Association management software your treasurer can actually reconcile.
Trade association software with company and individual membership side by side, sequential numbered invoices, and a ledger export QuickBooks and Excel import cleanly. Your treasurer reviews it before it touches the books — which is where a treasurer wants to be.
Approved in a day · 30 days free, ledger export from day one
dated ledger export, ready for QuickBooks or Excel
invoice numbering you can quote over the phone
company and individual membership, side by side
You are the executive director, or the one staffer who is also the bookkeeper, the events team and the person the board calls. Your treasurer signs off on everything, and your members carry licenses that expire.
See it running for an association
These are screenshots of Great Lakes Precision Manufacturers Association — a real GatherAMS account with real records in it, not mock-ups. You can open the same one yourself from a link we email you.
One screen before the board call
Members, dues outstanding, the next event and what is at risk — the numbers you get asked for, without running four reports first.
CE credits against the license year
Every credit earned, categorised, counted against each member's requirement. The shortfall list is a list of names to email, not a spreadsheet to build in December.
A board election that holds up
One ballot per member, enforced at the database, not by asking nicely. Two seats, four candidates, and results you can defend to the room.
The export your treasurer asked for
Sequential invoice numbers you can quote over the phone, and a dated ledger file that imports cleanly. No two-way sync writing to your books behind your back.
What you're leaving behind
A tab per year, credits typed in from attendance sheets, and a scramble every renewal season.
Credits post from the event that earned them, counted against each member's own license year.
Counted by hand, disputed occasionally, and impossible to audit a year later.
One vote per member, enforced by a database constraint, with a result that stands up.
An integration that can corrupt the one record you cannot reconstruct.
A reconciliation-ready export your treasurer reviews before anything touches the ledger. You keep the final say — deliberately.
What Trade Associations turns on
Everything in the left column ships in every edition. The right column is what this flavor sets up for you.
Your first week, specifically
Not a generic onboarding checklist — the path we built for an association.
This page leads with the accounting depth story, not the price — because that is what this buyer actually rewards.
One screen: company only, individual professionals only, or both. The single real branch point in setup.
Invoice numbering, terms and late fees are set before the roster import, so the very first invoice you raise already reconciles correctly.
The checklist ends with a ledger export opened in your own accounting software — the thing you check before trusting the rest.
Three things that fall apart at reconciliation
An association's software is judged twice: once by members, and once by whoever has to make the year balance. Most tools are only built for the first audience.
Dues history and credits, both intact
The part that usually gets lost in a migration is everything behind the current year — paid invoices, credits already earned, which company a professional belongs to. The importer brings that across, because a member who loses four credits in a migration will tell you about it.
Support from people who have run an association
Live chat 7a–7p CT, staffed by former executive directors and association treasurers. They have reconciled a year, run a board election and answered to an audit, and they will not hand you a knowledge-base link.
Associations most often size us up as a Novi AMS alternative: Novi’s QuickBooks sync is genuinely excellent, and it is reported from about $829/month plus implementation. If your budget is a fraction of that and an export your treasurer reviews beats an unattended sync, that is the trade this page exists to show.
Questions people ask
What is an AMS?
AMS stands for association management software — the system an association runs its membership, dues, events, committees and communications on. It differs from a generic CRM in what it assumes: renewing memberships rather than one-off sales, company and individual members side by side, and the governance work — elections, committees, credentials — that associations answer to a board for.
Does GatherAMS integrate with QuickBooks?
Deliberately by export, not by two-way sync. You get a dated, reconciliation-ready ledger file with sequential invoice numbers and account codes that imports cleanly into QuickBooks or Excel — reviewed by your treasurer before anything posts. A sync that writes to your books unattended can corrupt the one record you cannot reconstruct, which is why we will not build one.
Can it track continuing education credits?
Yes. CE credits post from the session that earned them and count against each member's own license year, by category. The shortfall report is a list of names you can email in one click — not a spreadsheet someone rebuilds from attendance sheets every December.
Can companies and individual professionals both be members?
Yes, side by side in the same roster. A member company carries its own tier and invoice with named staff under it, while individual professionals hold their own memberships — the mix most state and regional trade associations actually have, without bending an individual-only data model.
What does association management software cost?
The established trade-association platforms are widely reported to start around $800/month plus an implementation fee. GatherAMS runs $89–$329/month depending on contact count, with no implementation fee, no charge for support, and a 30-day trial on approval — and there is a live demo association you can open with an email address before applying.
Is GatherAMS full AMS software, or a lighter membership tool?
It is AMS software in the full sense: company and individual membership, dues, events, committees, elections, a member portal, and credential tracking software for associations whose members carry licenses. What it leaves out is the enterprise weight — implementation fees, per-module pricing, a months-long sales cycle. If you need multi-chapter federation accounting, the enterprise platforms still earn their price.
How many member companies and individuals?
Plant managers, quality leads, whoever earns credits in their own name.
Trade associations are billed on contact records. A 900-member association where each member company carries two named contacts is priced as roughly 1,800 contacts.
Multi-chapter rollups, advanced reporting, priority chat
Apply for accessNo setup fee, no onboarding engagement, no charge for support, and no markup on payments — your processor bills you at your own rate.
Apply as an association
Approved in a day · 30 days free, ledger export from day one
How the parts you asked about actually work
Written for an association
Free, ungated, and useful whether or not you ever use the software.