FAQ

WINPACCS is aimed at organisations that execute projects in the field of international development cooperation, who receive funds from institutional donors (or clients) and have to report (or settle) the use of these funds.

It doesn’t matter whether you are an aid organisation, a consulting company, an NGO, a (semi-) governmental organisation or an educational institution.

WINPACCS does not include any donation management functions.

There are indeed many good reasons. Here are just a few of them. WINPACCS is particularly suitable for this line of work compared to other solutions on the market, because:

• it combines the advantages of a subscription-based cloud solution with the benefits of purchased desktop licenses. WINPACCS generates plannable, monthly costs which means that a large initial investment for licenses is not necessary. The software is always up-to-date, you do not need to purchase any updates. At the same time, however, you do not need a stable Internet connection on site to manage project cashbooks and accounting. You can also work completely offline with the desktop applications and upload data only sporadically, even from another location. In the Cloud, you have an overview of the finances of all your projects and can create evaluations, reports and accounts.
• ultimately, everyone is able to use Excel, Word etc. but at the same time, everyone can also manipulate it. Fewer and fewer donors accept an accounting system that consists purely of Excel tables. Of course, you can still export data from WINPACCS, e.g. to Excel or PDF format.
• normal financial accounting or controlling software is not able to map many special features of development cooperation: different currencies; special requirements for exchange rates; project-dependent charts of accounts; donor-dependent budget structures with which costs are simultaneously assigned to cost centres and to donor budget lines; monitoring of quantities; impact monitoring and much more besides... 
• SAP and similar systems are often too complex for local staff. However, WINPACCS desktop applications, which are used locally in project countries, were developed from the outset for people who are not highly trained accountants. The training effort for WINPACCS Accounting is much lower than for ERP solutions. And WINPACCS Cashbook is so simple that no face-to-face training is necessary. A video takes care of that.

Unfortunately, we do not offer demo versions. 

If you are interested in WINPACCS, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will first analyse your requirements and wishes in order to find out which functions are relevant for you.

If it seems that WINPACCS is suitable for you, we will gladly make an appointment to visit you and present the software to you. Of course, you can use this time to ask questions and discuss your requirements with us. Alternatively, Skype presentations are also possible.

If we reach the conclusion that WINPACCS is not suitable for your tasks, we will tell you honestly. We only want to rent you our product if we are convinced that it is actually the best solution for you. 

We believe this is a fairer, more efficient and more people-centred solution than a demo version.

In order to maximise your use of WINPACCS you need:

• WINPACCS Cloud for the central administration of your projects, users, master data and settings. The project management is scalable according to your requirements.
• WINPACCS Accounting for project accounting.
• With Project controlling in WINPACCS Cloud, you can efficiently carry out cost accounting and budget control for your projects and create reports and/or accounts.

Moreover, WINPACCS Cashbook as an electronic cashbook can be a useful addition if you have cash or bank accounts at several project locations.

There are also many additional functions available, which you can use optionally according to your requirements, for example:

• Project planning and monitoring
• Document management
• Interfaces to corporate or partner accounting systems
• Digital vouchers

WINPACCS optimally meets the special requirements of project accounting (different currencies, entering specific budget lines of donors, etc.).

However, you must use a separate financial accounting system to cater for the additional company-wide requirements of your accounting system. Interfaces ensure full integration between WINPACCS and these systems.

In WINPACCS, you can manage all the currencies employed in a project. You can use differentiated posting journals to enter data in any currency.

By using the Moving Average Rate Procedure which is accepted by many donors, the costs and income from price fluctuations are kept low.

If a donor has specific requirements for exchange rate conversion, this can be mapped using an additional reporting currency scheme.

WINPACCS provides interfaces which you can use to exchange the relevant cost postings.
The data can be transmitted in both directions:

• Costs incurred in the head office for the project can be transferred to WINPACCS Project controlling.
• Costs from WINPACCS Project accounting can be transferred to Company accounting.

You have the option of transferring partner accounting data to WINPACCS Project controlling for information purposes. A standard interface is available for this purpose, which can be easily adapted to different accounting systems.

WINPACCS is available in English, French, Spanish and German.

Language settings can be made in the personal settings. Each user can select his preferred language.

On any number of devices! Payment is per user role rather than per installation. Any user with the required user rights can log into WINPACCS Cloud via a browser. This can be on a conventional computer or on a mobile device. You can install the WINPACCS Accounting and WINPACCS Cashbook desktop applications as often as you like. However, only users who have the corresponding user roles can work with them.

WINPACCS Cloud can be used in a browser on any operating system – even on an Apple device. We recommend Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

The WINPACCS Accounting and WINPACCS Cashbook on-premise applications, which can only be installed in Windows, can also be used on an Apple device, by setting up a terminal server or a virtual machine.

For more information, see System requirements.

Vouchers can be entered in project sites even if there is no Internet connection.

If an Internet connection is available, the data exchange between the staff involved in Project accounting and Project controlling takes place automatically in WINPACCS Cloud. The required files can, of course, be forwarded using data carriers and uploaded from another PC, even if there is only a poor Internet connection or none at all.

The installation of WINPACCS desktop applications on site takes place via full or update setups, which can be downloaded from the customer portal under "Downloads".

WINPACCS Accounting can be set up as a network installation so that several accountants can post in the same journal at the same time.
WINPACCS Cloud with all its functions is a multi-user web application.
WINPACCS Cashbook, as a simple cashbook, is not suitable for simultaneous use by several users in a network.

We offer various informative and enjoyable seminars and workshops, which equip participants with the knowledge to work efficiently with WINPACCS.
They are tailored to the various user groups so that you can select the ones that suit your requirements.
In addition, we also offer the option of holding individual training courses for your organisation at your head office or on-site.
As a WINPACCS customer you also have access to our seminar material. Based on ready-made seminar programmes with exercises and solutions in English, you can conduct seminars independently and adapt them to your specific needs.

One-off costs are incurred for the introductory consultation and the training of employees.

For the use of WINPACCS, running costs are incurred in the form of a monthly usage fee according to the price list. The total cost depends on usage. These are calculated based on the number of user roles, the number of projects and the choice of additional packages.

The WINPACCS support team will help you quickly and easily with content-based or technical questions, also via Skype and remote maintenance. We are available Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00 (CET or CEST).

Billing is based on time and the extent of the support in line with our price list.

In addition, we will gladly support you in setting up your own support team, which will then be the first point of contact for your employees in your projects.

If you plan to terminate your WINPACCS contract, but still need to access your data, for instance for an audit, there are two options:

• You can use the various export options and thus save your data outside the WINPACCS environment. Your data will be deleted from WINPACCS Cloud after a period of three months, starting on the date you terminate your contract. No costs are incurred for using WINPACCS in this way.
• You can also use WINPACCS Cloud Archive. For a reduced basic fee, you can continue to access virtually all the data. However, no new data can be set up and the existing data cannot be edited. Further details can be found in the “The Usage of the WINPACCS Cloud Archive“ White Paper and in the “WINPACCS Cloud Archive - Price list”.