ERP for NGO / Non-profit. Every grant tracked from award to utilisation certificate.
Every grant tracked from award to closing position on the same books, so a donor sees what was spent against their money.
Industry pack readyHow does Kinnow help an NGO or non-profit? Every grant is a restricted fund: its award, its spend, its reporting calendar and the amount still owed to the donor for what is unspent sit in your books, an over-spend is blocked, and a donor report is drafted from the same figures. Programmes and beneficiary cohorts are tied to the funds that pay for them. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person.
Your business in one paragraph
An NGO is paid for a stated purpose and audited on whether it did that. Money arrives as grants from donors and funders, each with a restriction, a reporting schedule and a closing position; it leaves through programme staff, partners and field spend that must be charged to the right grant. Donor money for a purpose not yet delivered is owed back until it is used, and counting it as surplus is the most costly mistake in fund accounting. The owner or director is awake over the donor report that is overdue, the grant at forty per cent with a month to run, and the utilisation certificate assembled by hand at the deadline.
See one of your grants as Kinnow would hold it. Send us an award letter and last quarter's spend.
How your month runs on Kinnow
Ten steps from award to closing position. A person is behind everything that is posted, paid or sent to a donor.
- A grant is awarded. The finance lead records the donor, the award, restricted or unrestricted, the purpose, the term, the reporting schedule and a cost-centre tag in Account (Funds and Grants). A grant moves from draft to awarded to active.
- The reporting schedule is generated. One report due date is created for each period, up to the grant's end date. A wrongly typed end date is refused, rather than creating hundreds of periods.
- A programme is opened. The programme head opens the programme in Build; a programme above ₹10,00,000 needs approval, because it is a commitment to a funder.
- Beneficiaries are enrolled. Applicants are registered, checked for eligibility, placed against a programme and enrolled into a cohort that graduates or goes dormant.
- Spend is posted against the fund. Expense claims, bills and journals carry the cost-centre tag. A claim or expense bill that would take a restricted grant over its award is refused at approval.
- Appeals raise money. Reach plans an appeal to a named audience. An appeal with no named audience is blocked, and budget above ₹50,000 needs approval.
- Grant Watch runs each Monday. It lists overdue donor reports, over-spent grants and under-spent grants near their end.
- The donor report is drafted. The finance lead drafts the narrative from the grant's figures and submits it. The figures are frozen as submitted; the donor can accept the report or send it back to draft.
- The month closes. The finance head runs the twelve close checks, with fund movements above ₹5,00,000 sent for approval.
- The grant closes. A closing note is required, saying whether unspent money is returned or released, or an over-spend is covered from elsewhere, and the closing position is recorded.
What the ready-made NGO setup covers
The figures are starting points set with you in the first week.
| Area | What the setup covers |
|---|---|
| Limits and rules (7) | An over-spend on a grant and a campaign with no named audience are blocked. A programme above ₹10,00,000, a journal above ₹5,00,000 and campaign budget above ₹50,000 need approval. A credit limit above ₹10,00,000 and a beneficiary request with no service-time plan (SLA) raise a warning. |
| Who signs off, in order (3) | Approval of programmes, fund movements and campaign budgets. |
| Ready-made routines (18) | Grant to utilisation, applicant to served, appeal to donor, partner MoU to renewal, pledge to receipt, month-end close and others. |
| Reports (10) | Grant register, grant award by restriction, programme register, milestones, committed value by status, campaign register, contact register, trial balance, receivables ageing and documents by user. |
| Ask Kinnow starter questions (12) | How much of each grant is spent, how much of our money is restricted, which grants are close to being fully spent, which beneficiary records are incomplete. |
| Your words | Funds and Grants, Impact, donor or funder, utilisation certificate, donor report, cohort. |
Processes, built in
The 18 best-practice processes for your industry come switched on. Each one says who owns a step, which steps Kinnow insists on, and how long a hand-over between departments may wait. You can print any of them as a standard operating procedure (SOP).
Agents for NGOs
We check each agent with you before it works on your records, and whatever it produces waits for a person.
Grant Watch
Each Monday lists overdue donor reports, over-spent grants and grants under-spent near their end.
Close Checklist
Runs the twelve period-close checks, helps clear the ones holding up the close and drafts the commentary on variances. A person confirms the close.
AccountBank Reconciler
Matches bank lines to receipts ahead of time and shows why it matched each one. Lines it is unsure about come up as suggestions only and are never committed on their own.
ReachNurture Orchestrator
Moves each lead through the step-by-step follow-up routines you build, one step at a time, on the waits you set. It only runs routines that a person has switched on.
ReachAudience Segment Reasoner
Turns a brief written in plain words into a target segment, using only what the person asking is allowed to see.
