In addition to your standard Chart of Accounts, FastFund allows you to create and assign Project Codes to your payroll transactions. Project tracking is specifically designed to record revenue and expenses associated with short-term activities conducted by your organization. Common examples include specific fundraising events, theater productions, short-term grants, properties, locations, or special temporary jobs.
The Purpose of Project Tracking The primary purpose of project tracking is to provide your organization with a subsidiary ledger of transactions outside of the regular postings to your general ledger Chart of Accounts.
Example: Rubber Soul Theater has four distinct productions during the year. The “Program” section of their cost centers contains a general segment called “Productions” where they post all related activity. However, to track the specific revenue and expenses for each individual production, they set up unique Project Codes. They then assign these project codes to their transactions, allowing them to see exactly how much each specific play cost without cluttering their core Chart of Accounts.
Accounting Limitations of Projects Because projects operate as a subsidiary ledger, it is important to understand their accounting limitations. Project tracking does not employ double-entry accounting. This means that while you can generate highly detailed Revenue and Expense reports by Project Code, and filter all transaction journals (including the general ledger activity report) by project, you cannot generate a full set of financial statements—such as a Balance Sheet—by Project Code.
Using Projects in Payroll Distributions If an employee’s wages are funded by a specific grant or tied to a special event, you can allocate their gross salary, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment tax expenses directly to a Project Code.
FastFund allows you to assign Project Codes in two primary places during your payroll setup: