Aplos Software is a privately held company that specializes in

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

for

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s. Their primary focus is simple software to manage the essential nonprofit tasks of

fund accounting Fund accounting is an accounting system for recording resources whose use has been limited by the donor, grant authority, governing agency, or other individuals or organisations or by law.Leon E. Hay (1980). ''Accounting for Governmental and Non ...

, nonprofit

tax preparation Tax preparation is the process of preparing tax returns, often income tax returns, often for a person other than the taxpayer, and generally for compensation. Tax preparation may be done by the taxpayer with or without the help of tax preparation so ...

and donor management for small, mid-sized, and large

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

History

Aplos Software was founded in 2009 in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

by Dan Kelly and Tim Goetz, a

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

. Tim Goetz previously served as an executive pastor of a church and helped found two nonprofits. He couldn't find the low-cost

solution he wanted for his nonprofits, so he joined with a Fresno-based investor that shared his vision to serve the nonprofit sector with simple, affordable software and founded Aplos Software. * After initially developing a desktop fund accounting software program, in 2011 Aplos Software launched its fund accounting software, Aplos Accounting, as an online product, also known as

, tailored specifically to small and mid-sized

non-profit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and

religious corporation A religious corporation is a type of religious non-profit organization, which has been incorporated under the law. Often these types of corporations are recognized under the law on a subnational level, for instance by a state or province governme ...

s. * The company raised over $3.4 million in funding through an angel investor to expand the development of its web-based nonprofit software suite, $2 million of which was raised in 2014. * Aplos launched an integration with Church Community Builder, a church management platform in January 2016. * In February 2016, Aplos raised $4 million in additional funding through a private venture capital fund. * In June 2017, Aplos announced a merger with Portalbuzz, a membership management platform that specializes in software and website portals for service clubs. * Aplos and

Gusto (software) Gusto, Inc. is a company that provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and human resource management software for businesses based in the United States. Gusto handles payments to employees and contractors and also handles electronically the paperw ...

, a payroll and HR platform, launched an integrated solution for payroll and reimbursements to be tracked within the accounting of nonprofits and churches.

Key Areas of Development

Aplos Software focused its software on simplifying the primary

back office A back office in most corporations is where work that supports ''front office'' work is done. The front office is the "face" of the company and is all the resources of the company that are used to make sales and interact with customers and client ...

tasks required to manage a nonprofit,

private foundation A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization not relying on broad public support and generally claiming to serve humanitarian purposes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion ...

foundation (nonprofit) A foundation (also a charitable foundation) is a category of nonprofit organization or charitable trust that typically provides funding and support for other charitable organizations through grants, but may also engage directly in charitable acti ...

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

or church.

Fund Accounting

Nonprofit

differs from business accounting because it is often necessary to track restricted and unrestricted funds separately. This often occurs when a donor or grant specifies that the organization must use the funds for a specific purpose. The accounting software must track how these funds were used and how much is available. Aplos first launched its online fund accounting software, Aplos Accounting, in 2011. The most popular competitive accounting product for small and mid-sized nonprofits is

Quickbooks QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. First introduced in 1983, QuickBooks products are geared mainly toward Small and medium-sized enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses and offer On-premises sof ...

In October 2012, Aplos Software launched Aplos Oversight, an online software which provides an administrator or accountant real-time access to the accounting of multiple organizations.

Form 990 Preparation

In summer of 2012, Aplos Software was approved as an IRS efile provider to submit

IRS tax forms Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms are forms used for taxpayers and tax-exempt organizations to report financial information to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. They are used to report income, calculate taxes to be paid to ...

on behalf of tax-exempt organizations and in October 2012 launched Aplos e-File, a tax preparation and filing software for IRS Form 990-N. IRS Form 990-N is an annual electronic IRS filing for tax-exempt organizations with less than $50,000 in annual gross receipts. In 2013, Aplos added tax preparation and e-file software for IRS Form 990-EZ and its required schedules to Aplos e-File. IRS Form 990-EZ is the short form of the full Form 990

and is available to organizations with up to $200,000 in gross receipts and $500,000 in assets.

Donor Management

Aplos Software also focused on expanding the

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

and

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blo ...

tracking aspects of its software since 2012 to make it more successful for the

vertical market A vertical market is a market in which vendors offer goods and services ''specific'' to an industry, trade, profession, or other group of customers with specialized needs. A horizontal market is a market in which a product or service meets a nee ...

of nonprofits. It launched a contributions management module in 2012 that tracked donations within Aplos Accounting and created contribution statements, which are annual giving receipts required by the IRS. In July 2013 it began offering a donor management module, and in May 2017 it expanded on its module to launch a stand-alone product as Aplos Donor Management. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, nonprofits are increasingly creating initiatives to accept donations online and growth in online giving outpaced traditional methods in 2012. To keep pace with the growing popularity and requests by its customers for an online giving platform, Aplos Software expanded its fundraising functionality in January 2014 by partnering with

WePay WePay is an online payment service provider based in the United States. It provides an integrated and customizable payment solution, through its APIs, to platform businesses such as crowdfunding sites, marketplaces and small business software co ...

, an online payment portal, to add the ability for nonprofits to accept online donations.

References

External links

www.aplos.com
{{Accounting software Non-profit technology Cloud applications