Data Migration 4: Best Practices - Financial Information

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Make a clean break when bringing in financials

When it comes to migrating your accounting information, it is best to make a "clean break" whenever possible. Many accounting systems (e.g., Quickbooks) do not support non-profit accounting concepts, so anything you bring over will inevitably copy over the various workarounds that are no longer necessary in MonkeyPod. 


Making a "clean break" means two things:

  1. Whenever possible, make your Bookkeeping Start Date the start of a fiscal year. That means that any financial reporting from prior fiscal years will need to be run from your old system, but everything going forward can be done with MonkeyPod. This approach allows you to make a fresh start with a clean, streamlined chart of accounts that is consistent with nonprofit accounting principles and best practices.
  2. Import only those Pre-MonkeyPod transactions that are useful from a relationship management standpoint. That usually means importing your Pre-MonkeyPod donations and sales so that donor and customer relationships are enriched with that full historical context. You can probably skip bills, checks, or other expense-related transactions. 

To start using MonkeyPod bookkeeping at the beginning of a new fiscal year, the first step is to set up a clean chart of accounts, entering opening balances as of the last day of the previous fiscal year. From that point on, just record your transactions as they happen, reconcile your bank and credit card accounts monthly, and you should be in good shape.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How should I best migrate recurring donors?
    1. Check out this article explaining the best way to do this

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