Funds
What are Funds?
Funds help you track the cash balances of money set aside for different purposes, adjusting the fund's cash balance with each transaction in your Journal.
The simplest non-profits may have just one fund, often called a "General Fund," but many non-profits require multiple funds.
Don’t confuse funds with accounts or budgets. You’ll set up your chart of accounts and annual budgets next.
Additionally, while the total balance of your funds should match your reconciled bank account balance, funds and bank accounts are separate concepts. For example, it's common to have multiple funds, but one bank account.
Add your Funds
Enter all your funds in the Funds worksheet, carrying over the ending balances from the prior year as your beginning balances for the new year.
Even if you have only one fund, you'll still need to add it to the Funds sheet.
Fund names will appear on donor statements, so choose names that clearly show where donations were directed.
The Total Beginning Balance will sum all funds in this sheet. This is used as the starting balance for your journal. Do not manually edit this cell (or any light yellow cells) as it is calculated by a formula.
You can create new funds throughout the year as needed, but new funds should begin with a $0 balance on your Funds sheet. From there, you’ll increase or decrease the balance of the new fund using transactions in your Journal.
Fund Types
Each fund must be designated as either "Unrestricted" or "Restricted" in the Type column.
A general fund is unrestricted, meaning it can be used for any purpose within your organization. Donations that are not specifically restricted by the donor should go into your unrestricted fund(s).
Restricted funds are restricted to a specific purpose by the donors, such as donations designated to build a new playground.
When you receive funds with a restriction, you’ll set up a new restricted fund (with a $0 starting balance) to track and ensure the funds are used as intended.