ReachCampaign Strategist
Designed to draft a campaign brief from your goal and your own data, such as gaps in your sales pipeline, customers who have gone quiet and the time of year.
BuildProject Risk Predictor
Warns you when a project is running late, spending ahead of the work done, or billing ahead of it, measured against the baselined bill of quantities (BoQ).
Report narrator
Writes a short explanation for each variance card on dashboards.
Ask us to run Grant Watch on your open grants.
Statutory and compliance calendar
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | What stays with you |
|---|---|---|
| Donor reports and utilisation certificates | A reporting schedule for each grant, an overdue list each Monday, figures frozen at submission. | Review, sign and send. |
| Restricted-fund position | Unspent restricted money shown as owed to the donor; closed grants with money left over shown separately. | The auditor's view of the restriction. |
| GST returns, where applicable | GSTR-1 file from invoices in Sell for the portal; purchase bills matched to GSTR-2B. | A person files. |
| TDS and payroll deductions | Draft challans and returns; PF, ESI and tax on each payslip posted on approval. | A person pays and files. |
| FCRA, 80G and 12A | Not built. | Keep these on your current process. |
| Month-end close | Twelve checks; seven must pass. | The finance head signs. |
What the director sees
Every answer shows its source and cost before it runs. Veil, our privacy layer, holds back bank, tax and ID numbers and swaps names for placeholders before an AI call. It covers Ask Kinnow and most agents today; the rest are being added.
| Question a director would type | What comes back |
|---|---|
| How much of each grant is spent? | Award, spend, what remains and the share used, for each grant. An over-spend is shown as over, never as zero remaining. |
| How much of our money is restricted? | Awards by restriction, and the unspent restricted money still owed to donors. |
| Which grants are close to being fully spent? | Grants by spend against award. |
| Which programmes are behind plan? | Milestones, planned against actual. |
| Which appeals are running right now? | The campaign register. |
| Which beneficiary records are incomplete? | Records missing required details. |
Numbers that matter
- Utilisation by grant and the pace of spending against the grant period; a zero award shows no percentage rather than zero.
- Restricted money owed to donors and closed grants with money left over.
- Donor reports due, submitted and overdue.
- Programme milestones and committed value by status.
- Appeals running and contributions this year.
Controls an owner cares about
- A restriction is a condition, not a label. An over-spend is blocked, and spending beyond an award needs a reason on record.
- A closed grant explains itself. Unspent money that is returned or released, or an over-spend covered from elsewhere, needs a note.
- Submitted figures do not move. A later cost does not change a number a donor has already read.
- Consent before appeals. No named audience, no campaign.
- One company per grant. A grant belongs to one legal entity, so one entity's restricted money never lands on another's balance sheet.
Applications switched on
Your words, on day one
| Generic term | In your Kinnow |
|---|---|
| Account area | Funds & Grants |
| Know area | Impact |
| customer | donor / funder |
| report | utilisation certificate, donor report |
| beneficiaries | cohort |
| fund type | restricted / unrestricted |
Questions
Can we separate restricted from unrestricted funds?
Yes. Each grant carries its award, whether it is restricted or unrestricted, its purpose and a cost-centre tag. Spend against the fund is every entry in your books that carries that tag, so there is one answer to what was spent on a programme. Unspent restricted money is shown as owed to the donor, not as surplus.
What stops us spending beyond a donor's award?
The industry setup blocks an over-spend on a grant, and an expense claim or expense bill that would take a restricted grant over its award is refused at approval. Spending beyond an award and recovering it from reserves is allowed only with a recorded reason. Supplier bills matched to a purchase order carry no cost centre yet, so a grant cannot see them.
Does Kinnow prepare utilisation certificates and donor reports?
The grant routine has a utilisation-certificate step and a donor-report step, and the figures come from the grant's own spend. A reporting schedule creates one due date for each period, and the figures are frozen when a report is submitted, so a later cost does not change what the donor has read. Your finance lead reviews and signs.
How do we handle a pledge?
There is no pledge record yet. A pledge is not money, so raise an invoice to the donor only when the money is due. Raising it on a promise books it as income, and as owed to you, straight away, and overstates the fund.
Does it support FCRA or 80G reporting?
No. FCRA utilisation reporting and 80G certificates are not built. Grant tracking covers award against spend by cost centre, and the reporting schedule.
Can we link beneficiaries to the funds that pay for them?
Yes. Applicants are registered, checked for eligibility, placed against a programme and enrolled; programmes run in cohorts in Build. The funder report covers the outcome. A beneficiary who is enrolled but never served is the number this setup watches.
How long does it take to start?
About two weeks to first results for one organisation. Masters and opening balances are imported in the first week; open grants are entered with their awards and reporting schedule.
Show me Kinnow for NGO / Non-profit.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.