Comparison Reports on Giving based on Fiscal Years

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Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO
Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO ✭
Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
In my past 15 years of RE life, in 2 different healthcare institutions, in reporting to the Trustees we always reported on Cash and Commitments (Hard Cash, Stock and Pledges) with a separate report on cash received. The reporting here was always done using Cash, Stock, all payments and pledge balance. While that seems to work for the current fiscal year, I have a problem running reports that way for comparison reports. If I am reporting a $5,000 pledge with no payments in FY14 based on it's balance of $5,000, and a $1,000 payment is made in FY15, then I am double-counting the $1,000 for FY15, and so on for each payment, No? My head is spinning trying to explain this to my Team.  Thoughts? 
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  • Ryan Hyde
    Ryan Hyde ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    It sort of depends on how your accounting department is treating the pledge. If accounting is booking that gift as cash once the pledge is announced (which would only make sense if you have some kind of paper trail related to the pledge), then the pay-cash on the pledge should not appear in future reporting because the money was already booked. If the pledge is, instead, just sitting in RE as a soft promise, then perhaps it shouldn't be reported in the same category as cash in the FY that it is saved. 


    At my office, any pledge that is tied to either an event that occurs within a fiscal year or specific program that is time related, and we know the money is going to come in later fiscal years, one of two things happens:


    1.) Accounting accrues the money (records it as cash) for the fiscal year in which it is announced, and any future payments on that pledge MUST be tied to the pledge's fiscal year, not the current existing fiscal year. This is done via the Campaign associated with the gift (e.g., "FY16 AnnCam"), and all reporting is related to the campaign.


    OR


    2.) A separate campaign is used that is not tied to the annual campaign (at any given time we only have two campaigns - the FY campaign and a potential capital campaign), and this campaign is reported on separately from your general operating revenue. 


    All that said, I've only been in this business for a couple of years, so there may be other ways of dealing with this.
  • Christine Cooke 2
    Christine Cooke 2 ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    yes, reporting on payments does muddle the works.  I have only had one DoD that did not understand/comprehend this.  By some miracle I managed to make all other Development team members understand, that in reporting, you must match what your Finance Dept counts which is:  Cash, Stock and Pledge Commitments (in written form) as cash in for that  FY.  If someone is curious about what payments have come in, that can be a separate report on only payments, but it would have to really cross over from FY to FY on multi-year commitments.  That's one of the things the Pledge Status report is good for. 


    The other thing you can do if folks want to see payments, is set up a Dashboard that shows JUST payments and one that shows just Cash/Pledge.


    For reporting -- if you want your columns to add up and not double or triple count a contribution, you have to report on Cash/Stock/Pledge.  And justification is, that is what any Finance Dept I have worked with, i think all of them I haven't also, looks at.  And they count the payments in a separate account because it is monies they have already counted/reported.
  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic

    Ryan Hyde:

    It sort of depends on how your accounting department is treating the pledge. If accounting is booking that gift as cash once the pledge is announced (which would only make sense if you have some kind of paper trail related to the pledge), then the pay-cash on the pledge should not appear in future reporting because the money was already booked. If the pledge is, instead, just sitting in RE as a soft promise, then perhaps it shouldn't be reported in the same category as cash in the FY that it is saved. 


    At my office, any pledge that is tied to either an event that occurs within a fiscal year or specific program that is time related, and we know the money is going to come in later fiscal years, one of two things happens:


    1.) Accounting accrues the money (records it as cash) for the fiscal year in which it is announced, and any future payments on that pledge MUST be tied to the pledge's fiscal year, not the current existing fiscal year. This is done via the Campaign associated with the gift (e.g., "FY16 AnnCam"), and all reporting is related to the campaign.


    OR


    2.) A separate campaign is used that is not tied to the annual campaign (at any given time we only have two campaigns - the FY campaign and a potential capital campaign), and this campaign is reported on separately from your general operating revenue. 


    All that said, I've only been in this business for a couple of years, so there may be other ways of dealing with this.

    To help avoid confusion with the "bean counters" you should really say "If accounting is booking that gift as income once the pledge is announced (which would only make sense if you have some kind of paper trail related to the pledge), then the pay-cash on the pledge should not appear in future reporting because the money was already booked."  "Income" and "cash" aren't the same thing.

  • John Heizer
    John Heizer ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    You said "The reporting here was always done using Cash, Stock, all payments and pledge balance."  I wouldn't do payments and pledge balance.  I would just use the original pledge amount and always exclude any "pay-???" Gift Type.  Otherwise you might get wind up counting payments this year that are toward pledges for a prior FY.


    I had the same problem when I arrived at my most recent position.  Fundraiser's want to see EVERYTHING coming in the door, but they were never able to tie the Development numbers in RE to what was happening in Finance and it was a nightmare for everyone.  There was a lot of kicking and screaming (and, eventually a change in department leadership), but we finally got everything tied out between Development and Finance.  It may take generating two sets of numbers, one for Finance, and one for Development, but eventually the Development folks will have to accept that they can't count money twice (and I've found that letting them know that the auditors won't approve anything else can help).
  • Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO
    Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Photogenic

    John Heizer:

    You said "The reporting here was always done using Cash, Stock, all payments and pledge balance."  I wouldn't do payments and pledge balance.  I would just use the original pledge amount and always exclude any "pay-???" Gift Type.  Otherwise you might get wind up counting payments this year that are toward pledges for a prior FY.


    I had the same problem when I arrived at my most recent position.  Fundraiser's want to see EVERYTHING coming in the door, but they were never able to tie the Development numbers in RE to what was happening in Finance and it was a nightmare for everyone.  There was a lot of kicking and screaming (and, eventually a change in department leadership), but we finally got everything tied out between Development and Finance.  It may take generating two sets of numbers, one for Finance, and one for Development, but eventually the Development folks will have to accept that they can't count money twice (and I've found that letting them know that the auditors won't approve anything else can help).

    Thanks, John!  I'm right there with you. I am going to let my team read this thread and see what the reaction is :)

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