Why pick Odoo for managing financials for a non-profit foundation

I've been volunteering on the IT side for a research foundation in Spain, and I've observed the struggles that non-profits have in terms of the paperwork involved in managing grants, assigning hours to projects, creating reports and justifications etc.

Not knowing there was anything better out there, we started with an external firm that did our accounts using A3 from Wolters Kluwer. We quickly ran into limitations, and ended up creating a jungle of Excel spreadsheets to record the necessary information for reporting on our grants. 

After two years of hell, I started thinking there might be a better solution. My criteria were the following:

1. Cloud-first: The interface should be web-based and not require any install.
2. Ownership: The foundation should own the system, and the accountant/auditors should have accounts to access the system.
3. Open-source and ownership of data: Companies come and go, and what happens if the company you rely on for everything goes under or has a cyber attack? Can I spin up my own server with my data and keep the process going?
4. Multi-dimensional analytics: most non-profit has two dimensions: the projects and the funders. These are independent since funders can fund multiple projects and projects can have multiple funders. 
5. Extensibility: it should be possible to extend and automate tasks to reduce the administrative burden on the staff.
6. Transparent pricing. 

Solution	Cloud-First	Open Source & Self-Hostable	Data Ownership Control	Multi-Dim Analytics / Fund-Project Tracking	Extensibility / Automations	Transparent Pricing
A3 / Wolters Kluwer	✅ for newer modules	❌	Partial (you own your data, but vendor controls software)	Moderate	Good via marketplace/integrations	Partially transparent for simple tiers
Odoo	✅	✅ (Enterprise code Github access is for pay)	High (self-host possible)	Strong (custom dimensions)	Very high (open modules, custom dev)	Transparent/free tiers + paid hosting/modules
Holded	✅	❌	❌	Strong (tags)	Good via store	Reasonably transparent
Zoho Books	✅	❌	❌	Moderate	Good APIs and store	Reasonably transparent
Proprietary (QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, etc.)	✅	❌	Lower control (vendor hosted)	Some have strong analytics	Good integrability but limited internal customization	Pricing often more opaque for advanced features

    

As you can see, Odoo comes up pretty high up on the list, and also has a wealth of other modules for doing payroll, time tracking, vacation planning, expense reports etc.