Using Sage Intacct for Restricted Net Assets: Part 2 - Restriction Release

In part one of our blog, Using Sage Intacct to Track Restricted Net Assets: Part 1, we discussed recommendations on how to set up your system to properly track and report on net assets. We provided an example of a manual journal entry to release revenue restriction. This blog will discuss options to further automate the restriction release.

Recurring journal entries for time-based restriction

If you have a time restriction and need to release the revenue evenly over a particular period, you could take the manual journal entry a step further and set it up as a recurring journal entry. The Transaction tab will contain the entry, and the Schedule tab is where you set up the posting schedule. In the below example, the restriction release entry automatically posts at the end of every month for 12 months. This works well when the amount does not change.

General ledger restriction release for purpose restriction

If you have a purpose restriction, you can query grants for related expenses each month and have this journal entry be automatically created. The first step is to verify this functionality is enabled on your General Ledger configuration.

In this example, let's assume in February, you have salaries and supplies expenses totaling $1,500 for Grant #1.

Instead of doing a manual journal entry, you can generate a restriction release. Notice how this is set up to query expenses coded to our grant for the month and telling the system the GL account and restriction dimension to satisfy the release. You also have the option for these releases to post to a separate journal. Keep reading for descriptions on the fields to populate for the release.

In the Purpose release parameters section, you select the GL posting date for the release entry, the journal where this will be recorded, and you can populate your email for notification when the process is completed.

In the Revenue parameters section, you identify your dimension used to track restrictions. You also select the revenue account to satisfy the restriction. These fields will be locked after you run this process once. You will also populate your dimension value used for restricted funds to be debited by the release entry and your dimension value used for unrestricted to be credited to remove the restriction.

In the Qualified expense section, the expense period will be the timeframe evaluated for qualified expenses. The expense group is the source for those expenses. You also select the book where those expenses will be queried, including any alternate books, if applicable, such as an Allocation user-defined book. Funding source dimension is the dimension used for tracking the funding source or grant. This will also be locked after you run this process once. You can also filter on a particular funding source or grant.

Here is the resulting automated journal entry. Notice how it released the $1,500 as expected!

You can also create dimension groups if you need to run this process for multiple grants at once. Sage Intacct Reports: Dimension Groups, Dimension Structures discusses how to set up dimension groups.

If you would like assistance with configuring, testing, or training on the GL restriction release functionality, please reach out to your CLA Sage Intacct team. It’s important to note, once it’s ran once, some of the settings are locked in and we wouldn’t want you to get stuck!

Sage Intacct allocations for restriction release

Lastly, Sage Intacct Allocations is another way to automate the restriction release, especially if your processes are more complicated than the above examples.

A few examples where Intacct Allocations may be a good fit include:

• Multiple satisfaction of release accounts
• Desire to automate the allocation of indirect shared and administrative costs Is it Time to Cancel the Allocation Workbook? goes into greater details about this option.

We hope you found this blog series helpful. If you would like assistance with setting up and running the GL restriction release functionality in Intacct, Sage Intacct Allocations, or recurring journal entries, please reach out to us.