How to Setup a Non-Governmental Organization in QuickBooks for Nonprofits
Unrestricted:
Administration
Fundraising
Programs
Program 1
Program 2
Temporarily Restricted:
Grants
Grant 1
Grant 2
Designated Donations
Program 1
Program 2
Permanently Restricted:
Endowment 1
Endowment 2
When donors fund a particular program, the funds are restricted until spent on what the donor designated, so they should generally be deposited into a temporarily restricted fund. Once you’ve spent the money and released the restriction, you should transfer the funds from the temporarily restricted fund to the unrestricted fund. The easiest way to accomplish this is to set up an Other Expense account called “Transfer to Unrestricted Fund” and an Other Revenue account called “Transfer from Temporarily Restricted Fund”. Create a journal entry at the end of each month using these two accounts to transfer the funding that’s been released from restrictions.
There’s no problem if you want to use jobs and I definitely recommend using them for grants, but I wouldn’t use this as a substitution for classes.
You don’t need to re-install QuickBooks to add a new file. Just go to File > New Company and answer the questions. However, you might find it easier to just adjust the transactions in your current file. The easiest way to get a list of all your revenue and expense transactions is to open a Profit & Loss Detail report. Just click on each transaction and make the changes you want. However, if you’ve already filed your tax return for 2008 I’d be careful about making any changes. There’s no problem adding classes and jobs, because they won’t change your basic Profit & Loss, but if you change the revenue or expense account it might.
For fiscal year budgets, you can set up budgets by class at Company > Planning & Budgeting. For multi-year budgets, you should use estimates at Customers > Create Estimates. You might need to activate the feature at Edit > Preferences > Jobs & Estimates first.
This article is provided for informational purposes and is not intended to be construed as legal, accounting, or other professional advice. For further information, please consult appropriate professional advice from your attorney and certified public accountant.
Written by +Ruth Perryman, CMA, CFE, CFM, MBA





Ruth is the president of The QB Specialists, an Intuit Premier Reseller that offers huge savings and expert advice on QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Enterprise. She is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and a member of Intuit’s Trainer/Writer Network. She is also certified in QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Enterprise and has provided expert QuickBooks help to thousands of businesses all over the world since 1996.
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I really appreciate ur effort
as we are running a newly project of education,,,so plz kindly guide me how to setup QuickBooks,,,& how it can be useful for us..thanx
Hi Babar,
You can download free user guides on our website:
http://www.pos-deals.com/quickbooks-user-guides
There are also some how-to videos right in QuickBooks (Help > Learning Center Tutorials.
Hi Ronald,
As the blog post above points out, you use classes to track projects not the chart of accounts. Your chart of account should be setup something like the Nonprofit Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA):
http://nccs.urban.org/projects/ucoa.cfm
Ruth
Hello Ruth,
this is so good. how are you? i have researching on how i can structure a chart of accounts in quick books for an NGO. it runs projects, school, brass band, farming, vans as income generating projects for this NGO.
i really need your assistance on these accounts i have to set up.
i will be glad if you respond positive. bless you
Ronald
dear sir
we have a newly established organization name as organization for human development pakistan who works in education so plz provide some assistance in managing our accounting system
Hi Akbar,
I’m happy to answer your questions, but if you need more help than that you’ll need to make an appt. We charge $60/hr for QuickBooks training and support, $120/hr for POS training and support.
Ruth