MIP Fund Accounting® is celebrating 40 years of working with more than 6,000 nonprofits, and it’s been quite the journey.
Micro Information Products was founded in Austin in 1982. The company released MIP Fund Accounting as proprietary software for “those who need the difference,” kicking off a storied history ripe with innovation.
After a successful launch, MIP introduced MIP Fund Accounting for Microsoft Windows in 1996, went through a series of acquisitions made by Sage Group and Accel-KKR, and then notably launched MIP Advance (now known as MIP Cloud), a cloud-based fund accounting platform, in 2015.
Ministry Brands acquired MIP in 2017, incorporating it under its nonprofit entity, Community Brands, our parent company.
Over a 40-year journey, MIP has become the nation’s leading nonprofit cloud-based SaaS fund accounting software. Navigating an assortment of mergers, acquisitions, and rebranding along the way, MIP evolved into a leader earning “Best Usability,” “Best Feature Set,” and “Best Customer Support” from Trust Radius in 2021 and “Most Loved” and “Top Rated” in 2022.
“Since our inception, MIP Fund Accounting has adapted through four decades of changing technology to become the leading solution for nonprofits, public service organizations, government, education, and K-12 schools,” said Neil Taurins, MIP General Manager. “We continue to serve mission-driven communities while continuously evolving to meet their needs as a best-in-class fund accounting solution.”
40 Years of Innovating Together
Just as we’ve innovated, our customers have too. Area Agency on Aging of Southwest Arkansas (AAASWA) began accounting for its future with MIP in June 2009. A new auditor examined their finances and found that the organization’s fund accounting system was underequipped. Her team was even writing out some checks on a typewriter. CFO Cindy Lewis said, “The auditors came in, and they said, ‘Oh no.’”
The auditor recommended AAASWA adopt MIP Fund Accounting because four other area agencies were also using it.
“Being a nonprofit that is federally and state funded, we must have a secure program that can track each grant separately,” Lewis said. “MIP was recommended by our auditors and several other area agencies use it as well.”
The board approved the switch to MIP, and their implementation was underway. AAASWA serves 12 counties in Southwestern Arkansas, overseeing 24 senior centers and serving about 5,000 individuals monthly. MIP helps the agency manage the variety of funds it oversees and administers and ensures that essential functions like payroll are done correctly and on time.
Now that Lewis and AAASWA have used MIP, they couldn’t picture managing their finances with anything else.
“If we need to see how much we’ve spent with these different funds, I’ve set them all up as programs, and because each fund is different, we have to report them [differently],” Lewis said. “I like being able to customize the reports. If I just need to see how much we’ve spent in Title III C1 for this amount of time, I like being able to pull that up without needing several different reports.”
AAASWA’s MIP journey didn’t end after their on-premise installation either. During the pandemic, Lewis and her team were considered essential employees. They had to fund the senior centers so their beneficiaries could continue receiving meals at a time when it was more important than ever before.
Their IT department had set up a way to access their on-premise system remotely. However, an unreliable internet connection made that server unpredictable. They turned to MIP Cloud, taking the MIP product they knew and loved and migrating it to an always-connected, modern platform.
From typewriter, to on-premise, and now the cloud, as AAASWA works tirelessly for the state’s senior citizens, MIP is accounting for their future. Read more of their story.
From accounting for others’ futures to accounting for your future, MIP has spent the last 40 years developing and promoting its cloud-based, SaaS fund accounting solution. We want to share a gift with future and current customers. Begin or continue your MIP journey today.
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