How to Record a Donation
MonkeyPod makes it easy to keep track of all of your financial information as well as your relationship information in one place! By making it easy to track a donation, we let you get back to your mission. This article also covers in-kind donations!
How do I record a donation in my MonkeyPod?
Like most other things having to do with your finances, the place you go to record a donation is under Finance then under Income & Expenses you click on Record a Donation.
This will bring up the Record a Donation window, from here we'll break down each section of the window.
What kind of donation was it?
- Standard Donation: What we typically think of as a donation, selecting this means that you have a check or cash that someone has donated
- Nonfinancial Property: What we typically refer to as an In-Kind donation. This means that someone donated something, but it wasn't money
- Donated Services: This may be a lawyer that donated their services. However, be very careful Donated services aren't usually tax-deductible and should only sometimes be recorded on your books. The accounting rules are complex, so ask your accountant if you're unsure.
Who was the donation made by?
This is where you enter the Donor, the Date of the donation, and the amount the donation is for.
***If the Donor isn't in your MonkeyPod yet, no worries! Simply click on "Create New" and a quick add window will show up
How do you want to account for the donation?
Where should your payment go?
The default is that the Payment will go into your Undeposited Funds account. If you want to change that for this one donation, simply click on the edit icon shown in orange above. If you want to change the default for every donation, you can do this in your Automated Bookkeeping Settings.
Which income account should be credited for the donation?
The default in this case is the account 4001: Individual Contributions, if you want to change the Income account for this donation, click on the edit icon and choose the correct account. If you want to change the default for every donation, you can do this in your Automated Bookkeeping Settings.
Did the donor receive something in exchange?
If the donor received something in exchange for their donation, only the part of their donation that is a true donation is tax-deductible. For example, if you were giving out tote bags in exchange for a $20 donation, if the tote bag is worth $5, then only $15 of the total donation is tax-deductible.
To do the accounting for this, select the checkbox for "Donor received something of value in exchange" and the window below will pop up.
Then select the value of Goods or Services received and which Nondeductible account that $5 should go towards
Where do you want to go from here?
The last thing you have to do is choose where you want to go next
- Save & Record Another: This allows you to save this donation and brings you to another blank donation screen to fill out. This is great if you have a stack of checks that you are entering
- Save as Recurring: This will save the donation being entered as a recurring donation
- Save: This will simply save the donation
What are optional donation settings in my MonkeyPod?
At the bottom of the donation window, there are a couple of optional donation settings
Add a soft credit?
This setting gives you the ability to credit someone for bringing in the donation without impacting your financials. For example, if the donation came in because of a board member, you may want to give them a soft credit
Assign a class
This lets you assign a class to the donation. Classes for revenue are optional, but if you want to classify this donation as part of a broader campaign, you can do that here.
Tag it
Want to tie this donation to a specific appeal? You can use a tag to do this.
Record a payment method?
This will give you the option to enter in a check or reference number for the payment type.
Add a memo
Want to write a note about the donation? You can do that with a memo here
Frequently Asked Questions
- What do I do if my donation is actually a payment on a pledge?
- When you go to enter the donation, MonkeyPod will find the pledge and ask if it's part of the pledge.
- If you want to see your outstanding pledges, you can go to Reports then Pledges Receivable
and if you want to receive the pledge from that report, you can
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