NOTE: We recommend that you start using the Charity option at the beginning of a new financial year. A new set of nominal codes and a new chart of accounts are also recommended. If you need to remove your existing data you must rebuild your data and enter opening balances at the start of the new financial year.

1. Prepare your data for a rebuild

Before rebuilding your data, you should;

• Check your data - Read more >
• Take at least two backups - Read more >
• Run a year end - Read more >
• Archive your data - Read more >

2. Rebuild your data

1. Click File, click Maintenance then click Rebuild.
2. To rebuild the transactions, nominal structure and chart of accounts, clear the Keep my Nominal Account records check box.
   
   The Keep my Nominal Account records, Keep my transactions, Keep my Chart Of Accounts and Keep my Project Transactions check boxes are all cleared.
3. From the Business Type area, select Charities or other non-profit making organisation click OK then click Yes.
4. Complete the Financial Year window as follows:
   

   Month	Use the drop-down list to choose the month in which your financial year starts.
   Year	Enter the year your financial year starts.

5. Click OK, then click Yes and click  OK then click Close.

3. Enable the charities option

1. Click Settings then click Company Preferences  and click the Parameters tab.
2. From the Others area, select Enable Charity\Non-Profit options and click OK.

4. Edit the default SOFA categories

1. Click Settings and click Nominal Defaults.
2. Select the category you want to edit and click Edit.
3. In the Name box, enter the required name and click OK then click OK again.

5. Assign SOFA categories to nominal codes

1. Click Nominal codes and double-click the required Nominal Record.
2. Click the Details tab, and from the SOFA Category, choose the relevant category, and click OK.
3. Click Save and click Close.

 NOTE: This process should be completed for each profit and loss nominal record. You shouldn't assign SOFA categories against balance sheet nominal records as the SOFA categories are used to produce your income and expenditure reports.

6. Create and delete fund records

Create a fund record

1. Click Charitable funds and click New.
2. Complete the Add Fund window as follows:

   Name*	Enter the fund's name or description up to a maximum of 63 characters.
   Type*	This is used to specify the type of fund you're creating. You can choose any of the following Fund types: Unrestricted - These are funds where there's no restriction or limit placed on how the money held in the fund may be spent Restricted - These are funds where the income or donation is held for a specific purpose, for example a Disaster Relief fund collected and held for victims of a specific disaster Endowment - This type is used to record endowments, where the income from a donation of money or of an asset is held to generate long-term income  NOTE: There are no restrictions placed in Sage 50 Accounts over how a fund may be used. The Fund Type is for reporting purposes only.
   N/C*	Enter the nominal code to be associated with the fund.  NOTE: This code must be included in the Capital and Reserves category of your Chart of Accounts as all income and expenditure associated with the fund is transferred to this nominal code when you run the Year End option.
   O/Balance	This is used to enter any balance already held for your fund.  TIP: For further information about how to enter an opening balance please refer to the section To enter opening balances later in this article.
   Balance	This is the current balance of the fund and automatically calculates from the transactions posted to the fund.
   Contact	This is optional and can be used to enter any contact name associated with the fund.
   Institution	This is optional and can be used to enter the name of the holding institution associated with the fund.

   * denotes a compulsory field.

3. Click OK and click Close.

Delete a fund record

Fund records can only be deleted if they've no transactions associated with them.

If the fund record has no transactions associated with it:

• Click Charitable funds, select the fund you want to delete, click Delete, then click Yes.

If the fund has transactions associated with it you can delete the transactions using the Clear Audit Trail option. You can also change the fund the transactions are allocated to in the Corrections module:

1. Click Transactions, select the transaction you want to amend click Edit and click Edit again.
2. Change the fund allocated to the transaction in the Fund box, click Close, click Save and click Yes.
3. Repeat steps 1-2 for each affected transaction.
4. Click Charitable funds, select the fund you want to delete, click Delete then click Yes.

 NOTE: This is only practical for small numbers of transactions and you must ensure the bank and VAT reconciliation status of the transactions remains the same.

