Nonprofit Accounting News

Suppose someone makes a donation to your organization through a service such as “Groundspring” or “Network for Good”. The service processes the donation, extracts a fee, then sends you a check for what is left.

Some people have asked what the proper way to record that gift in Sage FR 50 is, since the amount you receive is different than what the donor gave. It’s proper to enter the amount that the donor sent to the processing organization BEFORE that organization took out its fee in Sage FR 50. If your accounting department relies on you for fundraising transaction information, you will need to alert them to the discrepancy that will exist between what is exported from Sage FR 50 and the check that they will receive.

You can think of it this way–if your office received a credit card donation over the phone, you would enter the entire donation amount in FR 50. Your accounting department would, in all likelihood, incur a fee when the credit card was processed. So, in reality, there is always a discrepancy between what the Development Department takes in and what your organization eventually receives for a donation that has been made via credit card (unless, of course, you’ve found a way to magically avoid all fees). When you receive the donation from an outside processor, you just see it up front.

Sage Payment Solutions does offer a donate now feature that would allow you to add a donate button to your website and process credit card and bankdraft transactions using Sage FR 50. It’s a slick set up. If you use Sage FR 50 and are interested in this feature, contact Soft Trac at 207.221.0340 for more information.

Under Reports>Vendor Activity there is a neat report capability that some of you may already know about. But for some of you Sage MIP users, who have not heard of it, read on.

If you select the canned report under Reports>Vendor Activity called you will see that it looks like a Check Register with the expense coding and the related invoices associated with the payment. The Filter Tab has the settings all set up but please feel free to make customizations. Also feel free to add in the Content Tab a page break by Program or Dept or both or maybe put Program in the body of the report! Have fun getting the report to look the way you want it to, or better yet, the way the auditor would like to see it.

I called my report “Check Register with Expense Coding” - not very original, I know.

I came across a situation the other day where an organization had issued a payroll check to an employee who proceeded not to cash it and the organization had lost contact with the individual. The point of this story isn’t why they didn’t cash it (which in itself is a whole other discussion) but rather what do you do when you’ve issued a check to someone and it doesn’t get cashed, you lose touch with the person and can’t locate them regardless of the many attempts.

As tempting as it is to just void the check and forget about it, there are proper procedures that should be followed. Each state will have different rules and you should check with your specific state for details, but in the State of Maine there is the “Maine’s Unclaimed Property Act”.

In Maine, if you have property belonging to another person and you’ve held it for the required dormancy period (which ranges from 1 to 15 years depending on the property) it should be reported as unclaimed property to the state.

For specific details on the required dormancy period or how to report unclaimed property to the State of Maine visit http://maine.gov/treasurer/unclaimed_property/report_property/index.html

As for what to do in Sage MIP Fund Accounting will depend on whether it is an AP check or a Payroll Check.

If it is an AP check, you would want to void the check, referencing it as a lost check. This will clear it out of your bank reconciliation. This entry will debit cash and credit AP. Now you need to reverse the invoice. Then enter a new invoice to the Treasurer, State of Maine or your state authority referencing the unclaimed property and the appropriate information about the original check. When you cut the check to the Treasurer it will clear out AP leaving you with the net of a debit to the expense and a credit to cash.

If it is a Payroll check it is a little more complicated since you don’t want to void the check because it will impact your tax reports which were reported correctly. So you’ll need to create a journal entry debiting cash and crediting a liability such as Due to State. Then when you are ready to send the money in to the state, you’ll enter an invoice debiting the Liability “Due to State” and crediting AP. When you cut the check the AP will be debited and cash credited. You still need to clear the PR check in Bank Reconciliation, so you would clear the PR check along with the JV entry in the same month so they would net zero.

An Easy way to set up Prepaid Expenses using MIP

How to Create a Prepaid AP Invoice

We’ve learned some things about FR50 Version 8 and the installation process that we thought you should be aware of.
First and foremost: When you install the software, Fundraising 50 will create a folder in which the databases and its log file (paradigm.db and paradigm.log) are stored. The default location is: C:\Sage Fundraising 50 Databases - For most people, these files used to live in the same folder as the program, but they no longer can (I won’t bore you with the details, but know that it has to do with Vista compatibility).

Potential Consequences of this Change
You will want to make a note of this change for your IT support team. It can affect the way that they perform any automated backups, i.e. they will need to change them or the backups WON’T be automated!!!

For The Complete Guide to FR 50 V8 Installation
Please visit Sage’s Website at: http://www.sagesoftwareonline.com/eServices/Main/frmLogin.aspx. From there, go to Support > Knowledgebase > Sage Fundraising 50. This will bring you to a screen where you can download article 264429, aka the Installation Guide.

As I was doing some research today, I stumbled across a terrific resource for anyone in nonprofit fundraising who wants to learn more about the field. Check out this excellent bibliography provided by Indiana University. You can check it out at: http://www.philanthropy.iupi.edu/TheFundRaisingSchool/PrecourseReadings/TFRSbiblio.pdf

What is social networking?

According to Wikipedia, “a social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software.

Most social network services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace, Bebo and Facebook being the most widely used in the anglosphere and Friendster being the most widely used in Asia.[1][2][3]

There have been some attempts to standardize them (see the FOAF standard) but this has led to some privacy concerns.”

What does social networking have to do with fundraising?

Apparently, in some cases, and under some circumstances, quite a bit. Tech Soup is offering a free teleconference on social networking for fundraising tomorrow at 1pm. If you’ve got the time, it may be worth checking out. You can register here.

