Often Non-Profits need to use fund accounting–a method for recording resources whose use may be limited by granting agencies, donors, or governing boards.
Funds consist of self–balancing sets of asset, liability, net asset, revenue and expense accounts. Fund balances should be classified on the statement of financial position as permanently restricted, unrestricted, or temporarily restricted based on the existence of restrictions.
Using a fund accounting system allows an organization to segregate financial resources between those dollars available for operations and those dollars intended for a specified use. A fund accounting system provides an audit trail as the dollars are spent for their purpose and released from the restriction.
What can be tricky with Dynamics SL is configuring the software so that the self-balancing sets of assets, liabilities, revenues and liabilities so exactly that-self balance. In order to do this successful, you need to have the Multi-Company module-whether you do this in one database or many.
Start by using the test database that ships with the software, using company 0060, and make a journal entry to accounts 3080 and 1140. Colleen McCoshen at Boyer & Associates, tested a journal and once it released (first line to Company 60, second line to Company 70) it created the due to/due from with accounts 1156, 2006 for Company 60 & and Company 70 respectively.
Login as the SYSADMIN, put the system into initialize mode, and open up the same batch that you just recorded. You will see the 2 additional entries added to the 2 line journal entry you just made.
Now visit the Inter-Company Account/Sub Maintenance screen to see how those relationships were set up in order to create those new entries. Once you see an example, setting up your rules should not be difficult. If it is, call your Dynamics SL consultant and they will help you.
If you have just recently purchased Dynamics SL, it makes the most sense, typically, to set all of the funds up in one database. The only instance where this may not make sense is if the various funds do not share many of the same vendors or “customers”, or if in fact their charts of accounts need to be substantially different.
If in the latter case, where the chart is substantial different, you can still have the Multi-Company module make the entries for you-they just don’t happen as soon as you release a batch. You must first release a batch, and then generate a file to be read into the other fund’s database to make the due-to and due-from entries.
