[GNC] Non-profit accounts - reporting of restricted funds and of future commitments

[Michael Hendry]

> On 20 Jul 2019, at 14:07, Christopher Lam <christopher.lck at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 at 12:28, Michael Hendry <hendry.michael at gmail.com> wrote:
> Assets/Current Assets/Charity/Charity Current
> Assets/Current Assets/Charity/Charity Savings
> 
> I’d like to be able to report on both accounts as if they were a single account (the spreadsheet simply treated these as a single account and ignored the transfers between the accounts) but a request for a report on the parent (Assets/Current Assets/Charity) in a Balance Sheet report gives a zero result.
> 
> Are you using the default Balance Sheet? You'll need to choose, from Display / Parent account balances or Parent balance subtotals, a suitable choice. Hint: don't choose subtotals in both.

Thanks, Christopher. I’ve been experimenting with various combinations and learned a lot!

>  
> B. Some charitable receipts are earmarked as they are received - e.g. 
> 
> Income/Earmarked Funds/Polio Plus
> Income/Earmarked Funds/Water Account
> 
> and I’d like a similar composite report on the children of Income/Earmarked Funds, preferably on the same report as in A. above, to guide members on what is actually available for them to spend.
> 
> Is this the best way of recording earmarked funds? I'd imagine recording from the donor, wish #polioplus in description, would be more suitable? Anyway, Transaction Report, originating from Earmarked Funds account, select children.

These funds sometimes arise as single large donations, but we also collect money in small sums at our weekly meetings e.g. by charging members a rounded-up price for meals.

>  
> C. Sometimes a decision is made to commit funds already collected but in a situation where the money won’t be spent immediately - e.g. a building project.
> 
> This is obviously similar to the Earmarked Funds in B., but I’m not sure how best to handle it. 
> 
> I could create a transaction between the Charity Current Account with today’s date and Expenses/Charity/Committed Funds as the destination account.
> 
> This is similar to budgeting? If this internal allocation of funds isn't to be used anywhere else, would an asset account were created as a child of Asset/CurrentAssets/Charity called 'Restricted Funds', and transferred to Asset/EarmarkedFunds/Projects be better, and check the parent-account balance to determine 'unallocated funds' ? I don't know. What *could* be implemented, is the concept of 'virtual transactions' whereby the balances are counted separately from the real-life transactions

I’ve tried creating child accounts of "Assets/Charity/Charity Current/" called …/Polio Plus, …/Water Account etc.

When income comes into Petty Cash intended for "Polio Plus” I post into Petty Cash as income from …/Polio Plus, and pay the cash into the Charity Current Account.

This has allowed me to prepare a selective balance sheet for this account like this:

Balance Sheet 30/06/2019

               	               	               
Assets			
Charity						£6,608.72
      Charity BB Inst Online	 	 £20,046.26	
      Charity Current			-£13,437.54	
            Charity Choice	-£24.50		
            Foundation		-£3.00		
            KidsOut		-£25.00		
            Polio Plus		-£32.00		
            Water Account	-£8,374.28	


The figures are not realistic - I’ve only entered a small subset of transactions, but this one report has all the information I’d be presenting to a council meeting:

The total in the (parent) Charity Account is £6,608.72, but there are various commitments recorded as negative figures in the children of “Charity Current” which need to be added to that total to indicate what the club has available to spend.

The Water Account is money intended for water and sewerage projects in the Third World, so will often have to accumulate until it’s sufficient for a project. The smaller amounts will generally be spent within the financial year.

Thanks for your interest,

Michael