QuickBooks enables you to manage and track information about donations.
Entering donations
If you receive cash, check, or credit card donations from donors or members,
you can enter these revenues as donations in QuickBooks. Use the donation
(sales receipt) form instead of merely entering a deposit; you can then track
your donations by type, program, or source.
As a result, when you use the donation form instead of deposits, your
Biggest Donors/Grants report will include the donations. In addition, other
sales and item reports are available.
To do this task
-
Go to the Nonprofit menu and click Enter Donations (Sales Receipts).
-
Click the Customer:Job drop-down arrow and choose the donor/grant.
Click Add New if the donor/grant is not listed, and add the donor (customer)
or grant (job) to QuickBooks.
-
In the Item column, choose an item that corresponds to the type of donation.
You can select one of the options in the Item List or you can add a new
item to use for the donation.
To set up a new item, go to the Lists menu and click Item List. Click Item at the bottom of the list and click New.
Click the Type drop-down list and choose Service. Click the Account drop-down list and choose the corresponding account.
Choose a name that matches the corresponding account; for example, a Donation
item associated with the Grants income account.
-
In the Class column, select the appropriate fund or project or add a new
class to track the donation to a new fund or project.
-
Enter the amount of the donation that is being applied to the fund or
project (class), as specified by the donor.
-
(Optional) Click Customize to customize the donation form.
If you plan to print the donation form and give it to the donor as a
receipt, consider customizing it to add a personalized donor message to the
form. To do so, click the Donor Message button and click Add New.
-
Verify that all information on the form is correct.
-
(Optional) Click Print to print a copy of the donation.
-
If Deposit To appears at the bottom of the form, click the Deposit To drop-down list and choose the checking account to which you want to make the deposit.
Note: QuickBooks processes Donations in the same way that it
processes Sales Receipts. If your Sales & Customers preferences are set to
"Use Undeposited Funds as a default deposit to account," you will not
see Deposit To on the form, and your donation checks will automatically be
added to your Undeposited Funds account. In this case, remember to create a
Deposit transaction to move funds from the Undeposited Funds account into your
checking account.
-
Click Save & Close or click Save & New.
Tracking donations
If you use cash basis accounting, donation income is recorded when you
receive a payment from a customer (donor); if you use accrual basis accounting,
donation income is recorded when you are notified of a grant. With accrual
basis accounting, the date that you enter a transaction and the date that you
receive the cash may be two separate dates. QuickBooks enables you to
set cash or accrual basis
reporting as the default for your nonprofit organization.
QuickBooks includes reports that you can use to track donation activity. The
information in the reports can be based on accrual method or on cash method
accounting. You can change the
basis for the report to see different information. Even if you perform your accounting
with one method, you can still generate reports by using either method to see
the necessary information.
The QuickBooks reports you can use to track donations are:
-
Biggest Donors/Grants.
Lists your biggest contributors and what percentage of your total
contributions each has donated.
-
Budget vs Actual by Donors/Grants.
Compares your budget to actual revenues received by donors/grants to help
you and your board determine your status in relation to your annual funding
plan.
See also