Restricted funds by spreadsheet
Fund balances tracked outside the accounts package and reconciled by hand before every trustee meeting.
✦ Charity & non-profit
Charity accounting and CRM software built around restricted funds
Fund accounting, donor and supporter records, and Gift Aid, in one system - for charities whose reporting needs have outgrown a spreadsheet and a generic package.
✦ Where it hurts
The usual state of play
Donor data split across systems
A fundraising CRM, a mailing list and a spreadsheet of major donors, none of which agree with each other.
Gift Aid claimed manually
Declarations and eligible donations matched up by hand each quarter, and some are missed.
Trustee reporting takes days
Restricted, designated and unrestricted balances pulled together manually for every board pack.
Grants tracked loosely
Grant conditions, reporting deadlines and spend against budget tracked in separate documents per funder.
Generic accounting software
A standard small business accounts package with no real concept of fund accounting, worked around with extra spreadsheets.
✦ Modules
What we build for charities and non-profits
Delivered one module at a time, each live and in use before the next begins.
- Restricted, designated and unrestricted fund accounting, with balances that reconcile automatically
- Donor and supporter records with giving history, communication preferences and consent
- Gift Aid eligibility, claims tracking and submission preparation
- Grant management: conditions, reporting deadlines and spend tracked against each funder's budget
- Trustee and SORP-aligned reporting built from live data rather than a month-end rebuild
- Event and campaign tracking, tied back to the donor and fund records
- Volunteer records and scheduling where that sits alongside supporter management
- Integration with your bank feeds and existing accounts package rather than replacing what already works
✦ Buy or build
When an off-the-shelf charity system is the right answer
For a smaller charity with straightforward fund accounting and a modest donor base, an established charity CRM or fund accounting product is usually the sensible first purchase, and cheaper than a bespoke build.
Bespoke earns its keep where your funds, grant conditions or reporting requirements have grown more complex than the standard products handle, where you're running separate CRM and accounts systems that should be one, or where trustee reporting is still a manual exercise every quarter.
✦ Getting it right
Fund accounting has to be right, not just fast
Restricted fund accounting is unforgiving. A fund overspent or a designation applied incorrectly isn't just an internal error, it's something a trustee or an auditor will ask about directly. We build fund rules so that a transaction cannot be posted against a fund incorrectly in the first place, rather than relying on someone checking it afterwards.
The same discipline applies to Gift Aid and grant conditions: the system should make the correct answer the easy one, not something reconstructed at year end.
✦ Questions we get asked
Charity accounting software questions
Should we just buy a charity accounting package?
For straightforward fund accounting and a modest donor base, often yes. Bespoke pays off once your funds, grants or reporting have outgrown what the standard products allow.
Can it handle restricted, designated and unrestricted funds properly?
Yes. Fund rules are built into the system so transactions post correctly by design, and balances reconcile without a manual exercise.
Can it manage Gift Aid claims?
Yes. Eligible donations and declarations are tracked together and claims preparation is built from the same data as your accounts.
Will it produce trustee and SORP-aligned reports?
Yes, built from live data so board reporting is a export rather than a rebuild each quarter.
Can it replace both our CRM and our accounts package?
It can, where that's the right answer. Often the better route is one system for donor and fund data, integrated with the accounts package you already trust.
Talk to us about your charity We'll tell you what we'd build.
Bring your fund structure and your last board pack. We'll tell you honestly whether bespoke is the right answer.
No pitch deck · We map your process · You own the software