CommunitySuite recognizes three fund balance accounts. These accounts are also called net asset, equity, and OE accounts. These three equity accounts have to be set before go live. Traditionally, endowed funds may have balances in all three equity accounts, depending on if the fund has granted out its spendable balance.
- Navigate to the Accounts page and click Defaults in the left-side menu.
- Click Restrictions in the left-side menu to access the equity account restrictions.
- Default - This is what CommunitySuite refers to as the default fund balance. This account holds retained earning/accumulated income. Net earnings, minus principal gifts or spendable transactions, post to this account when the year is closed. It is typically the temporarily restricted portion of a fund's balance.
- Administrative fees are typically charged to this portion of the fund balance.
- Unrestricted/non-endowed funds, where the full balance could be granted tomorrow,
do not need a separate spendable balance, thus the full balance usually
lives in this default equity account. This is why the term default fund balance is used.
- Principal - This is the historic or endowed portion of a fund balance. It is typically the
permanently restricted portion or the historic gift value of a fund's balance. This is
sometimes referred to as the corpus balance.- If the Endowed box is checked on a fund in CommunitySuite, donations will usually be posted to
this fund balance account. On donation records, there is an option to apply the
donation to the spendable.
- If the Endowed box is checked on a fund in CommunitySuite, donations will usually be posted to
- Spendable - This is typically the unrestricted portion of a fund's balance. If the
Spendable box is checked on a fund record, distributions (spending policy/spending
calculation/disbursement quota in Canada) increase this account. Donations can increase this account if Apply to Spendable is checked on a donation. Grants and vouchers decrease this
account.- This is the amount that the fund has available to spend on grant-making or scholarships.
- Typically, funds with a spendable balance are endowed or subject to a spending
policy. - CommunitySuite will only use this account for funds where the spendable balance
needs to be tracked separately from the principal or default balances.