Fund accounting by definition is an accounting system emphasizing accountability rather than profitability. This is used by non-profit organizations and governments. Most ERP systems are designed to emphasize on profitability, not accountability. Dynamics GP has options for this that will assist you in spending less time managing funding and accounting processes and more time on your mission. The modules available in Dynamics GP are inter fund accounting, control account management, encumbrance management, commitments, and grant management. Below we will give you the details of each module and how it can help.
Interfund Accounting
The largest challenge for non-profit organizations is transferring balances across accounts. If you are currently doing this in your ERP by simple JE’s using a restricted and unrestricted segment in your COA you can come across errors due to staff spending time juggling manual entries and reconciliation processes. The inter fund module will automate the transfer of funds across accounts divisions and companies. You and do this with a one-time setup of transfer defaults as well as automate the processes. Gone are the worries about missing transactions or posting errors with automatic transaction analysis that confirms fund accounts are balanced.
Control Account Management
This is part of the Purchasing module and its designed to let companies use a centralized AP account and then split their AP to divisional segments for financial reporting. If you have multiple divisions and you want to use a centralized accounts payable account and you need to show separate accounts payable balances per division on your financial statements this is what you would use. You can define each reporting segment to represent a division, program or fund and display a breakdown by segment values for your centralized accounts payable account. You have access to see the real picture of amounts owed by division, program or fund.
Encumbrance Management
Budgets are important for everyone however with encumbrance management you have the ability to track expenses during the purchasing phase not after. With the use of encumbrance management, a user can be instantly alerted if the budget limits have been exceeded. This also ensures the funds are correctly allocated by reserving encumbrances when purchase orders are first entered. You also have the ability to allow an override with a password.
Commitments
You have the ability to track online purchase requisitions as commitments with the Dynamics GP Requisition management. This will give you the ability to tighten budget controls without stopping the PO process. Users who generate online requisitions will be notified when the requisition exceeds the budget limits. This will lower the time between submission and approval of a transaction that falls within the budget limits. Users can automate the process of adding committed purchases to any financial reports.
Grant Management
Probably the most commonly used module in Dynamics GP for Non-profits is the grant management module. This allows you to accurately track grant costs, remain accountable to sponsors, and meet guidelines and regulations. There is also the ability to apply budgets per grant and maintain budget integrity for every dollar spent. You can run actual vs budget reports for grants to help automate the reconciliation process.
This is for all the users out there that thought Dynamics GP cannot support my non-profit. Here are all the modules that you can use with GP to allow you and your organization to emphasize on accountability and not just profitability.
Colleen Williams | COO, Consultant Lead
Colleen graduated with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Accounting from California State University San Bernardino. She has extensive accounting experience over the past years working as staff accounting and controller. Colleen has over 10 years Great Plains experience which includes many implementations for private companies. She also has extensive experience with Business Intelligence, budgeting and report writing while working on BI360, QuickBooks, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Timberline and Solomon. Colleen has worked in various industries that include: real estate, property management, timeshare sales, publishing and insurance. These various industries have given her the necessary experience to handle large company consolidations and report writing, budgeting and forecasting, project accounting, sales invoice processing, and fixed assets.
