Fund Management

Those who manage financials for a not-for-profit organization know the challenges of managing funds. Funds usually require special setup within an accounting system to accommodate regulations, restrictions, and limitations. Each fund must be assigned a unique ledger account that provides revenue, expense, and balance sheet reports. Funds must also be summarized as a whole within the organization.

Challenges of Fund Management

Fund management can present challenging tasks to not-for-profit organizations:

• Transferring balances between accounts can be risky and error prone.
• Failure to adhere to reporting guidelines may contribute to a lack of confidence toward an institution, and could result in disappointed benefactors and loss of funding.
• An increasing number of reporting guidelines must be followed. For example, the GASB 34 guideline is an attempt to bring public sector reporting in line with private sector accounting.
• Managing funds that fuel multiple projects requires careful reconciliation, a tedious task with manual accounting.

Benefits of Fund Management

Microsoft Business Solutions offers fund management applications to help make transferring balances between accounts an accurate, seamless process. A comprehensive solution provides these benefits to government organizations managing multiple funds:

• Helps reduce errors associated with manual reconciliation of funds.
• Eliminates manual journal entries.
• Processing is automatic, saving employees time.
• Helps avoid missed transactions and posting errors.
• Minimizes the need for accounting personnel to know all related accounts.
• Makes reporting easier and report results more accessible, helping ensure reporting guidelines are met on time.

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