Fund and donor accounting for Cambodian NGOs
How restricted funds, grant budget lines, and donor rules get recorded once and then enforced automatically at the moment money is spent.
Restricted money is a control problem, not a reporting problem
Most NGOs treat donor restrictions as something to demonstrate in a report at the end of a period. By then the spending has happened. The restrictions that actually protect an organisation are the ones that refuse a transaction on the day somebody tries to make it.
What belongs on the grant record
- Donor, agreement reference, and the exact grant period
- Approved budget lines, by the categories the donor approved
- A spending cap, where the agreement sets one
- Cost-share, geographic, and reporting terms — even where advisory
From agreement to an enforced restriction
Two of the rules below are enforced — a posting that breaks them is refused. The rest stay visible for judgement. Knowing which is which is the difference between a control and a note.
- 1Finance
Record the donor and the agreement
The grant agreement is the master record: donor, reference, currency, and the period it covers. Everything that later charges against this money points here rather than repeating the donor's name as text.
- 2Finance
Enter the budget lines the donor actually approved
Budget lines are the donor's categories, not your internal chart of accounts. Recording them as they were agreed is what makes the eligibility check below meaningful — a category that is not on the grant is not eligible.
- 3Finance
Attach the restriction rules
Expense eligibility and a spending cap are recorded as rules on the grant. Cost-share, geographic scope, and reporting deadlines are recorded too — they stay visible for compliance without blocking a posting, which is honest about what a system can and cannot judge.
- 4Humaneti
Eligibility is checked when the entry posts
An expense charged to a grant must map to one of that donor's approved budget categories. A posting that does not is refused outright — the error surfaces to the person making it, at the moment they make it.
- 5Humaneti
The spending cap is cumulative, not per transaction
Total spend against the grant is measured against the donor's cap, so the transaction that finally breaches it is refused even though it looks unremarkable on its own. This is the check nobody performs reliably by hand.
- 6Humaneti
Purchases and assets carry the grant with them
A purchase request linked to a grant is checked for an active grant and a date inside its period. If that purchase becomes an asset, the donor and grant are stamped on the asset — which is what makes restitution at grant close a query rather than a search.
- 7Finance
The fund report is a read, not a rebuild
Because every charge carried its grant from the start, reporting by fund and by donor comes from the ledger directly. The month-end exercise becomes reviewing exceptions instead of assembling the story.