Money coming in

Finance

Budgets, what you are owed, what you owe, what you have spent, and the restricted money you are holding for somebody else's purpose.

2 min readOpen it in the app →Included from Community

On this page

What it is and is not
What it holds
Restricted funds are the ones to watch

What it is and is not

Finance tracks what money did and what it is committed to. It is not an accounting system and it does not replace your bookkeeper. It exists so the rest of FundWisr can answer questions that need financial context, and so you can see obligations that accounting software records but does not warn you about.

The Finance page showing summary figures and tabbed sections for budgets, receivables, payables and expenses — The Finance workspace, with budgets, receivables, payables, commitments and restricted funds kept as separate sections.

What it holds

Area	What goes in it
Budgets	Planned income and spending, by fiscal year and optionally by program, with line items.
Accounts receivable	Money owed to you, and how overdue it is.
Accounts payable	Money you owe, and when.
Expenses	What you spent, categorized as program, management, or fundraising.
Commitments	Money already promised away but not yet spent. The obligation most organizations forget.
Restricted funds	Money you hold that may only be used for a stated purpose, and how much of it is unspent.

Restricted funds are the ones to watch

Restricted money is not yours. It is somebody else's money that you are holding for a stated purpose, and spending it on anything else is a serious problem however good the reason.

Record the restriction when the money arrives, not when somebody asks about it.
Track what remains unspent. A restricted balance you cannot state on request is the finding that turns a routine audit into a long one.
Watch the spend-by dates. Money that must be spent within a period and is not can have to be returned, and it shows on your Deadline Board only if the date is recorded.