Finance teams often need to categorize Gifts in specific groups to match a Chart of Accounts or complete Form 990 reporting. For example, many teams need reporting on individual versus organizational giving, grants, in-kind Gifts, restricted versus unrestricted. It may be tempting to build a Project for each category, but Projects in CRM+ track where money is going, not where it came from. This article covers the Gift and Contact fields in CRM+ that already capture information required for many common accounting reports.
Table of Contents
- Projects Aren't Always the Right Tool
- CRM+ Fields For Accounting Reports
- When Using Projects Is Right (Restricted vs. Unrestricted Gifts)
Projects Aren't Always the Right Tool
A Project in Virtuous CRM+ represents what a Gift is funding, e.g., a new building, a scholarship fund, a tutoring program, not where the Gift came from or what kind of transaction it was. Categories like Grant, Individual Contribution, Recurring Gift, and In-Kind Gift describe the transaction or the donor type, not the program a donor is funding, so they don't fit the definition of a Project. Learn more about Projects here.
Using Projects for all accounting categories also creates ongoing manual work in Gift entry. For example, donors won't select Individual Contribution versus Organization Contribution from a Project designation menu on an online giving form. If this is categorized as a Project, someone on your team has to assign that contribution type manually for each Gift.
However, you’re still able to build the reports your accounting or finance team relies on in CRM+. Your Project structure doesn't need to mirror your Chart of Accounts or general ledger line by line as you can report on many of these categories within Virtuous CRM+ using natively-stored fields. Read more below to see how Gift Type, Contact Type, Recurring, and Grant are all filterable fields that can be used in reporting.
CRM+ Fields For Accounting Reports
Gift Type
Every Gift record has a Gift Type (Cash, Check, Credit, EFT, Non-Cash, Cryptocoin, Qualified Charitable Distribution, Reversing Transaction, or Other). Rather than using Projects to categorize Gift Types, use a Gift Query filtering on the Gift Type.
Example Gift Query for Accounting Report
In-Kind Gifts: Create Date is within the reporting period, and Gift Type is Non-Cash.
Contact Type
Every Contact has a Contact Type (Household, Organization, or Foundation) and optionally can have Custom Contact Types. Because Contact Type lives on the Contact record rather than the Gift, use a nested Query to distinguish individual contributions from an organizational giving.
Example Gift Query for Accounting Report
Individual vs Organizational Contributions: Create Date is within the reporting period and Gift Type is not Non-Cash, with a nested Contact Query for Contact Type is Household. Swap the nested Query for a Contact Query with Contact Type is Organization or Foundation to find those Gifts.
Recurring vs One-Time
Recurring Gifts represent a commitment to providing regular, ongoing support for your organization, not a specific Gift. Any Gift that is a payment in a Recurring Gift schedule is tied to the Gift.
Example Gift Query for Accounting Report
Recurring Gift Payments: Create Date is within the reporting period, and the Gift has a Recurring Gift linked.
Grant
The Grant module tracks a Grant application and award separately from the transaction that eventually comes in. Once a Grant is awarded and the funds arrive as a Gift, the Gift is linked to the Grant record instead of assigning it to a "Grants" Project. From there, you can filter a Gift Query for records that have a Grant linked.
Example Gift Query for Accounting Report
Grants: Create Date is within the reporting period, and the Gift has a Grant linked.
When Using Projects Is Right (Restricted vs. Unrestricted Gifts)
When reporting on restricted vs unrestricted giving, Projects and Project fields are the recommended module to use. Every Virtuous CRM+ database includes a single default Project, meant to represent unrestricted giving. For many organizations, a Gift designated to any other Project is restricted to a specific purpose. While this default Project is optional to use, indicating restricted or unrestricted funds in the Project allows you to easily pull that information for reporting.
Example Gift Split Query for Accounting Report
Restricted vs. Unrestricted: Create Date is within the reporting period, and Project is (or is not) your Default Project. Note this report type uses a Gift Split Query, which is needed for Project designation splits.