The Lupabox of the GreenBee Foundation

As a manager or director of a foundation, you know how important it is that your financial reports match your budgets. Because you have to be able to justify your expenses on the basis of your (estimated) income. The Lupabox meets foundations in matching income and expenses. We explain here on the basis of a case how.

GreenBee Foundation

In 2021, Frank and Irene decided that they wanted to work to green the interior spaces of primary schools. To this end, they set up a foundation: with the GreenBee foundation, they developed an educational program in which pupils receive plants and learn to care for them. As usual with a foundation, Frank and Irene also needed financial resources for this.

Clear insight

To raise funds, a good financial plan is needed. Frank and Irene turned to Lupacompany for this. Together with one of our accountants, they drew up a budget. He emphasized that it is essential in the administration of a foundation that the form of the budget is the same as that of the financial reports. After all, as a foundation, the maxim applies that you must be able to justify all your expenses based on the budget on the basis of which financing was received. Discharged; if you have received a tenner for two packs of coffee, then the provider wants to be able to see that you have not bought a new bicycle lamp from his money. In short, you must be able to provide clear insight into income and expenses, both internally and to subsidizers, for example.

Matching finances

To make this financial matchmaking easy, and to bring the administration of the GreenBee Foundation together in a clear way, Frank and Irene use the Lupabox. All invoices that the foundation receives and sends are - by emailing them to the Lupabox - brought together in one administration. After the invoices have arrived in the inbox of the Lupabox, Frank and Irene make use of the possibility to link the item(s) on the invoice directly to the budget: By assigning a general ledger number (see box) to the payment on the invoice, which is equal to the general ledger number for the same heading in the budget,  expenditure and income are linked and accountability is easier. In addition, Frank and Irene make use of the opportunity to explain in the Lupabox which project their income and expenses belong to.

Payment processing

After the Frank and Irene have added the correct characteristics to the invoice in the Lupabox, they can assign the invoice to each other. This allows Frank and Irene to communicate with each other within the box if there are questions or comments about an invoice before it goes to the accountant. If invoices have been processed within the administration of the foundation, these are assigned by the user in the Lupabox to the accountant. Does he have any questions? Then he or she links that back to the user. If not, the accountant archives the invoice.

Lupabox for foundations

The Lupabox helps foundations to make budgets and financial reports internally transparent in a simple, safe and clear way and to draw up them correctly transferable for external parties. In this way, the GreenBee foundation keeps income and expenses better balanced and the Lupabox makes it easier for them to draw up budgets and to justify costs.

General ledger accounts?

A general ledger number is a number that indicates the category of a series of expenses/income. Think, for example, of 'purchasing office supplies', 'travel costs', 'housing costs', 'sponsoring income' or 'representation costs'. These numbers of categories must match in budgets and financial reports: if the general ledger number for purchasing office supplies is 0502, then budgeted office supplies under this number must be found in the budget, and costs incurred for this must be categorized under the same number in financial reports/balance sheets.

For example, the GreenBee foundation expected that they would purchase office supplies for € 1,500 in 2022. When Frank ordered printing paper, a stapler and envelopes online, he added the invoice for this to the Lupabox and gave it the general ledger number for office supplies. On the general ledger account, it is now clear that the costs for the invoice match the office items in the budget.

Finally

Assigning general ledger numbers to invoices in the Lupabox is always optional. The accountant can also do this for you. Especially for foundations, it may be desirable - for the above reasons - to take this step themselves. Do you use the Lupabox, and do you want to know more about the use of general ledger numbers in the box? Please contact your accountant. Are you not yet using the Lupabox and are you interested in this service? Read here in our manual how the Lupabox works (currently only in Dutch), or info [at] lupacompany.com (contact) us without obligation  . We are happy to tell you more about the possibilities for your organization.