Managing Subfunds or Purposes Within a Fund

Sarah Baker

We migrated to Blackbaud FE last year. During the setup, we created several different projects. However, we’ve since found that projects may not be the best way to track our individual specific-purpose (restricted) funds.

One challenge we’ve encountered is when paying expenses related to these restricted purposes. We release the net assets from restriction and pay from unrestricted cash. However, when reviewing the project financials, the payment appears as a negative unrestricted net asset balance. Ideally, this should reduce the restricted net assets instead.

Has anyone found a way that has worked well for this kind of tracking?

Patricia Nowak

Are you all utilizing any type of cash equivalents system?

Sarah Baker

Hi Patricia,
Not outside of Blackbaud. We are currently using funds to organize and track restricted and unrestricted funds. We have pooled assets, such as cash and investments, across funds.