How to record charity spending and keep the receipts
Every payment out, with the date on the invoice and whether the money has actually gone.
In The Charity Office: Money → Spending → New payment out
The four things that matter
Open Spending and press New payment out. Only four fields are required: the Date, the Amount, What was it for, and the Status.
Date is the date on the invoice or the receipt, not the day you are typing. That is the date every report counts it under.
What was it for is what a trustee will read in six months. "Electricity, October quarter" beats "EDF".
Paid, or still to pay
Status has two settings, and getting it wrong is the commonest mistake on this screen. Paid means the money has left the bank. Still to pay means you have had the bill and have not paid it yet.
Only payments marked Paid count towards your cashflow, your management accounts and your account balances. A bill marked Still to pay is invisible on all of them until you change it - deliberately, because it has not happened to the bank yet.
When you do pay it, open the payment and change the Status. There is a Still to pay filter on the table to find them all.
Categories, and what happens if you skip one
Category is optional. Leave it blank and the payment shows up as unbudgeted spending on the cashflow, under "Other spending (not in the budget)".
That is not a mistake - it is exactly what you want for a one-off. But if you find the same thing there every month, it wants a heading of its own under Money set-up → Categories.
Receipts
There are two separate things here: the tick that says We have the receipt, and the file itself. Paper in a folder counts - tick the box and move on.
Attaching a file ticks the box for you. You can attach more than one, which is normal: the invoice and the proof of payment usually arrive separately.
The Receipts to chase filter lists the payments you have made with no receipt against them. It is the list to work through before an independent examination.
Worth knowing. The More detail section is collapsed because none of it is required. Open it for a cheque number, a restricted fund name, VAT, or a standing order that repeats.
More guides
See your own year, in full, in an afternoon
Start free, put in what is in the bank and this year's figures, and look at the forecast before you decide anything.