NGO mode
Nonprofits, churches and foundations do not just track profit — they track whose money this is and what it was promised for. NGO mode adds fund accounting, donors and grants.
Switch it on in Settings → Modules.
Why it is different
A business asks "did we make money?". A nonprofit asks "did we spend each donor's money on what we said we would?".
That is a harder question, and answering it wrong loses funding. Restricted funds spent on the wrong thing is the single fastest way to end a grant relationship — usually not through dishonesty, but through nobody being able to prove otherwise.
Donors
Record who funds you, their history, and any restrictions on how funds can be used. Those restrictions are the whole point: unrestricted money can go wherever it is needed, restricted money cannot, and mixing them is the error the whole module exists to prevent.
Grants
A grant records what was awarded, by whom, over what period, with its own reference.
Budget lines break it into categories — staff, supplies, travel — each with its own amount. Spending is tracked against these, so you always know what remains in each line rather than only the total.
Milestones capture what you promised to deliver and when, with any conditions or acceptance criteria. Reporting deadlines that arrive as a surprise are how good programmes lose their next round of funding.
Active grants shows what is currently running.
Donor reporting
Because spending is tracked against grants and budget lines from the start, donor reports come out of the books rather than being reconstructed the week before they are due.
For donors requiring a Results Framework or USAID-specific sections, those are available as additional sections on the grant.
Practical advice
Set restrictions when you record the donor, not when you spend. It is a two-minute job at the start and an audit at the end.
Budget lines should match the donor's own categories, exactly. If they fund "Programme Delivery", do not call it "Operations" — every report will need translating, and translations create discrepancies.
Track milestones like invoices. They have deadlines and consequences.
Reconcile monthly. Donor-funded organisations get audited more often than small businesses, and reconciled books make that routine rather than traumatic.