Traditional fund accounting

Nonprofits frequently track funds in Sage Intacct, but how the funds are tracked can differ by organization type and accounting practices.

  • Some organizations still track funds as balancing and follow traditional fund accounting practices.

  • Many other organizations have instead decided to track net asset impact for compliance purposes.

For nonprofits that track funds as balancing, you can identify entities configured for tracking of funds to ensure clarity of purpose for the record.

Depending on if you have admin privileges, do one of the following:

User Verification path
Admin

Go to the Accounting tab in your Company information, then ensure the QuickStart template field is set to Nonprofit.
Non-admin users

Create a new General Ledger account, then click in the Category field and search for Net assets.

  • If the Net assets category appears, then your organization uses the Nonprofit QuickStart template.
  • If you see the Category field but Net assets isn't one of your options, then your organization uses a different QuickStart template.
  • If you don't see the Category field, then your organization doesn't use any QuickStart template.

If your organization doesn't use the Nonprofit QuickStart template, but you still want these categories, reports, and dashboards, contact your account manager to discuss your options.

When using the Nonprofit QuickStart template, you can set the accounting practice election in the Company Information page. This option allows you to choose between net asset fund accounting or traditional fund accounting (track individual balancing funds).

An additional checkbox is added to the Entity Information page when Traditional fund accounting is selected. Select this checkbox to designate the entity as a fund. Ensure that the same tax ID information is used on each fund that belongs within one entity. When Sage Intacct reviews entitlements, we will then be able to distinguish between individual entities versus entities used for funds.

Enable traditional fund accounting

To be able to designate an entity as a fund, you first must enable traditional fund accounting.

  1. Go to Company > Setup > Company.
  2. Select the Accounting tab and select Edit.
  3. Select the Traditional fund accounting radio button in the Accounting Practice for Funds section and Save your changes.

Designate entities as funds

After enabling traditional fund accounting, review your entities to determine which ones will be marked as funds.

  1. Go to Company > Setup > Entities.
  2. Select Edit next to the entity that you want to designate as a fund.
  3. On the Entity information tab, in the Entity section, select Fund as the Type for the entity.
  4. Save your changes.
When an entity is designated as a fund, the entity is hidden from view in entity selection dropdowns. Hiding the funds from view allows you to see actual entities in the list, rather than both entities and funds.

Return to the list of entities and repeat these steps to designate entities as funds.