7. Enter an opening balance for your funds

Once the Charity option is set up, you must post your opening balances for funds.
Read more >

8. How transactions affect funds

You can assign a fund reference to all transactions however only profit and loss items appear in the fund activity. This is because a fund isn't for use with your own company therefore it shouldn't affect anything in the balance sheet area of your company. The only exception to this is if you post a transaction to the fund using the nominal code the fund is assigned to as this is usually a capital and reserves nominal code.

 TIP: The above statement assumes you're using a default Chart of Accounts. If unusual Nominal Codes are being affected by a fund, check the Chart of Accounts to see if the code falls within a Profit and Loss range.

9. Set up Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) - UK only

GASDS is designed to enable Charities and non profit organisations to claim Gift Aid on small donations where a Gift Aid declaration hasn't been received. If you'd like to find out more about GASDS, please refer to the HMRC website.

1. Click Charitable funds then click  GASDS Settings.
2. Select This charity is eligible to claim a top-up payment equivalent to Gift Aid under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) check box and click Save.

Any subsequent donations now include a Small Donation check box that can be selected providing the transaction meets the small donation criteria held in the GASDS settings.

You can then report on any transactions recorded in this way, in a report specifically designed to be exported from Sage and in the same format used by HRMC for online submissions.

To access the charity reports, browse to:

• Click Charitable funds and click  Reports.

 TIP: If you incorrectly flag transactions for GASDS, you need to search Transactions for GASDS claims submitted then export the transaction details to Excel and manually calculate the figures.

10. Set up gift aid for a customer

 NOTE: In the Republic of Ireland, the Revenue Charitable Donation Scheme is available instead of the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. You can find out more on the Revenue website.

1. Click Customers, select the customer to become the donor and click Edit.
2. Ensure the customer record contains the customer address, then click the Donor tab.
3. Complete the Donor Information area as follows:

   Default Fund	Select a fund record, this fund is applied to all new invoices created for the customer.
   Gift Aid Declaration Received	Select this check box if you've received a gift aid declaration form, or relevant certificate under the Ireland scheme, from the customer.
   Declaration Valid From	Enter the date from the gift aid declaration form or certificate.

4. In the Account Type area select the Donor check box click Save and click Close.

 NOTE: Any gift aid or tax relief reclaimed should be recorded as a bank receipt. You must decide which nominal code to use and whether to post one transaction per fund the original donation was received against.

11. Record donations

 TIP: You can record donations by posting bank transactions and selecting the relevant fund record you want to show the donation against.

If you want to calculate the amount of gift aid which can be reclaimed you must record your donations through customer records you've set up for gift aid. You can do this by using the Donation option in the Bank module. The Donation option posts both a sales invoice and sales receipt to the customer record.

1. Click Bank accounts, select the bank record you want to record the donation against and click Donations.
2. Complete the Donations window as required, for example:

   Customer A/C	Date	Ref	N/C	Fund	Dept	Details	Net	T/C	Tax
   CUST1	01/08/2010	Cash	4000	FUND1	0	Donation	100.00	T9	0.00

3. Click Save and click Close.

12. Transfer a balance between fund records

 NOTE: If you've set up a bank account for each fund you must also do a bank transfer.

1. Charitable funds > Fund transfer.
2. Complete the Fund Transfer window as follows:

   Fund From*	Enter the fund number you want to transfer the value from.
   N/C From	This defaults to the nominal code on the fund you've selected in the Fund From box.
   Fund to*	Enter the fund number you want to transfer the value to.
   N/C To	This defaults to the nominal code on the fund you've selected in the Fund to box.
   Reference	Enter the reference you want to use for the transfer. This defaults to FUNDTRAN.
   Description	Enter the description you want to use for the transfer. This defaults to Fund Transfer.
   Department*	If you want to assign the transfer to a department enter the department number here.
   Transfer Value*	Enter the value you want to transfer.
   Transfer Date*	Enter the date you want the transfer to take place on.

   * denotes a compulsory field.

3. Click Save and click Close.

13. Charities and year end

When you run a Year End on a company using funds, year end journals post for any transactions you've posted to a fund and a profit and loss nominal code.

The balance of these transactions posts to the fund nominal code set when you first set up the fund. The sum of this balance, previous year end balances and the original opening balance determines the opening balance for the fund at the beginning of the new financial year.

Charity reports

There are a number of reports available to use when using the charities option. The following table lists the reports we recommend to use with charities: