Is anyone using Raiser's Edge to record grant payments?

Chris Rainwater · July 2017

As I am changing our whole approach to how my organization uses Raiser's edge with the start of this recent fiscal year my Director has approached me about also tracking grant payments within the database also. As of now the fiscal department tracks all of this as the checks come in and deals with all grant activity after the grant writer in our department secures the grants. The idea is that we see ALL revenue sources that come into our organization that remotely involve our department.

These grant payments do not count towards our department goals for each year, the amount of the grant is counted the year it is secured as a reflection of that year's efforts.

I can see an argument in either direction of entering them and trying to open lines of communication to get that information from the fiscal department.

On the other hand this cash is already tracked elsewhere and circumvents our department going straight to fiscal and is more information to filter through in queries and reporting.

I'm hoping to see if anyone else uses Raiser's Edge to record such payments for any reason or how you handle these monies if at all.

JoAnn Strommen · July 2017

Grants, payments, expenses etc. is all tracked by our accounting office. Other than Development securing them, we do not record the details in RE. We do keep a separate list of grants with info we need like app date, award date, reports due.

I know there are orgs that do track grants in RE. Sounds like you're thinking through how you'd enter and report. I would say just be sure there's a reason to do the extra work if finance is already doing it and that it's entered so that it doesn't cause reporting issues. :

Chris Rainwater · July 2017

We're completely on the same page here.

I'm just not seeing a reason to also track this information if fiscal already accounts for it. It just seems like adding unnecesary clutter to the database since the desire isn't to report on it but to simple have a record of it. I may see it differently if each payment reflected on yearly department goals.

It just feels like added steps and filtering to reporting and added work coordinating with fiscal.

I'd be interested to here from organizations who do track in RE and their reasoning/benefits.

Lisa Slawinski · July 2017

Chris Rainwater:

As I am changing our whole approach to how my organization uses Raiser's edge with the start of this recent fiscal year my Director has approached me about also tracking grant payments within the database also. As of now the fiscal department tracks all of this as the checks come in and deals with all grant activity after the grant writer in our department secures the grants. The idea is that we see ALL revenue sources that come into our organization that remotely involve our department.

These grant payments do not count towards our department goals for each year, the amount of the grant is counted the year it is secured as a reflection of that year's efforts.

I can see an argument in either direction of entering them and trying to open lines of communication to get that information from the fiscal department.

On the other hand this cash is already tracked elsewhere and circumvents our department going straight to fiscal and is more information to filter through in queries and reporting.

I'm hoping to see if anyone else uses Raiser's Edge to record such payments for any reason or how you handle these monies if at all.

Chris,

We enter all grants into RE and track proposals as well. Since we are still a relatively young org (7 years old) and have a budget under $10M, we are not in the position to use any other financial tracking system besides QuickBooks. We are still learning how best to use RE to track and report on the proposals. Too soon to give it a thumbs up or down.

Lisa

JoAnn Strommen · July 2017

Re-thinking, there are a few "grants" we record in RE. I just don't think of them as grants compared to the federal, state and other grants we receive with lengthy apps and detailed financial reporting requirements.

We have a few that are from local foundations/companies that are officially grants but are a lump sum payment. I can think of two that we want the $ in RE as it is counted toward our annual fund goal and two others that we record without posting to finance so that the constituent record has more complete history of funds we have received from them.

Ryan Hyde · July 2017

I'm surprised by the responses here so far. We track all grants directly in RE, just like we do with almost all other revenue streams (we don't track all fee-for-service income). We use the Prospect module and have proposals for all grants. The eventual grant payment gets added as a gift under the granting institution's record with the appeal "Grant" and, if necessary, a restricted fund.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't track grants in RE. If it's a matter of not counting them toward your department's goals, then just don't include them in reports that you use to track your department's progress.

Jen Claudy · July 2017

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to 1) be consistent and treat everything in the same way, 2) document the heck out of whatever you decide to do, and 3) if you record anything in RE, include any sort of identification/transaction number from your Finance system that is associated with the grant. It will make it easier to get any info if needed later (particularly if you don't track the details in RE).

Depending on how many you're talking about, I'm with Ryan on this one. I'd record something in RE, even if not all of the detail is there.

JoAnn Strommen · July 2017

I would say a reason we don't record them is that we do not have the Prospect module.