Also look for an article by Idealware’s Brett Bonfield on the subject of social networking at Tech Soup here. :

Cheers!
Susan

Although we’re already more than a week into the new year, I am still thinking about a resolution. I think writing this blog on a more regular basis would be a good one. Perhaps you can all keep an eye on me to make sure I follow through (unfortunately, you don’t know where I live, so you can’t help me with the OTHER resolution which involves cookies and me not having any).
Anyway…Check out the beginnings of my New Year’s effort in today’s other post, which focuses on resources for social media.
Happy New Year,
Susan

Sage Software has recently released Sage Fundraising 50, version 8.0, which features new Donate Now capabilities for Sage Payment Solutions customers, reporting enhancements, new user defaults, and enhanced security and system options – all to help meet nonprofit organizations’ donor and relationship management needs, while increasing the productivity of their development staffs. Easy-to-use and affordable fundraising software, Sage Fundraising 50 is designed for all nonprofit organizations needing a complete set of fundraising and development tools to help them with donor acquisition, fundraising, and operational efficiency.
“We are excited to offer donors the ability to donate online through our Web site, without us having to deal with complications that come with using a third-party payment service, such as importing, exporting, balancing reports, and additional fees,” said Joanne Boyer, development manager at Waveny Care Network, a New Canaan, Conn.-based organization providing a progression of living options, programs, and services for the senior community and their families, and a premier healthcare resource for most issues related to aging. “With Sage Fundraising 50, we can easily accept online donations and then neatly integrate them into our exiting database with a few clicks of the mouse.”

The new Donate Now functionality in version 8.0 allows Sage Fundraising 50 users with Sage Payment Solutions accounts to create donation forms on their Web sites. The constituent information and donations are then pushed into their Sage Fundraising 50 database for review and eventual upload. This seamless integration reduces customers’ duplicate data entry, because gift, recurring gift, and Donate Now data is transferred directly to Sage Fundraising 50. Sage Payment Solutions maintains PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance for every payment processed to keep donors’ sensitive data secure.

Users can customize their organization’s Donate Now page to offer donors options, such as specific gift amounts, organization-specific designations, honor and memorial gift tracking, recurring gifts, and more.

“The new Donate Now feature will make it so easy for people to donate to our organization online,” said Abigael Okelarin, event coordinator at the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes, a non-sectarian, 501(c)(3) organization providing support and services for adults with disabilities in the Washington, D.C., area. “The donations will be processed automatically, so we can say goodbye to typing long credit card numbers into bulky credit card machines. Even better, duplicate data entry will be reduced, since all donation information will be transferred straight to our Sage Fundraising 50 database.”

Reporting enhancements built into version 8.0 can help Sage Fundraising 50 users strengthen their audit trail. Changes to reports can be saved, and reports can be stamped with identifying information, such as date, time, and page number. Validation messages can help users ensure accountability, while “last saved by” information can help them keep track of changes made to reports.

New user defaults for five functional areas Data Entry and User Interface, Quick Gift, Import Wizard, Donate Now and Online Gift Processing – will enable Sage Fundraising 50 users to continue to use settings that work best for them. New global security privileges in version 8.0 will allows administrators to grant permission to only those users needing to globally edit or add cards.

“I especially like the version 8.0 enhancement that allows me to assign global security privileges to a user without having to give administrative rights,” said David Hall, major gift manager and information systems manager at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a national, nonprofit legal services, watchdog, and policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel. “In addition, the new user defaults will help our data entry staff stay organized and save time on common tasks.”

Sage Software recently released version 9.0 of Sage MIP Fund Accounting, the latest version of its award-winning accounting software for nonprofit financial management. Enhancements to the product include: new tax forms and eFiling by Aatrix®, new recurring and reversing entry management functionality, enhanced fixed assets tracking and reporting, streamlined navigation and enhanced user interface, and additional payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and reporting functionality. For 25 years, Sage MIP Fund Accounting has been helping nonprofit and government organizations of all sizes track and report on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods; plan and manage budgets; maximize grants; and produce accurate, customized reports.
“The latest release of Sage MIP Fund Accounting includes several features, such as an easier-to-navigate interface and the Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager, that we told Sage Software would simplify our accounting processes,” said Rebecca Trevino, CPA, director of administration for The Railroad Commission (RRC) of Texas, an Austin, Texas-based regulatory organization. “We have been a Sage customer since 1996, because Sage MIP Fund Accounting is an outstanding fund accounting package. The software can handle any government structure that I have encountered.”

Krista Endsley, senior vice president and general manager for Nonprofit Solutions at Sage Software, said, “Sage MIP Fund Accounting, version 9.0, features stronger core functionality, while preserving the stability and reliability expected by our loyal nonprofit and government customers. This release debuts the product’s new user interface, and offers more tools designed to save time and effort for customers at all experience levels.”

New Version 9.0 Features

• New tax forms and eFiling by Aatrix® enables users of the Payroll module to quickly and easily produce W-2 and W-3 forms for employees, or eFile federal and state reports. Users can also review and file more than 250 federal and state tax forms and payments, which are automatically completed with their payroll data.

• Streamlined navigation and an easier-to-navigate interface enhance the user experience.

• New Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager can help save users time by allowing them to set up, edit, and manipulate repeat entry tasks.

• Enhanced tracking and reporting capabilities in the Fixed Assets module can help strengthen users’ audit trails.

Additional payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and reporting functionality, as well as audit controls were added to Sage MIP Fund Accounting.

“The new Recurring and Reversing Entry Manager will go a long way in making our repetitive processes easier and faster,” said Trevino. “It expedites many of the data entry functions, thereby enabling us to process more transactions with fewer staff.”