Learn About Your Statement of Activities
The Statement of Activities is a report that summarizes your income and expenses. It's the equivalent of the for-profit accounting report that is called the P&L, the Profit and Loss statement, or the Income statement. The Statement of Activities is one of the official accounting reports that nonprofit organizations are required to produce.
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What can the Statement of Activities tell me?
The Statement of Activities conveys a lot of information, but at its core it lets you know how much money has come in and how much money has gone out. It shows exactly how funds are used, which is crucial for communicating with supporters and demonstrating the impact of donations.
It can also help you create realistic budgets, track your financial performance, and ensure that you're spending money in the right places to support your mission!
Where can I find the Statement of Activities in my MonkeyPod?
You can generate your Statement of Activities by choosing Reports > Activities from the main menu, configuring the options there, and clicking "Run Report".
What are my options for configuring the Statement of Activities?
MonkeyPod gives you some powerful options for setting up your report so you can focus on just the information and timespan that you want to review.
Report Settings
- Timespan - Select an option under the "Timespan" heading to view your income and expenses for that period.
- Filter by Class - Filtering by class allows you to see income and expenses for a specific class.
- Filter by Tag - This setting lets you see income and expenses for a specific tag. This is great if you are looking to report out on a specific event, location, etc.
- Report Format - This setting lets you choose whether you want the report to show sub-accounts or just totals for each top-level account. Often the board only wants to see top-level accounts, but you may want the details—your MonkeyPod can give you both!
- Hide accounts without activities - If you have a lot of inactive accounts, or accounts that you rarely use, you can choose to hide those irrelevant accounts on your statement of activities.
Can I save my Statement of Activities?
Yes! If you've configured the report settings just as you like them and you want to save those settings to rerun in the future, just click the "Save Report" button. After naming and saving the report, it will appear in the Reports menu under "Saved Reports" and will be available to everyone who has permissions to view financial reports in your MonkeyPod.
Important note about relative timespans of "This" and "Last"
Just remember that choosing "Last" or "This" timespans will be relative to the point when you run the report.
So for example: If you save a report in December 2024 with a "This Month" timespan and then run it in January 2025, the report will show activities for January 2025 because that is now this month. If you want to keep the dates static (for our example, in December), then use a Custom timespan and enter the specific dates.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm new to MonkeyPod and nonprofit bookkeeping. Where are these "categories" coming from in my Statement of Activities?
The categories in your statement of activities are the accounts from your Chart of Accounts.
Can this report be run by month?
Yes! to run the report for one month select "Custom" as the timespan and enter the dates you would like to see.
I'd like to include this as a visual to share with my board. Can MonkeyPod help with that?
Absolutely! Just click the "Visualize" tab for the report, and you'll see a chart for the report. Use the "hamburger" menu at the right of the screen to download and save the chart as an image.
I'm new to accounting. Can you explain some of the terms in the report to me?
Sure! A statement of activities is like a simple snapshot of how your non-profit is doing financially, showing how it gets and spends its money to make a positive impact. Here are some simple definitions to get you going:
- Revenue and Other Support: This is where the money comes from, including contributed and earned income from things like donations, fundraising events, grants, membership dues, sales, investment income, and program fees from any services your organization provides.
- Expenses: This is where your money was spent. It's typically broken into three primary categories: Programs and Services (programs/services your organization runs), Management & General Expenses (to keep your organization running), and Fundraising expenses (money spent on fundraising events, marketing, etc.)
- Changes in Net Assets: This is what's left over once the expenses are deducted from the revenue and other support.
- Unrestricted Funds: These are donations or grants that can be used for any purpose that supports your organization's mission. There are no specific limitations imposed by the donor on how these funds should be used.
- Donor Restricted Funds: These are donations or grants that come with specific instructions from the donor on how or when the money can be used. You must use these funds for the designated purpose or within the specified timeframe.
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