Track Money Held for Deposit

Fundraising events for schools, nonprofit organizations, church benefits and other reasons usually require accounting for cash-on-hand before it's deposited at a bank. Cash accounts set up in personal finance software provide a reliable solution for tracking money that's not immediately deposited.

1. If you haven't done so already, set up a cash account in your financial software.
2. Record the amount received into the cash account in your software, either as individual transactions or a lump sum - whatever works best for the situation.
3. When these funds are deposited, transfer the total amount (which should match your actual deposit) from the cash account to the account that actually received the deposit. If you are not tracking the account that the funds are deposited into, then create a transaction as follows to zero out the cash account:
• Payee: Deposit to (name of bank)
• Category: Miscellaneous or set up a category called Fund Raisers or whatever makes sense.
• Amount: the negative of the total deposited, for example, -526.13.

The cash account balance will now be zeroed out and can be used for tracking cash-on-hand again in the future.

Tips:

• Using an online app to collect and track fund raiser money can boost your contributions.
• Has your fund raiser outgrown a cash account? Get help with choosing donor management software.