Recording takings from a fundraising event

How a non-profit can count, bank and record cash and card takings from a gala, fun run or market day without a till, and keep each kind of income apart.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Non-profit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

The gala dinner went well. Tickets were sold at the door, guests dropped notes into the collection baskets, a few paid for auction lots by card, and the bar raised a little more. At midnight, two tired volunteers carry a cash box and a card machine to someone's car, and on Monday the treasurer is handed a bag of money and a till slip.

Event takings are where non-profits are most exposed. The money arrives in a rush, in different forms, handled by volunteers who are not finance people, and often without any till to keep count. Mistakes are easy, and a shortfall nobody can explain damages trust far beyond the amount involved.

This article sets out a routine for getting event money from the night of the event into your books in Achekam, cleanly and with evidence, when you are not using a till.

Counting and signing on the night

The most important controls happen before the money leaves the venue.

Two people count, together. Never one. Count the cash in each basket, box or float separately, and record each on a count sheet.
Separate the streams as you count. Door tickets, collection baskets, auction payments and bar sales go on separate lines. You will need that split later, and it is impossible to recreate from a single total.
Take the float out first. Any opening float is counted and set aside, so it is not mistaken for takings.
Both counters sign. The count sheet carries the date, the event, the totals per stream and two signatures.
Print the card machine's end-of-day report. It shows the card total for the event, which you will match to the bank later.
Seal and record. Cash goes into a sealed bag with the bag number written on the count sheet, and one named person takes custody until it is banked.

The National Council of Nonprofits' page on financial management explains the board's fiduciary duty over an organisation's money and the financial policies, such as cash handling, that support it. A written cash-handling policy for events is exactly that kind of policy.

Banking the cash and finding the card settlements

Bank the cash promptly, in one deposit if you can, so the statement shows a single line you can tie to the count sheet. Several small deposits over a week make the trail harder to follow.

Card payments arrive differently. Most card providers settle in batches, sometimes over more than one day, and some deduct their fees before paying. Note how your provider settles, because the amount on the bank statement may not equal the total on the machine's report.

Import the bank statement into Achekam once the deposits and settlements have cleared. Statements come in as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053 files, and each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance. You then know the statement is complete before you start matching.

Posting from the bank lines

The event's money now appears as bank lines: a cash deposit, one or more card settlements. Bank lines are matched by suggestion and a person accepts each match. A line not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal that a person approves.

A bank line is a single amount, but your takings are several kinds of income. A clean way to handle that:

Create an account for event takings awaiting allocation, a holding account used only for events.
Approve each event bank line into that holding account.
Post a manual journal from the count sheet that moves the takings out of the holding account into the right income accounts: ticket income, donations received at the event, auction income and so on.
For card settlements paid net of fees, post the fee to a bank charges account rather than reducing the income.
Check that the holding account is back to nil. If it is not, something is unexplained, and that is the moment to find out why.

Manual journals must balance and cannot be dated in a closed month, and a posted journal is corrected only by reversal, never by editing. If a count sheet was wrong, reverse the journal and post a correct one, so the history shows what changed.

Separate accounts for each kind of income and cost

Your chart of accounts starts as a standard chart and can be extended: accounts can be added, renamed or switched off. For events, it is worth separating:

Ticket income, because guests received a meal or entry in return;
Donations received at events, which are gifts and may be treated differently for tax purposes;
Auction or sales income;
Event costs, such as venue hire, catering and printing, posted as supplier bills or card payments.

Separating income from costs, rather than recording only the net profit of the event, lets the board see what the event really raised and what it cost to raise it. Ask your accountant whether ticket income and donations need different tax treatment in your country before the first event of the year.

Filing the count sheet with the entry

Evidence that lives in a volunteer's car boot is not evidence. Document Centre is a folder-based store where you can upload files or whole folders, tag them, search them and keep earlier versions when a new one is added.

Set up a folder for each event and file:

the signed count sheet, scanned or photographed;
the card machine's end-of-day report;
the deposit slip;
the ticket list or guest list;
supplier invoices for event costs.

Tag them with the event's name, and put the folder reference in the description of the allocation journal. When an auditor or funder samples a donation line from that month, the trail from bank line to count sheet takes minutes, not days.

After the event

Hold a short review within a week. Did the count sheet totals match the bank? Were any amounts unexplained? Who handled the cash, and was the policy followed? Write down what to change before the next event.

Cash that arrives outside events, in donation boxes at a shop counter or a reception desk, needs its own routine; see donation box cash. And if a deposit appears on the statement that nobody can link to an event or donor, bank deposits you cannot trace to a donor explains what to do with it.

Before your next event, print a count sheet with separate lines for each income stream, and name the two people who will sign it.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.