-
Net Assets & Restrictions
What are the effects of releasing restricted net assets on the Profit and Loss statement and Balance sheet? Is releasing restricted assets classified as income?
-
1 Reply
-
Hi Caroline….thanks for coming to the Forum! In a Statement of Activities presented in accordance with GAAP, the release of restricted revenues is a reclass from the “With Donor Restrictions” column to the “Without Donor Restrictions” column with no net effect on the bottom line in the “Total” column. That said, it’s an important element of how you’ve paid your expenses (always presented in the “Without Donor Restrictions” column) for the period and is a useful number to include in budgeting as well as internal reporting since it better matches revenues to expenses. On the balance sheet side of things, the release of restrictions will bring down your Net Assets with Donor Restrictions and increase your Net Assets Without Donor Restrictions. Hope this is useful to you. Looking forward to further activity on this discussion!