Reach for this when someone asks for a report and you are not sure which one answers their question. ImpactGraph builds four financial reports, and each one answers a different question about your money. Pick the report by the question, and the rest is reading.
Two of these have formal nonprofit names that you will recognize from your audit and your Form 990. The product uses those names in most places, with one exception called out below.
Start with the question you are answering
The question | The report |
How much came in and went out over a period? | Statement of Activities |
What do we own and owe right now? | Statement of Financial Position |
Did cash actually move, and do we have enough on hand? | Statement of Cash Flows |
Are we on track against the budget for a grant? | Budget vs Actuals |
You run all of these from the same place. Go to Reports, then pick a report from the list.
Statement of Activities
This is your income report: revenue and expenses over a period, with the surplus or deficit at the bottom. It answers "how did we do this quarter?" It is the report a board or a funder usually wants when they ask how the year is going.
One naming note: in the report picker, this report is currently labeled Profit and Loss Statement. The proper nonprofit name is the Statement of Activities, and that is what you will see in your audit. Same report, and you will find it under the Profit and Loss label in the product for now.
There is also a Profit and Loss Statement by Funding Source variant. It is the same income report, broken out by funding source, so you can see revenue and expenses one grant or fund at a time. Use it when a funder wants the numbers for their grant alone.
Statement of Financial Position
This is your balance sheet: what you own, what you owe, and what is left, all at a single point in time. For the full walkthrough, see the Statement of Financial Position (balance sheet) guide. It answers "where do we stand today?" Auditors, grant applications, and boards ask for this one.
It has three parts:
Assets: what your organization owns (cash, money owed to you, equipment).
Liabilities: what your organization owes (bills, money held for others).
Net Assets: what remains after you subtract liabilities from assets.
Assets always equal liabilities plus net assets. That balance is the reason for the older "balance sheet" name.
Net assets and donor restrictions
Net assets is the nonprofit version of equity. It is the part of your balance sheet that says how much of your money is truly yours to spend and how much is promised to a specific purpose. The account types behind these sections, and how an Equity type lands under Net Assets, are covered in how your account types shape your reports. This is where fund accounting lives, so it is worth a moment.
ImpactGraph tracks restrictions on each funding source using three classes:
Unrestricted: you can spend it on any part of your mission. General operating support and most individual gifts land here.
Restricted: the funder limited it to a specific program, place, or time. You can use it, but only for what they specified.
Conditional: the funder attached a condition you have to meet before the money is truly yours, such as raising a match or hitting a milestone.
Getting these right is what keeps restricted money from looking like spendable money. It is also what your auditor checks first.
Statement of Cash Flows
This report follows the cash itself: the money that actually moved in and out over a period, sorted into operating, investing, and financing activities. The Statement of Cash Flows guide covers how to run and read it. The Statement of Activities can show revenue you have earned but not yet collected. This report shows what truly landed in and left your accounts, which is what tells you whether you can make payroll.
Reach for it when the question is about liquidity or runway rather than overall performance.
The Statement of Cash Flows is being rolled out and may not appear in your report list yet. If you do not see it, it is not turned on for your organization.
Budget vs Actuals
This report compares what you planned to spend against what you actually spent, for a funding source that has a budget. See the Budget vs Actuals report guide for the full walkthrough. It answers "are we on track, and where are we drifting?" so you can catch an overspend before the funder does.
It is the report a program manager lives in during a grant. To run it, the funding source needs a budget set up first.
How the reports connect
These are four views of one set of books, not four separate ledgers.
The surplus or deficit from your Statement of Activities flows into net assets on your Statement of Financial Position. Earning more than you spend grows what you have. The Statement of Cash Flows then reconciles that activity back to the actual change in your cash, so you can see the gap between what you earned on paper and what you collected in the bank. That gap is the difference between accrual and cash basis. Budget vs Actuals takes the same spending and lines it up against your plan.
Pick the report that matches the question in front of you. If you are new to running reports, start with the beginners guide below, then come back here when you need to choose between them.