Would You Batch an Internal Transfer?

Kim Berry · February 2018

Have been meaning to ask this question since October - I have my own thoughts but would like feedback from the community.

We have an annual fundraising gala, and this past year our Foundation Board of Directors approved a transfer of $7,500 from a 'board designated fund' to support the event. We use QuickBooks for accounting, and my finance manager asked about creating a batch to show the 'deposit' of the transferred funds from one account to another.

I'm not an accountant and I can't follow a financial statement but my gut tells me that we shouldn't do that - it would be seen as incoming funds and would throw all of our reports out of whack, right? Shouldn't we just make the entry in QuickBooks and be done with it? I think she wanted to do that in order to show all of the 'income' but if we're just moving money from one account to another, I don't think we should create a batch to show a deposit of funds that we have already accounted for/counted previously. Thoughts?

JoAnn Strommen · February 2018

Kim, I'm on the other side - I want to record all funds coming in so that my RE reports will show same totals as accounting and show all monies received.

We have what I would describe as an internal service club. Their financial records are kept by finance dept. Each year they allocate some funds to our annual campaign. I need this in RE to have an accurate total of money received. Gift is marked do not post and referenced as internal fund transfer.

Sort of the same thing as our payroll deductions. They are all entered in RE but are essentially fund transfers also. We ID these using gift subtype.

As long as finance knows it's coming or not with your gift records from RE and doesn't enter it in duplicate your financials should be fine.

my 2 cents

Kim Berry · February 2018

JoAnn Strommen:

Kim, I'm on the other side - I want to record all funds coming in so that my RE reports will show same totals as accounting and show all monies received.

We have what I would describe as an internal service club. Their financial records are kept by finance dept. Each year they allocate some funds to our annual campaign. I need this in RE to have an accurate total of money received. Gift is marked do not post and referenced as internal fund transfer.

Sort of the same thing as our payroll deductions. They are all entered in RE but are essentially fund transfers also. We ID these using gift subtype.

As long as finance knows it's coming or not with your gift records from RE and doesn't enter it in duplicate your financials should be fine.

my 2 cents

Joanne - thanks for your input. I just want to be sure I was clear ... the $7,500 transfer is not new money; it was unrestricted funds donated in prior years that are simply being transferred from one account to another. You said you need it in RE to have an accurate total of money received, but this money has already been entered in RE and I don't want to inflate my fund raising totals. There may be a way to mark it 'do not count' but I guess I'm wondering why I would even bother doing that if I don't have to. We are not connected to the college's financials in any way and we do not post any of our gifts. We do not use any gift subtypes and none of our reports are set up to take that into account. So the other reason I'm thinking I'd rather not is because of that - would I then have to rewrite all of my reports to make sure it excludes that gift subtype? How would this affect things like VSE reporting?

JoAnn Strommen · February 2018

Sorry, wasn't clear that it was already in RE from your post. If it's in and you're moving it you could do a gift adjustment to change the fund. No, I would not enter it a second time as a gift/income.

Don't know answer to how it would affect VSE reporting.

Deb Dressely · March 2018

I would not post it in RE. RE is not an accounting software, it is a donor management tool and you have already recorded the donor gift. We use a separate tracking sheet for internal transfers.

Michelle Tribe · March 2018

JoAnn Strommen:

Sorry, wasn't clear that it was already in RE from your post. If it's in and you're moving it you could do a gift adjustment to change the fund. No, I would not enter it a second time as a gift/income.

Don't know answer to how it would affect VSE reporting.

Ditto what JoAnn said - I would do a gift adjustment for the fund / appeal, and post that to Financial Edge. That way the money in various "buckets" is the same between FE and RE. (And I'd also add a note in RE explaining what I did, and why.)

Kim Berry · March 2018

Thanks – and we aren’t on Financial Edge,
we’re using QuickBooks.

I think I’ll go with my initial instinct –
just make the transfer in QuickBooks and don’t enter anything
else/new/different in Raiser’s Edge since the funds were already
recorded previously (and it’s not a single or even a couple
contributions that we are using – we’re just taking unrestricted
money and board designating it to this event/fund).

Kimberly G.
Berry bCRE

Scholarship and Advancement Operations Coordinator

Hudson Valley
Community College

Office of
Institutional Advancement

80 Vandenburgh
Avenue

Troy, New York
12180

Phone: (518)
629-8007 | Fax: (518) 629-7575

Would You Batch an Internal Transfer?

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