Funds are the "many buckets" of nonprofit accounting — they let you track money separately even when it all sits in one checking account. If you're new to the concept, start with What is fund accounting?; this article is the how-to.
Where: left menu, Accounting → Funds. Your plan sets how many active funds you can have (Free: 3, Foundation: 10, Core: 25, Pro: unlimited).
Adding a fund
Click Add Fund:
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Fund Name | e.g. "Building Fund", "Scholarship Fund". |
| Fund Type | How your board groups this fund for management reporting: General, Building, Major, Non-Major, Reserve, Special, or Internal Service. Types are labels for organizing — they don't change any accounting. |
| Typically holds donor-restricted gifts | An informational hint (see below). |
| Fund Number | Optional identifier — shown only if you've turned on account numbers. |
Every fund automatically gets a campaign with the same name, so gifts can be designated to it right away — that's why the Campaigns list grows when you add a fund (those campaigns show an auto badge, and they deactivate with the fund, not on their own).
Add funds sparingly. A fund is worth creating when money must be tracked separately — a capital campaign, a scholarship endowment, a restricted program. Day-to-day categories belong in your chart of accounts, not in funds. Most small organizations do fine with two to four.
The restricted-giving hint
The "typically holds donor-restricted gifts" switch is a hint, not the accounting: it colors the dashboard fund chart and pre-fills the donor-restricted toggle when you create a campaign on that fund. Actual restriction tracking happens on revenue and net asset accounts and campaign settings — see Restricted vs. Unrestricted Money. (General-type funds can't carry the hint — your operating fund is by definition unrestricted.)
Special funds
- Your General Fund is a system fund: you can rename it, but its type, hint, and active status are locked — there always has to be a home for ordinary money.
- Your default fund (set under Settings → Accounting → Transaction Defaults) is pre-selected on every new register line. It can't be inactivated or deleted while it's the default — pick a different default first.
Where funds show up day to day
- Every register line has a Fund — required on checks, deposits, card purchases, and ACH; GoodBooks keeps each fund balanced within every entry automatically. Transfers between bank accounts also name the fund that's moving.
- The register shows a "Fund balances in this account" bar when one bank account holds more than one fund's money.
- Reports: filter the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and Checkbook Register by fund; Cash Balance by Fund and the Statement of Changes in Net Assets break out every fund side by side. See A Guide to Your Financial Reports.
Retiring a fund
When a fund's purpose ends (the building is built), inactivate it — it disappears from entry screens but keeps all history, and it frees a slot against your plan limit. Delete is only for funds created by mistake: a fund with any transactions or campaigns tied to it can't be deleted, only inactivated.
Before inactivating, spend or formally re-designate any remaining balance — an inactive fund's balance still shows on reports until it reaches zero.
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