Overview of Contract Tracker

Managing contracts can be complicated! It's a lot to track invoiced payments and monitor reimbursements while getting everything done on-time and on budget. The Contract Tracker app integrates seamlessly with your MonkeyPod to keep you organized and in control, making it easier to meet your funding obligations.

In this article, we'll cover:

What is Contract Tracker?

Contract Tracker is a premium MonkeyPod app that serves as an organizational tool for managing funding contracts based on earned revenue and/or reimbursable expenses. The Contract Tracker app extends the functionality of your MonkeyPod to help you keep tabs on what has been invoiced or paid for each contract, track reimbursements, and easily see where things stand with your contract's budget.

Contract Tracker is not for grants. If you're managing grants, check out our article on the Overview of Grant Management.

What's the difference between a contract and a grant?

Good question! This can be a confusing distinction and sometimes requires a judgment call. To make matters worse, some funders (especially government agencies) use the word grant to describe awards that are technically contracts.

Why does it matter? Money is money!

It's rarely a bad thing when someone agrees to fund your work, so you may not care what it's technically called. But the differences matter more than it might seem. Not only does it affect your legal rights and responsibilities, but the accounting rules are also completely different.

For a nice overview of the underlying concepts from a legal perspective, see this blog post from NEO Law Group.

Contract

  • Contracts are legal agreements to provide goods or services in exchange for payment. Receiving payment is conditional upon the goods or services actually being provided.
  • A contract's funder is often the primary beneficiary of the work performed. With government contracts, that may mean your organization is delivering services to the public that the government is required by law to provide.
  • Contracts are usually accounted for as a combination of earned revenue and reimbursed expenses. As conditional awards, they do not count as receivables (or income) when they are awarded. Instead, you will typically issue invoices along the way as the funding conditions are met.

Grant

  • Grants are gifts made to support your organization's charitable work. There may be restrictions on how the funds are spent but the award itself is considered to be unconditional.
  • With a grant, any benefits to the funder are usually incidental, such as a report on the outcomes of the funded work or a presentation at the funder's conference.
  • A grant is accounted for as contributed revenue and/or a restricted net asset. With certain exceptions for multi-year general operating grants, the entire grant can usually be recorded as a receivable immediately when the award is made.
  • If you're trying to track a grant, don't do that here in Contract Tracker—use the Grant Tracker app instead (or just record a grant transaction and take it from there).

If you're working with contracts, read on to get started with Contract Tracker!

If you're looking for help managing grants, check out this article instead.

How do I install Contract Tracker in my MonkeyPod?

Contract Tracker is a premium app in MonkeyPod. To install it, choose Apps & Integrations > Fundraising from the main menu. Next, select Contract Tracker to learn more about the app, and then click "Install".

Screenshot of Contract Tracker in App Marketplace

Once installed, Contract Tracker appears in the Apps & Integrations menu under "My Apps & Integrations".

Screenshot of

How do I create a new contract?

To get started creating a new contract, click "Add a contract".

Screenshot of Contract Tracker with

Enter the required details for the awarded contract, including the contract title, the contracting entity (the person or group who awarded the contract), the award date, and total amount awarded. These details can be changed later if necessary.

Enter other optional fields as needed:

Reference number (optional): If you have a contract number, enter it here.

Subcontract details (optional): If your contract is a subcontract, select "Is this a subcontract?" and enter original funder in the "Original source of funds" field that appears. For example, let's say the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a contract with Affordable Housing, Inc. And then Affordable Housing, Inc. subcontracts with your organization to actually do the work on a project. You would enter Affordable Housing, Inc. as your "Contracting Entity" since you have the contract with them, but you could enter HUD as the "Original source of funds" to document where the funding originated.

Period of Performance (optional): If your contract has a specific time frame during which all the work should be performed and all the costs incurred, enter that date range here. A period of performance must be specified before you can create a budget for this contract. (See How do I create a budget for a contract? below.)

Overhead or indirect rate (optional): Indirect or overhead costs refer to costs that are necessary for the general operation of the organization and cannot be directly attributed to a specific project or activity. Often, contracts include an allowable rate for indirect/overhead costs (presented as a percentage of the direct costs that can be paid as indirect costs). If your contract has a rate for overhead/indirect expenses, enter it here by selecting "is there a rate for overhead/indirect?" and entering the rate in the "Overhead/Indirect %" field. This does not impact how your MonkeyPod handles the accounting; it just serves as a reminder to you about the terms of the contract.

When you've got everything entered for the contract, click "Save" and your contract will be recorded in Contract Tracker!

Where can I manage existing contracts?

All of your contracts are listed in Contract Tracker under the "Contracts" tab.

