Setting up GNUcash for an association

[Bob Smits]

On October 27, 2008 12:09:47 pm Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
> Robert Smits wrote:

> >I do that by creating accounts for each contributor in
> > income,contributions, name.
> >
> >This way I can see just what each contributor has given us either through
> > a cash flow report or by looking at the accounts.
> >
> >Bob.
>
> Going to put my two cents in here. I'm the treasurer for more than one
> 501c3.

I have no idea what a 501c3 is wherever you are, but I'm the treasurer for 
several organizations that depend on membership contributions. 

> Traditional double entry bookkeeping allows you to group accounts in
> only one way --- by which I mean you can't at the same time have them
> grouped one way and then another. At the same time, the whole purpose of
> bookkeeping records is to be able to readily supply the necessary
> information.

So? That's rather obvious, isn't it?

> Here there is more than one way "donations" must be grouped. You need to
> be able to keep separate different kinds of donations (membership,
> unrestricted donations, restricted donations possibly of several sorts,
> etc.). At the same time you must be able to produce donor totals, etc.
> for at least the annual acknowledgment letter (different if over $250)
> and you may need to be able to distinguish and provide totals for
> "unqualified" vs "general public" donors.

You can do all this in Gnucash. Just add under donations accounts like 
income/donations/unrestricted/name, for example. 

> I would not try to do this in one set of books. GnuCash (the
> application) can certainly be used for the various purposes, but I
> suggest that the "donor accounting" be a set of "donor books" separate
> from the main organizational books. The latter can have the accounts
> organized (grouped) to serve one set of purposes and the donor books
> another. Yes looks like more work, but not necessarily even being done
> by the same person.

I've never suggested you need one set of records for all the things a 
membership based organization needs. The original poster asked if you could 
keep track of recurring donations and contributions in Gnucash, and the 
answer is yes, you can. 

Bob.