In this guide 6 sections
Ask five things before you sign. Who changed which entry, and when? Can every record leave as a file? Which role sees which screen? What happens to logins at handover? Who owns the data afterwards? Get each answer demonstrated, not described.
Does the system record the author and time of each edit?
A trust answers to members, donors and the auditor, so start with the audit trail and have the vendor edit a receipt amount live. Then ask to see the log.
A proper log names the user, the amount before and after the edit, and the exact time of the change, as read from the receipt register. Can a posted receipt be deleted? Ask whether it can only be cancelled with a reason, because deletion that leaves no mark on the register is a red flag for any auditor.
Ask how long the log is kept and whether the treasurer can switch it off, since nobody should be able to do that. If a cash voucher can be back-dated after the month is closed, find out who may do it and where that is recorded.
- Who, what and when on every edit
- Cancelled receipts kept, never erased
- Month lock that stops back-dated vouchers
- A log the treasurer cannot switch off
How do we get our records out, and in what form?
Software changes and committees change faster, so you must be able to leave one day without a fight, which starts with a full data dump from the demo account. Request it before you buy.
Look for the donor master, receipt register, member ledger, voucher book and fund-wise balances as separate CSV or Excel files, one file for each register. A lone PDF is no export. Check that dates, receipt numbers and the link between each receipt and its donor survive the trip, by opening three old receipts in the exported file.
Then ask about the opposite direction. Can you import last year’s member list from a spreadsheet, and who repairs the rows that fail, the vendor or your own clerk on a weekend? That answer sizes your own workload.
Which role can see and do what?
A trust has several kinds of people. The treasurer posts vouchers, the clerk issues receipts, the secretary approves payments and the auditor only reads, so one shared login for all of them defeats the purpose.
Ask for the permission matrix as a table with screens as rows and roles as columns, then check whether the clerk can see donor phone numbers. Can anyone export the full member list, and can the auditor get read-only access without an extra licence or a borrowed password?
Test it by creating a clerk login and trying to open the bank reconciliation, which should be refused, since only the treasurer and secretary have any business there. Ask also whether any payment above a limit you choose can demand two approvals before the cheque is cut or the transfer is released. Do not skip this.
- Treasurer, clerk, secretary, trustee and auditor roles
- Read-only login for the statutory auditor
- Two-step approval for payments above a limit
- Separate rights to view and export
What happens when the committee changes?
Office bearers rotate every few years. The software must outlive them, so ask how a login moves from the old secretary to the new one without sharing a password.
A good answer names a deactivation step that keeps past entries attributed to their author, while a weak answer is a shared email address the previous treasurer still controls.
Ask who holds the administrator account. If it sits with the vendor or with one volunteer, the whole trust hangs on one login, so the trust should hold it with a named backup.
Data ownership, references and your score sheet
Read the contract for three lines: who owns the records, where they are stored, and what happens to them if the subscription lapses. Ask for the backup routine in plain words, including how often it runs, where the copies go and who can restore one.
Ask for two references from organisations of a similar size and type, call both, and find out what went wrong during their opening twelve months.
Finish by writing your own score sheet. Put these five questions down the side and each vendor across the top, and fill it in during the demos, not afterwards. The gaps will show themselves.
Vendor question sheet for trustees
Five blocks cover audit trail, export, permissions, change of office bearers and data ownership, and each block lists the questions to put to the vendor. Beside them sit a column for the vendor’s answer, a column marked shown or only told, and a final score box for each vendor under comparison.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should a small trust pay for audit trail features?
Even a small trust handles other people’s money, and an edit log costs little to provide while settling most disputes at the annual meeting. Treat it as a basic need.
What file formats should a data export use?
CSV or Excel files for each register, such as donors, receipts, vouchers and members, with receipt numbers intact and each receipt still linked to its donor. A PDF cannot be loaded elsewhere.
Can one person hold the administrator login?
That carries real risk. Name a primary and a backup administrator in the committee minutes, and record the change whenever office bearers rotate, so the trust never depends on one volunteer’s memory.
How many vendors should we compare?
Three vendors are enough. More demos produce more noise. Use the same question sheet at every demo, so the answers line up side by side and the weak vendor shows itself without any argument.