I do not know of any off-the-shelf collections management software packages that also handle accounting. With fully-featured accounting software available for very little money (Quickbooks runs about $200), I wonder if such an all-encompassing solution is viable for companies making collections management software for small museums. Does anyone have statistics on what software small museums use for accounting and for memberships? 
 
Best wishes,
 
Will
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Reine Hauser
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 2:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Museum Database Programs

As a small historic estate museum, we are new users of Past Perfect, but are very happy with it so far.  We’ve been using it for our membership database, and will be using it for collections, too, in the near future.  It’s been simple to use, the company is very responsive, and the database is VERY well designed.  But then, our membership is relatively small—we only have a few thousand records.

 

It doesn’t have an accounting feature, so we use Quikbooks (which is linked to our gift shop POS system.)  I’m hoping that someday Past Perfect will develop a POS system for museum gift shops!

 

 

Raiser’s Edge is the state-of-the-art. However, unless you have a membership department with at least a couple of full time employees, I’d avoid it due to price, and complexity (it requires extensive off site training.)

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

Reine Hauser

Executive Director

The Graycliff Conservancy, Inc

http://graycliff.bfn.org

 

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