  • To see contract details and manage invoices, click the title of the contract or the magnifying glass icon.
  • To edit the basic details of the contract (title, contracting entity, dates, and amount), click the edit icon.
  • To delete a contract, click the trash can icon. (Deleting a contract does not delete any related transactions or the tracking tag used to link them, so you can still use the tag to locate any related invoices or reimbursable expenses.)

Screenshot of list of contracts with view/edit/delete icons highlighted

When viewing a contract, you can also edit it by choosing Edit Contract from the sidebar menu.

How do I track reimbursable expenses for a contract?

If your organization has expenses related to the contract deliverables and you need to be reimbursed for them with contract funds, simply enter the expenses as you normally would by recording the check, credit card, or other form of payment in your MonkeyPod. Then, in the "Expense Details" section for the payment, use "tags" to associate that expense with the contract by choosing the tag that corresponds to the contract.

(Check out this article for information about recording expenses.)

All tagged expenses will be summed by expense account and displayed in the "Reimbursable Expenses" tab for the contract.

How do I record an invoice for a contract?

Create an invoice for the contract by clicking "Add an invoice" on the contract's page.

Start by filling in all the details for the invoice:

  • Dates: Enter the date of the invoice, and when it's due.
  • Reference Number: Add a reference number for the invoice. Reference numbers are optional, but they're very helpful to include to identify the invoice if there are multiple invoices listed for each contract!
  • Memo: Enter an optional memo.
  • Class: If you want to choose a specific class rather than the default of "Shared Expenses", click the link to "Assign a class". (Check out this article to learn more about classes and why they're important for your expenses!)

Continue building your invoice by choosing the items sold, reimbursable expenses, and services that were performed as part of the contract.

  • Items: If the contract includes a product or service that you sell regularly, choose that item from the "Item" dropdown menu. If the item doesn't already exist in your MonkeyPod, click "Create An Item" to enter it. You can add multiple items to a contract, just click "Add item" to add each one. Check out this article about items for more information about how to setup and work with them.

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  • Miscellaneous Services: If the contract involves miscellaneous products or services that you don't normally provide, click "Add Miscellaneous Service", and enter the details there.

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  • Reimbursable expenses: The "Reimbursable Expenses" section displays all expenses that were assigned the tracking tag for this contract. Select the expense(s) that are relevant for the invoice to add them.

    If you are expecting to see expenses here but nothing appears, checkout the section above about tracking reimbursable expenses.

Screenshot of Reimbursable Expenses section

When you have everything entered for the invoice, click "Save" and the invoice appears on the contract's page under the "Invoices" tab.

Screenshot of an invoice listed on a Contract page

How do I record payment of an invoice for a contract?

When you receive payment for an invoice, click either the contract number or the 'view/record payment' icon associated with that invoice in Contract Manager.

Screenshot of invoice listed on contract page with 'view/record payment' icon highlighted

That takes you to the invoice page where you can record the payment just like you would for any other invoice. See this article about invoices for details.

How do I create a budget for a contract?


It's easy! First, if you haven't done so already, edit the contract and enter the contract's start and end dates under "Period of Performance". Then, choose Create Budget from the contract's sidebar menu.

The budget is created immediately, and the menu item changes to View Budget. A link to the budget will also appear on the contract page. Click View Budget to see your new budget for the contract.

All transactions that are tagged with the contract's tracking tag and transpired during the 'period of performance' are included in the "Actual" amounts for the budget. To enter the budgeted amounts, choose Edit Settings from the sidebar menu, and enter the amounts for each account. Be sure to click "Save" when done.

For more information about working with budgets, check out our Overview of Budgets article!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the tracking tags for contracts? How are they used?

When you record a new contract, a corresponding tag gets created in your MonkeyPod to help track related financial transactions. When viewing the details of the contract, the tracking tag is displayed with the summary details at the top of the page.

Screenshot of contract details with tracking tag highlighted

Click the link for the tracking tag to view everything associated with that tag in your MonkeyPod. This includes financial activity, relationship connections, interactions, and action items. Choose My MonkeyPod > Tags from the main menu to edit a tag.


Where can I find contracts when looking at a funder's details in MonkeyPod?

A "Contract Tracker" tab appears at the bottom of the page for any entity that funded a contract.

Screenshot of 'contract tracker' tab highlighted on a relationship page

How can I store contract documents in my MonkeyPod?

Simple! On every contract page, you'll see an area to upload documents. Just drag and drop a document, or click there to select and upload your file.

Screenshot of contract details with area to upload documents highlighted

Why isn't a contract a financial transaction like a grant or a pledge?

The contract itself is not a financial document and does not constitute an "income event". Accounting rules say that it should not appear on the books. Only as the contract conditions are met is the earned income recognized.


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