff or an annual review by an accountant. Quicken is only the better choice for a tiny group with one account and no restricted funds, and even there the price advantage is gone: donated QuickBooks Online Plus at $80 a year costs less than Quicken Classic Business and Personal at $149.88.

The deciding features are classes, which let you tag every transaction to a program or a grant, multiple logins, so the treasurer, bookkeeper and auditor each have their own access, and reports that use the names nonprofits file under. QuickBooks Online switches report titles to Statement of Activity and Statement of Financial Position when you set the company type to nonprofit.

Does Quicken do fund accounting?

No. Quicken does not do fund accounting. It has no concept of restricted and unrestricted net assets and cannot report a balance by fund. Treasurers work around it with a separate category or tag per grant, which records the spending but does not show what is left in each fund without building a custom report every time.

QuickBooks Online is not true fund accounting either, but classes get most small nonprofits there. One class per program or restricted grant, plus a budget per class in Plus, answers the questions funders and boards actually ask.

Can Quicken produce reports for Form 990?

Quicken cannot produce Form 990 or a 990-ready report on its own. You can set up income and expense categories that mirror the 990 lines and run a category report at year end, which many treasurers do. The functional expense split (program, management and fundraising) still has to be built by hand.

QuickBooks does not file the 990 either, but with classes for program, management and general, and fundraising, the functional expense report falls out of the books. That saves your preparer hours, and preparer hours are what a small nonprofit actually pays for at tax time.

When should a nonprofit switch from Quicken to QuickBooks?

Switch when any of these happens: you receive your first restricted grant, the board asks for budget versus actual by program, a second person needs to enter transactions, you hire your first employee, or an accountant starts reviewing your books each year. Each one is a point where Quicken's single file and missing classes start costing volunteer hours.

Treasurer turnover is the other common trigger. Handing a Quicken data file, a password and a laptop to the next volunteer is how years of history get lost. A QuickBooks Online subscription belongs to the organization, and a new treasurer is simply a new user. Many nonprofits also keep an eye on state charitable registration renewals and other filing dates, and a tool built to track filing deadlines and compliance obligations pairs well with clean books when the board rotates.

How do I move a nonprofit's Quicken data to QuickBooks?

Export each Quicken account as a QIF file, convert the QIF to a QBO Web Connect file, and upload it in QuickBooks Online under Banking. QuickBooks Online does not accept QIF files, which is why the conversion step exists. The converter at the top of this page reads the QIF tags, fixes the date format and produces a QBO file that imports without errors.

Do one account at a time, starting with the main checking account, and match the QuickBooks opening balance to the Quicken balance on the day before your first imported transaction. Then recreate your program categories as classes. The full walkthrough is in move Quicken to QuickBooks Online, and if the organization uses QuickBooks Desktop instead, see QIF to QuickBooks Desktop.

What about other nonprofit accounting software?

Dedicated nonprofit systems such as Aplos and Sage Intacct offer true fund accounting, and some include donor management. They also cost more than donated QuickBooks, and accountants who serve small nonprofits are far more likely to know QuickBooks. For an organization leaving Quicken, QuickBooks Online Plus is usually the cheapest step that solves the real problems.

If you are still deciding whether to leave Quicken at all, our Quicken vs QuickBooks comparison covers the general case, and Quicken alternatives lists the personal finance apps that a treasurer might use for household money instead.

Related pages: QuickBooks Online Plus pricing, QuickBooks Online Advanced pricing, QuickBooks Online pricing for every plan, move Quicken to QuickBooks Online, QIF to QuickBooks Online and Quicken pricing.