The statement of net assets
What the church owns, what it owes, and the difference. Telling money promised to a project apart from what the board can spend, and recording opening balances without double counting.
Every other report says what you did. The statement of net assets says where you stand: what the church owns, what it owes, and what is left.
It is the piece Belgian law asks of a small non-profit, and it is the one a board should look at first before committing to anything.
Open it
- Open Finance, then Reports, Accounting section, Net assets tab.
- The period end date is the cut-off date: the statement is given as at that day.
Three blocks appear: assets, liabilities, and the net assets that are their difference.
What each block contains
| Block | Headings |
|---|---|
| Assets | Fixed assets, receivables, cash, other assets |
| Liabilities | Financial debt (loans), supplier payables, other payables |
| Net assets | The difference, split into restricted and unrestricted funds |
Note: two differences from a company balance sheet. Equity does not appear as a debt to shareholders: a non-profit has none to repay. And net assets are then split into restricted and unrestricted funds, which a company balance sheet does not do.
Restricted and unrestricted funds
A church holding 40,000 of which 32,000 is promised to a building project does not have 40,000 available. The statement therefore separates:
- restricted funds: promised to a project, not freely usable;
- unrestricted funds: what the board can really dispose of.
This is a requirement of international non-profit standards, and above all it is what stops a board deciding in good faith on a figure it believes to be available.
Tip: when a board asks "can we afford…", the only figure that answers is unrestricted funds. Not the bank balance, and not net assets.
Restricted money comes from your campaigns: a gift earmarked "building" feeds that campaign's restricted fund. See budgets and restricted money.
It is checked against the income statement
The income statement and the statement of net assets form a pair: the first says how you got there, the second where you are.
A banner confronts the two at the bottom of the income statement. The change in your net assets over the period must be explained by the result, plus any equity movements.
If the two diverge without explanation, one of them is wrong. See the income statement.
Opening balances, without which net assets are wrong
Until you record them, the statement reflects only what has passed through Sanctumel. A church that had 12,000 in the bank when it arrived would appear to have zero. A banner tells you so until the question has been asked.
- Net assets tab.
- Click Record opening balances.
- Give the opening date, then what you owned and what you owed.
- The system posts an opening entry and carries the difference to the association fund: that is your starting net assets.
You declare, line by line: bank, cash, mobile money, receivables, fixed assets, and under liabilities the loans and supplier payables.
It can be completed later
A church discovers an ongoing loan in March, a forgotten building in June. You reopen the form and add them.
You always declare the real state ("here is what we had") and the system posts only the difference with what is already recorded. Replaying the same declaration twice therefore produces nothing the second time.
Note: this replaces the old "only once" rule. Forbidding a second pass looked prudent, but protected nothing: it turned an incomplete opening into a permanently wrong one. Reasoning in differences makes double counting impossible by construction, not by prohibition.
Three details that change the result
The purchase price, not the current value. For your fixed assets, give what you paid, then the accumulated depreciation on the next line. Without that second figure, a building paid for ten years ago appears on the balance sheet as if it were new. The system refuses accumulated depreciation above the purchase price: an asset never depreciates beyond what it cost.
The part already promised. If some of that money was meant for a project, say so. Without that line, all recorded net assets appear freely available.
The date cannot overlap your entries. If your accounts already carry transactions before the chosen date, the system refuses: recording a balance at that date would count that money twice. The default date offered is the day before your first recorded movement.
Tip: if your church was founded with Sanctumel and therefore had nothing before, answer "We had nothing before". The banner goes out, and you keep a date to attach a forgotten loan or asset to later.
Warning: opening balances are part of the financial year. If the period is locked they can no longer be completed: you must first reopen the period from the Governance tab, with a written reason.
Common mistakes
- Declaring a building's current value instead of its purchase price. Your net assets become an estimate, and they will no longer articulate with your depreciation.
- Forgetting ongoing loans. The statement then shows assets without the debts financing them: net assets are overstated by that much.
- Recording opening balances after three months of transactions, at a date that overlaps them. The system refuses, and rightly so. Move the date back to the day before your first movement.
- Presenting net assets as available cash. They include buildings, equipment and receivables. That is not what you can spend.
Printing it
The Print button produces the statement of net assets on your church letterhead, with the cut-off date, the issue date and the author on every page.