Jill Freidmutter · July 2017

We record all grants in RE. The grant applications are almost always submitted by our department (Development and Community Relations). Our grants have been one time lump sum payments. If I were an educational institution and we were talking about research grants, I could see this not being recorded in RE because it is not a development function.

Armando Quiroz · July 2017

Chris Rainwater:

As I am changing our whole approach to how my organization uses Raiser's edge with the start of this recent fiscal year my Director has approached me about also tracking grant payments within the database also. As of now the fiscal department tracks all of this as the checks come in and deals with all grant activity after the grant writer in our department secures the grants. The idea is that we see ALL revenue sources that come into our organization that remotely involve our department.

These grant payments do not count towards our department goals for each year, the amount of the grant is counted the year it is secured as a reflection of that year's efforts.

I can see an argument in either direction of entering them and trying to open lines of communication to get that information from the fiscal department.

On the other hand this cash is already tracked elsewhere and circumvents our department going straight to fiscal and is more information to filter through in queries and reporting.

I'm hoping to see if anyone else uses Raiser's Edge to record such payments for any reason or how you handle these monies if at all.

We record grant payments as part of a Proposal using the prospect tab. This allows us to keep track of what is coming in without mudding the waters.

Brittany Farmer · July 2017

Chris Rainwater:

As I am changing our whole approach to how my organization uses Raiser's edge with the start of this recent fiscal year my Director has approached me about also tracking grant payments within the database also. As of now the fiscal department tracks all of this as the checks come in and deals with all grant activity after the grant writer in our department secures the grants. The idea is that we see ALL revenue sources that come into our organization that remotely involve our department.

These grant payments do not count towards our department goals for each year, the amount of the grant is counted the year it is secured as a reflection of that year's efforts.

I can see an argument in either direction of entering them and trying to open lines of communication to get that information from the fiscal department.

On the other hand this cash is already tracked elsewhere and circumvents our department going straight to fiscal and is more information to filter through in queries and reporting.

I'm hoping to see if anyone else uses Raiser's Edge to record such payments for any reason or how you handle these monies if at all.

We use RE to record grant payments. A little background --- we are a healthcare foundation, and the foundation is responsible for submitting/managing/applying for all grants on behalf of our hospital as a whole. Like some have mentioned before, we work in conjunction with our accounting department on a lot of the expense tracking and reporting. In some cases - depending on the stipulations of the grant award - the payment is required to be made directly to our hospital. Meaning, the money does not actually deposit to the foundation accounts. On the back-end, accounting gives the foundation "credit" for the income, since we were responsible for obtaining it.

In terms of entry in RE, we have two campaigns and two funds that designate grants --- one for Grant Award (Foundation) and one for Grant Award (Hospital). Then we set up two appeals with the same naming convention as the campaign and fund for each calendar year. In addition, we add the unique grant award numbers (which accounting uses to track for expenses and reporting) as packages on the appeals for any grants that are paid out in that calendar year. This allows me to clearly segment out those gifts depending on whether I want to include or exclude them for reporting purposes. It also allows me to keep things straight with accounting, if there is every a question about a payment. When we receive payments on grant awards, they are entered in RE regardless. However, depending on the payee, I enter differently. If the payment is made directly to the foundation, I enter like any other donation we receive as a cash gift, with the appropriate campaign/fund/appeal/package selected for the specific grant award. If the payment is made directly to the hospital/accounting department, they alert me to the payment and forward me the back-up documentation to enter the gift. I enter the gift as an "Other" gift type, with the subtype of "Grant Payment" on the granting organization's record. Then, I soft credit the granting organization for the gift, so the gift strictly appears as a soft-credit on our end. This further ensures that the gifts don't skew my reports because there is no hard credit anywhere in the database for the gift, since it didn't technically get paid to the foundation. However, it allows me to report on the grant income as a whole, when needed, and helps to truly tracking everything in one place.

There is some duplicated work in the way our process is set up in terms of us vs. accounting, but as a foundation we like to be able to report independently. If we track everything that comes in, at any given time, we can see what has been done and report accordingly. It helps us overall to have a point of reference on which to compare, if there is ever a discrepancy or question with our accounting team.

Is anyone using Raiser's Edge to record grant payments?

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