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Our finance department and advancement departments use the same categorizing so the reports line up.
I think this raises a bigger issue about why Finance/Quickbooks is tracking by these categories when the donor tracking system/Salesforce is designed for this type of breakdown. You don’t need to duplicate. The advancement department needs to understand source of funding for fundraising purposes, but the value on your financial reports is in knowing if funds are unrestricted, temporary restricted, or permanently restricted. Keep the financial reporting simple.
As a school, our financial reports used to break down by category of donor: alumni, parents, foundations, etc. But donors fit into multiple categories, so any breakdown on the financial reports is never entirely accurate. Donor advised funds are becoming more prevalent, and for the most part mimic an individual donor activity, but at some point could mimic an established foundation. Let the advancement area break down their financials by multiple categories, but from a finance perspective, track unrestricted, restricted, etc. But to the extent you do duplicate the advancement system categorization in your financial system, have the advancement dept. categorize the item and the finance dept. should match it.