Can anyone share how they reconcile w/ Accounting, specifically if your funds link up w/ Accounting's codes. We are not connected to the FE. Our organization is so complex and has many different restrictions. We would like to generalize them, and use the subtype to identify the more specific restrictions, but that seems like it would be a problem reconciling w/ accounting. Do other organizations try to match up fund ids w/ accounting codes?

We are in the same boat you are. We use the last three digits of the Accounting Code but use a printable, descriptive name for the funds. Our only problem is that our accounting office periodically closes out funds and then reuses that gl number for a new fund so we have to move all of the old gifts to a new accoutn code (3 digits plus A, B or something.) Hope this helps. Laurel Laurel Quaintance Friends of Bassett Financial Analyst Cooperstown, NY 13326 [Email Removed] 'please forgive my typing mistakes!'

As an aside to your suggestion: be careful about relying on the Gift Subtype. If I remember correctly, (at least some of) the standard reports do not offer options to include/exclude/sort by Gift Subtype. You would have to create custom reports to draw out your financials. Katie Benston Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont Charlotte, NC [Email Removed] 704-332-0281

We reconcile all gifts in RE with our financial system at the end of each month. We verify that the income that RE reports is identical to the cash and revenue booked for that month. We use 7 reports to do this. #1 A report of all gifts TFY to date, including pledges and pledge payments, mostly used as a reference. The output includes amount, date, campiagn, fund appeal, payment method and batch number. We had a training session to establish a shared vocabulary about pledges and other weirdness such as split gifts. For example, our accountant knows that a pledge is revenue, not cash, and a pay-X is cash not revenue. #2 Fund Totals by Gift type. Our Funds are only for restricted gifts. Everything else goes into the Unrestricted Fund. Both devo and accounting use the same funds. #4 Batch Totals by Pay method with detail of gifts with no batch number. This helps our accountant reconcile the different income sources, such as cash and checks, credit cards, stock etc. #5 Pledge Balance Report. I took quite a while to reconcile our pledge balances, but now that we're there, this report is useful. You have to check the box for calculate pledge balance based on date, campiagn, fun or appeal. #6 Credit Card Report. This comes from the IATS ticketmaster website and is needed because the date in RE and the date we get the money are not the same date. #7 Stock Report. Stock gifts. We don't mark gifts as posted, because we always turn up errors six months later (just did one yesterday). Its easier just to fix it and have everything come out right atthe end of the year, rather than mess around with amendments. We may mark all FY04-05 gifts as posted on July 1 05 though. Haven't figured out if its worth it or not yet... Gavin Gourley Global Partnerships 206-652-8748 [Email Removed]

Our one-person accounting dept. reconciles each month to Raiser's Edge using two things: 1. the batch paperwork with all gift backup, and 2. a single report that I run for him from RE with all gifts entered or adjusted during the month. We are a foundation with gifts to and grants from many different funds, including donor advised funds. Raiser's Edge does not interface with our accounting system at all. Our coding in Raiser's Edge does not match the accounting system since the revenue gets broken down in complex ways we are not (so far) capable of duplicating in the database. If we coded all gifts and grants the same way the accounting system does, we'd be looking at multi-year grants with up to 20 fund splits. Raiser's Edge keeps the money by the fund by year, (for example Unrestricted 2005, or Fund for a New Los Angeles 2006), and then is broken down in the accounting system however appropriate. This does mean that RE can reflect only the "pots" of money, but when we need details on a fund breakdown, (what money goes to salary, technical assitance programs, or granting for instance), we get the reports from the accounting system. We're hoping to upgrade our coding systems in RE soon, but this is the system we have in place. Hope this helps, let me know if you have questions. Rebecca McIntire Development Associate [Email Removed]