Disclaimer: We are still fairly new to the Blackbaud product(s).
We are discovering that some of our programs are funded via "intentions to give" as opposed to "pledges" even though we use the pledge gift type (we also use RE) to manage them. I am looking for help in planning for a change. We do have a receivables balance; but moving forward, we want payments (pay-cash gift type) to Debit Cash and Credit Revenue.
What adjustment, JE, etc is required to prepare for this kind of change in procedure and reporting?
Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Karen
I am also interested in this question. Currently we make the new pledge journal entries like this:
Contributions Receivable DR / Revenue CR (in RE on g/l dist tab)
then when the cash comes in, we have RE set-up to debit cash and credit revenue. This requires second journal entry after the gifts are uploaded to FE that debits revenue and decreases receivables. It's a real hassel. I've been told that the reason we do this is so that the pledge doesn't show up as an spendable gift in the gift reports until its been collected.
I guess I am concerned as to why you would want to book anything in your system that is not a legal gift. If you are not considering 'intentions to give' a legal gift like a pledge and you're using an accrual accounting system, I would not book it at all until the cash is received.In accrual accounting the pledge is the revenue generating gift and the payment of that gift is part of cash flow.
Can you be more specific about what 'intention to give ' means to you.. is it a grant that your fundraising office can't count in it's financials? Is it a planned gift like a build up annuity? Is it a pledge that you don't have any backup for so don't want it to count in your receivables, especially because you need to revalue all receivables for audit?
Thoughts - you could use a specific Fund, Campaign or Gift type of Other (which won't be like a pledge - you can't make a payment against it) to pull these gifts out of the normal standards and add them into your reports manually. Or, if the reason you are booking these 'intentions' is to drop them from the solicitation pool, then I would forgo entering a gift and using solicit codes to manage this.