Grants can be tracked as restricted and un-restricted for the sake of reporting to stakeholders

Description

This requirement involves distinguishing between restricted and unrestricted grants to provide accurate financial reporting to stakeholders. Restricted grants are funds limited to specific purposes, while unrestricted grants can be used at the organization's discretion.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A non-profit organization receives several types of grants, including restricted grants tied to specific projects and unrestricted grants for general use. The organization uses CPM software to manage their budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting.

Solution: The CPM software provides functionality to track these grants separately. Each grant is assigned a unique identifier (or dimension) within the system. Restricted grants are assigned an attribute of restricted, and unrestricted grants are assigned unrestricted. This practice enables specific reporting on each individual grant and appropriate rules for the restricted grants.

Considerations

Multi-dimensional systems are a must for non-profits, as tracking grant funds at this granularity is mandatory. Those dimensions are often Grant Name, Grant Type, Project, and so on. Rules are often needed to prevent budget from a restricted grant from being applied to the wrong project. Creating these rules in a one-off manner can get complex, as such it is best if the system has built in functionality to manage these policies. This is always the challenge with non-profits, and a big reason why many end up in Excel.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Adding Grants: When we add a grant, do we associate a dimension with it? Or do you have a purpose-built mechanism that streamlines the process, including rule creation?
• Reporting Capabilities: What sort of reports can be generated regarding different grant types?
• Compliance Reporting: What kind of reporting is available for donors to show where their restricted grants have been used?
• Planning: How can we use grants in your system when building out our plan for the year?