The general kitty, a grant for new goalposts and money set aside for a minibus usually share one bank account. In 2Fin each payment keeps its category and is tagged to the fund it belongs to, so every fund has its own opening balance, receipts, payments and closing balance.
A club or charity rarely has one pot. Money given for a stated purpose has to be spent on that purpose; money the committee has set aside is earmarked but still theirs to release; everything else is free to spend on what the organisation exists for. The bank sees one balance. Your examiner, and your members at the AGM, want to see each pot. Restricted and unrestricted funds, explained.
The money the committee or trustees can spend on anything within the organisation’s purposes. Fin creates this entry first; each restricted or designated pot gets its own entry beside it.
A grant for new goalposts, an appeal for a defibrillator: each is an entry of its own, so what is left of it is always visible and never mistaken for spare cash.
Money the committee has earmarked — towards a minibus, a new roof — is still unrestricted. An entry of its own shows it apart without pretending a donor tied it.
Sign-up asks one question first: Who are these books for? — Me, My business, or A club, charity or community group. Choose the last and Fin shows only the types for your country. From that answer it lays out the categories that kind of organisation uses and four lenses with starter entries: Funds (the General fund, ready for an entry per restricted or designated fund), Members, Events and, for UK charities and CASCs, Gift Aid donors. The screens built for one person's tax are hidden, and the lenses for clubs and charities are on every plan, including Free.
| Where | Types you can choose |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Club or society · PTA or parents’ association · Community amateur sports club (CASC) · Registered charity · Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) · Charitable company |
| Australia | Incorporated association · Registered charity (ACNC) · Club or community group |
| Everywhere else | Club or community group · Charity or nonprofit |
Membership subscriptions, match and entry fees, bar takings, venue hire, kit and league fees — the lines a season actually has.
Fundraising events on one side and gifts to the school on the other, so the summer fair and what it paid for read as one story.
Donations and grants coming in; programme, administration and fundraising costs going out — the split funders and examiners ask about.
Each entry in a lens can carry a rule: money from J SMITH → J. Smith. When a payment arrives from the bank feed or a statement you upload, Fin tags it to the member, the donor, the event and the fund its rules point to, and the category stays what it was. Adding a member or a donor offers Match payments from <name>, which writes that rule in one click.
The county pays £4,000 towards pitch drainage. A rule on the Pitch drainage grant entry tags the receipt there; the contractor's two invoices, £1,900 and £750, are tagged to the same fund as they are paid. The fund reads £4,000 in, £2,650 out and £1,350 left to spend on drainage — while the General fund shows only what is genuinely free.
Add a member and choose Match payments from their name, and every subs payment from them is tagged to their entry as it lands. The Members lens then shows who has paid this season without a spreadsheet of ticks. How a club treasurer uses it.
Pick any period and each fund shows its opening balance, receipts, payments and closing balance. Here is a club year — the numbers in the picture above.
| Fund | Kind | Opening | Receipts | Payments | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General fund | Unrestricted | £2,140 | £6,380 | £5,910 | £2,610 |
| Pitch drainage grant | Restricted | £0 | £4,000 | £2,650 | £1,350 |
| New minibus | Designated | £1,500 | £0 | £0 | £1,500 |
| All funds | £3,640 | £10,380 | £8,560 | £5,460 |
With every payment in a fund, the £5,460 across all funds matches the bank balance on the last day — the check to make before anything goes to the examiner. Of it, £1,350 is restricted to drainage; the £2,610 General fund and the £1,500 set aside for the minibus are unrestricted, £4,110 in all. Receipts and payments by category sit beside this table, and both come out as CSV and in the year-end pack. Want to try the arithmetic on your own statement first? The free receipts and payments tool builds the by-category half in your browser.
The year-end pack carries receipts and payments by fund and by category, with every opening and closing balance, for the period you choose. Whoever prepares the accounts — the treasurer or an accountant — works from it, the examiner checks them, the trustees approve them and you send them to your regulator. Which accounts depends on the organisation's size and structure.
For financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026, a charity that is not a company may prepare receipts and payments accounts while its gross income is £500,000 or less (it was £250,000), and an independent examination is needed once income is over £40,000 (it was £25,000). A charitable company prepares accruals accounts whatever its size, so for a company the by-fund report is the working summary its accountant builds them from.
The ACNC sizes a charity by annual revenue: small under $500,000, medium from $500,000 to under $3 million, large from $3 million. A small charity is not required to submit a financial report and its basis can be cash or accrual; a medium charity's report is reviewed or audited, and a large charity's audited. An incorporated association may also report to its state or territory regulator.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators and limits: OSCR allows receipts and payments accounts for a non-company charity with gross income under £250,000, and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland at £250,000 or less. This is general information, not accounting or legal advice — your governing document, a funder or your independent examiner may ask for more.
Step 1
At sign-up, answer “Who are these books for?” with “A club, charity or community group”, then pick the type for your country — a CASC or a CIO in the UK, an incorporated association in Australia, a club or community group anywhere.
Step 2
Use the club’s or charity’s own account, never a personal one: connect a bank feed you set up with your own key, or upload a statement.
Step 3
The General fund is there already. Add the grant for new goalposts, the appeal for the minibus or the money the trustees set aside for a new boiler, each as an entry in the Funds lens.
Step 4
When you add a member or a donor, choose “Match payments from <name>” and Fin writes the rule for you. Add a rule to a fund’s entry for a funder who pays from a recognisable name.
Step 5
Pick the period and each fund shows its opening balance, receipts, payments and closing balance. Download the CSV or the year-end pack for your independent examiner or accountant.
Clubs, PTAs and community groups: subs, events and the AGM statement.
Restricted grants kept apart, donors tracked, and the examiner’s figures ready.
UK charities and CASCs: donations from the Gift Aid donors lens, laid out for HMRC’s schedule.
Guides: receipts and payments at the year end, the treasurer handover checklist.
Funds, answered
The rules this page describes come from these published sources:
Computed from published government rates and guidance. General information to prepare with, not personal tax advice — confirm what applies to you with your accountant or tax authority.
Connect the organisation's bank account, add the funds once, and every payment lands in the right one.
