Grants and Projects

I have a way on how to record grants, leafmusic.

You can create an item that represents grants received from the government. You can use the Non-inventory or Service for this. Then, you'll need to create a liability account that is associated with the item to serve as the income account.

Once done, you can create an Invoice:

1. Go to the Project tab and select which specific project/customer you're working on.
2. Click the Add to Project drop-down. Then, choose the Invoice.
3. Choose the item you've created. Enter all necessary information.
4. Select Save and close.

The final step is to receive the payment. From the Add to project drop-down, choose Receive payment, and select the invoice you've created. 

I'd also suggest reaching out to your accountant to consult for the best way of recording and the type of account.

I'm always here if you need more help. 

We're fully aware of how to receive and log a grant payment.

The issue is with the new projects feature.  Since the 'PROJECT' is tied to a third party customer, there doesn't seem to be a way to get the grant from FOUNDATION A to connect to the PROJECT since FOUNDATION A and CUSTOMER B are separate customers within QBO and I can only add revenue from CUSTOMER B to the project.  Is there a workaround for this?

Thanks for getting back, leafmusic.

As a workaround, you can create a journal entry. This way, you can split the grants to the two customers. Refer to this article as your guide: Create a journal entry.

I'd still recommend reaching out to your accountant about this.

Please let me know if you have other questions.

I know this conversation is kind of old. We're in the COVID-19 era and I hope everyone on this threat is safe and healthy.

Regarding grants and Projects, is there a better way for QBO to simply add a feature that could better, and more directly, support grants received for projects.?

An artistic project or performing production has many layers and many revenue streams, including grants, corporate sponsorships, tickets and merchandise sales, and sometimes product placement.

Though a solution was provided on this chat, it doesn't solve the bigger issue, which is how to properly account for expenses on grants that are for specific artistic projects. 

We have been using the journal entry workaround for some time now.  I would say it is a pretty elegant solution.  You can set up a project for each initiative, and log expenses under that project.  Any revenues can be reclassed to that project regardless of the payee by doing a journal entry where you debit and credit the “Grants” income account but just change the “Customer” field in each line.  

The Class feature of QBO will allow you to assign multiple funding sources to one "Project". The "Project" feature is too restrictive to capture the full-range of multiple revenue streams and expenses throughout a fiscal year. 

Using classes is possible. But we already have multiple business lines.  So we would have to develop projects into Sub classes.  It would become quite complex. 

we also use classes to differentiate between grant revenues and sales revenues.  So we would have to stop doing that. 

Hi.  Could you record the Foundation as being a sub-customer so that you could see the revenue coming from each?  Or is the Foundation also providing funds for other projects/classes?

Hello,

I know exactly what you mean. We are also a non profit with many Projects that have multiple income sources (grants, individual donations, service, sales of product income).

It would be better if the Project can be an independent standing group category for ALL types of income, expenses, assets, liability. But that is now how it seems to be designed. 

I was writing the same question in another thread that was asking about multiple income sources for the same Project.  A solution was not found. If you find a solution that works for you please let me know if you can, will do the same.

Gracias!

Hi Colibrí. Thanks for chiming in on this thread. I've responded to our current thread and if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm here to help provide information so you can manage your work with ease. 

I agree with many of the previous posters that having the Projects function tied to only one customer is ridiculous. 

I also do the bookkeeping for multiple non-profits and we currently use classes and run the P&L by Class for each individual Project. It works, but I would really like it in a neat little package like Projects seems to offer. Another issue - do projects work over a multi-year span? We have many Grants that come on three-year contracts and it would be great to not have to be constantly adjusting the dates to see where we are at.

Hi ali.kippan,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the Projects feature in QuickBooks Online. I know there are many ways that various businesses and charities handle projects outside of the program, and having a feature that meets those needs is key.

If you haven't already taken a moment to do so, I recommend submitting feedback to our product development team about what you'd like to see in the feature, such as assigning more than one customer to a project and other ideas like that. It's great that you've found a workaround for your reporting, but I can see how having a built-in report to see what you're looking for would be much simpler. Here are the steps for how to do that: How do I submit feedback?

As for having projects that span over a few years, the Projects feature gives you the opportunity to control the timeline for the project. You can enter transactions and run reports for the project as long as you need to, and when it's fully complete, you can change the status of the project for your records. The project status is found right under the project name when you open it up and are on the page that shows the Overview, Transactions, Time Activity, and Project Reports tabs. To change the status, all it takes is clicking the down arrow and making the selection.

Here are some articles about Projects for your reference so you can see what's currently available with the feature.

• Projects FAQ

• Track income, costs, and profitability by project

• Set up and create projects in QuickBooks Online

You mention needing to constantly adjust dates, which I'd like to learn more about to see if there's a solution for you. Feel free to reply with more information about what dates you mean and where you're seeing them. That way, We can make sure we're on the same page. If you mean to say you're constantly having to adjust report customizations, I recommend considering the memorize reports option, which saves your customizations for future use. Learn more about that here: Memorize reports in QuickBooks Online

I hope that helps, but don't hesitate to comment again if you have further questions. I've got your back.