The closing and reporting process is so important for an accounting system. You put all those transactions into an accounting system so that it can turn it into something meaningful…hopefully some beautiful reports.
Reporting Issues
While the reconciling worked well, and everything looked nice on the screen, I did have some issues.
- Can’t Close a Period: I wish you could lock a closed month so you can’t post to it any more. Patriot has a Close, but it just posts the closing entry to equity.
- Can’t Change Report Titles: For a nonprofit, we usually have different names for our reports. Instead of the Profit & Loss, it’s the Statement of Activities. Instead of the Balance Sheet, it’s the Statement of Financial Position.
- Limited Customization: You have very few options for running reports. I didn’t see how to filter accounts or add a column to compare two periods. In QuickBooks, if you weren’t happy with the default report, you could usually customize it to make it better. With Patriot, what you see is what you get.
- Save Customizations?: Even with the limited customizations, I couldn’t see if you could save that. If I always run a Balance Sheet compared to the previous year, do I have to enter the comparative period each time? I wasn’t sure.
With most everything else, Patriot exceeded expectations. The reporting was a let down. If Patriot puts some work into that, I would give them an A. Instead. I give Patriot Accounting a B.
Useful Links
- Patriot Software: https://www.patriotsoftware.com/