Using an accounting software with Band Pencil

If you're already using Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, there's no need to move your invoicing and financial reporting to Band Pencil. Band Pencil includes invoicing and financial reporting tools, but it's primarily designed for event and member management. Dedicated accounting software offers much more comprehensive accounting, invoicing and financial reporting functionality.

If you don't currently use accounting software, Band Pencil can provide a simple way to create invoices, record payments and run financial reports, reducing the need to manage these processes manually.

How our users manage their finances

Band Pencil users generally take one of three approaches:

1. Using Band Pencil for invoicing
   Some users create and manage their invoices entirely within Band Pencil. This is particularly common for smaller businesses that don't use dedicated accounting software.

2. Using accounting software alongside Band Pencil
   Many users create invoices and manage their accounts in software such as Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, while still recording the amount charged to the client against the event in Band Pencil.

   This allows them to use Band Pencil's event-level financial information for purposes such as assigning members and their fees, tracking costs and calculating the estimated profit from an event.

3. Using accounting software exclusively for finances
   Some users don't use Band Pencil's invoicing or financial reporting features at all and manage everything through their existing accounting software.

Already using accounting software?

If your current accounting process works well for you, we'd recommend continuing to use it. Xero, QuickBooks and Sage are dedicated accounting platforms and provide significantly more comprehensive accounting and financial reporting tools than Band Pencil.

You can either:

1. Continue managing all invoicing and financial reporting within your accounting software and not use Band Pencil's invoicing features; or

2. Continue creating invoices in your accounting software, but record the invoiced amount against the event in Band Pencil. This gives you useful financial information within Band Pencil for event management and profitability reporting without duplicating your accounting processes.

Not using accounting software?

You can use Band Pencil to create invoices and run financial reports directly within the platform. For businesses with relatively straightforward invoicing requirements, this can provide a convenient way to manage events, members and invoices in one place.

The important distinction

Accounting software manages your accounts. Band Pencil manages your events and members.

Band Pencil's financial tools are designed to complement its event management features rather than replace a full accounting platform. Its strength is bringing together your events, clients, members, member fees, event costs and revenue so you can understand and manage each event from one place.

We don't currently integrate directly with accounting software, although we're exploring integrations with platforms such as QuickBooks for the future.