Thank you to all the people who've responded and brought various bits of wisdom to this discussion! It has been a valuable lesson in what different tools can/should and can't/shouldn't do.
-- Beth Hynes Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota > A reminder again that e-base is not an accounting program -- it is a > relationship development tool. Accounting programs track income and expense > as well as assets and liabilities -- activities of the entire organization. > E-base tracks activities generated by contact with our members/donors. > > One thing we do with members/donors is receive gifts of money, stock or > other in-kind items. E-base tracks certain business expenses as they relate > to obtaining the gifts -- cost of mailing appeals and newsletters and the > cost of putting on events. Again, the expenses relate to the business of > developing relationships with our members/donors. > > The purpose of tracking expenses in e-base is to help us evaluate the cost > effectiveness of our relationship building activities. Your accountant > probably is recording expenses in general categories like postage and > printing, allocated to the membership program and possibly more specifically > into program activities like appeals, newsletter, fundraising events. In > e-base you are tracking the cost of particular activities - printing and > mailing your 1st quarter appeal, and then your 2nd quarter appeal, and then > your December fundraiser, and then your newsletter, etc. > > Ebase is not designed to track other expenses like the cost of rent and > utilities. Your accountant may allocate those costs to your program; > however, that is a function of the accounting program and would be > extraordinarily ineffective to attempt to track in e-base. > > E-base tracks whether we've asked a member to call their senator, whether > we've e-mailed them an action alert, and what their interests are. > Accounting programs do not track this information. > > Where your accounting program and e-base intersect and must reconcile is in > the recording of revenues from fundraising/membership. It is easiest if the > membership/fundraising deposits are made separately from any other revenue > sources such as sales of merchandise in a store (not at a fundraiser), or > interest or rental income. The e-base deposit report would match the > accounting records for those deposits. Probably the revenue or > membership/fundraising as shown by the accounting program would match the > monthly receipts recorded in e-base. You should work with your accountant > to match the categories you use in e-base with the categories used in the > accounting program. > > Multi-year pledges are more difficult and I'm not going to go into how > that's handled if you are on the accrual basis for accounting. Again, what > is important to your accountant is somewhat different from what is important > to you (membership). You need to coordinate with your accountant so that > you both record things similarly. > > I record in e-base the value of the stock at its book value when received > (this should correspond to the stated value as revenue in the accounting > system). I usually consider this as a deposit into an investment account > (as opposed to a checking account) and do a deposit report to reconcile with > the accounting. > > Once the stock is received, it is an asset. Value fluctuations through sale > or unrealized gain/loss are not appropriate for e-base because the > gains/losses are probably attributed to miscellaneous revenue accounts > rather than membership or contribution revenue, i.e. not your problem. > Stock gains and losses are not functions of your relationship with your > donors, which is another reason it shouldn't be in e-base. > > ***OK -- here's the standard caveat -- please check with your accountant or > tax advisor as to the function of e-base in your organization, reconciling > e-base with the accounting program, and valuing stock donations. I am not a > CPA and you cannot rely on my statements.*** > > > Vicki Sola > Development Coordinator > Inland Northwest Land Trust > phone: 509-462-1239 > fax: 509-328-4733 > > > ------------------ > Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to > http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email > address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
