[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Kara…in my experience as a Finance Director I actually liked the change to biweekly payroll with the lag (e.g. a Friday pay date for the two week period ending the preceding Friday). It gives time for review and if you have hourly employees you are able to accurately capture the hours from their timesheets. Also helpful to have those actuals for grant tracking as well. Hope this helps and that others have experiences to share!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

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!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Susie…that is a question I so frequently receive! My interpretation is that it is the total expense of an organization. So, depending on the time frame asked, it could be your budgeted expenses for the current year or your actual expenses for the prior year.

Any other forum members get this same confusion?

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Bob…and please accept my apologies for our delay in responding to your post! While others may have different opinions, I have found that Excel works best for me in building budgets. It is of course the least expensive alternative as well. Also, we have plans for the near future to dive deeper into budgeting in an upcoming webinar. Stay tuned!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi everyone! We’re so glad to see such a great response to this group. I look forward to being with you next Tuesday as one of your moderators.