I do not necessarily agree with the advice from the respondent who recommended that you not "use the software developed by various companies designed for hospital, university, school, large museum not for profits." While some of the concerns about the suitability (i.e. "overkill") of such software for very small not-for-profit organizations are valid, I believe that you should weigh those concerns against the disadvantages you would encounter by using "a regular small business commercial accounting program." You indicate that, while your budget is relatively small, you do have four funds and 30+ departments. This creates a level of complexity that small business software systems may not adequately handle. I believe that you would find a fund accounting software package an advantage, especially in helping your staff to maintain cash control and accountability (especially between funds), to accurately record interfund transactions, and to maintain the various funds in balance, all common problems I have encountered in small not-for-profit organizations. You did not mention how you handle payroll or whether or not you have an active development (fundraising) program. These are both important issues that should be considered when searching for accounting software. If you prepare your payroll in-house, then you will want to carefully evaluate the payroll component of any software you consider, especially the level of support you can expect from the software vendor to keep the withholding tables up to date and accommodate any other changes that will occur. The ease of integration of the payroll component with the general ledger should also be considered as well as the ease and ability to obtain necessary reports for tax reporting, employee benefits administration, and other voluntary deductions. For a small organization, use of a commercial payroll processing company may be more cost effective, and much less stressful, than in-house payroll processing. If you have an active development program, either, or both, current and deferred giving, you should consider a donor/gift recordkeeping system that integrates with your accounting software to eliminate any duplicate recordkeeping and insure that the two systems are always in agreement. You will probably not find any small business commercial software accounting programs that will do this which is another reason to look at fund accounting systems. The cost of fund accounting systems varies greatly. The largest such software system I have worked with originally cost $500 thousand and was substantially modified at additional cost. Yet, I know of at least one fund accounting software system that will integrate with another vendor's development system for less than $5 thousand for both. In the September 1994 issue of The NonProfit Times, you will find an article beginning on page 21 that describes some of the current fund accounting systems on the market today. You may find this article to be especially helpful. Other sources of information on non-profit administrative computer systems are the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Good Luck!