Managing Special Projects

If your organization manages special charitable projects, you may have to print checks for a variety of project expenses (a significant variation from Grant making).

• Sometimes the Fund that underwrites the special project also makes Grants to outside charities. If your organization’s policy is to treat the payments for project expenses as non-Grant expenses, then you can just add an appropriate number of G/L expense accounts to the fund (and a generic accounts payable account), and pay the expenses directly from the Fund. This is preferable to paying project-related expenses through the Operating Fund, which requires a transfer from the Special Project Fund.

• Some organizations record special project expenses as Grants. Since it is inconvenient to post a Grant for every check, many organizations create a Special Project Operating Fund (in addition to the Fund that supports the project). The chart of accounts for the Special Project Operating Fund includes the appropriate G/L expense accounts. You can then make Interfund Grants to the Fund as money is needed for the project. This way the Grants expense can be recorded (as a transfer) against the Special Project Fund, and the detailed expenses can be tracked through the Special Project Operating Fund (which can be thought of as the Grantee in these cases).

You should also do the following if you want to record special project expenses as Grants:

• Create a special project Vendor Class record to specify the Special Project Operating Fund accounts payable and checking G/L accounts as the defaults.

• Create Profile and Vendor records for special project Vendors, and specify the appropriate Special Project Operating Fund expense account on each Vendor record.

Note: If the vendor is also an administrative vendor, you should create a second Profile (with a distinctive alpha sort field) and Vendor record for special project Vouchers. This will eliminate the need to change the General Ledger accounts on Vouchers from the general Operating Fund to the Special Projects Operating Fund accounts.