For your Annual Fund, it’s generally advised that you not create pledges that span multiple years.

Separate Pledges for Each Fiscal Year

It is generally recommended that if you have a pledge that is to be paid over the course of several fiscal years, that you record that as separate pledges, one for each fiscal year in GENERATIONS. The first pledge would have a date that falls within the confines of the first fiscal year that you expect a payment to arrive. Subsequent pledges would use perhaps the first day of the fiscal year, one for each FY that the payment plan spans. Using this technique, you’ll be able to make some FY specific predictions of future income by running reports that include these future pledges.

Using Payment Schedules

Using payment schedules can also be an effective mechanism for making predictions about future income. When you create a pledge transaction in GENERATIONS, you have the option of creating a payment schedule (click the Sched button in batch add, or on the main view in gnTRANSACTIONS). If you create payment schedules, GN v3.5 contains a report in the Advanced Report area that will allow you to view predicted income based on these payment schedules. You can get a monthly breakdown of expected income. This technique can be used whether or not you choose to use the multiple pledge technique described above. Note that if you rely on this report in GN 3.5, you’ll likely need to create these optional payment schedules for all unpaid pledges that are associated with the fund in question.