Civora
Guide contents

Department guide

Finance & Accounting

Double-entry books with fund accounting: money in, money out, banking, reports, close and tax.

Who uses it: Finance manager and accountants; the executive director for approvalsOpen in Civora

What it is for

Finance & Accounting keeps the organisation's books. Every ledger line carries its fund (the grant, or none for unrestricted money), project, budget line, department and contact, so one chart of accounts reports per donor without an account per donor.

Everything that moves money elsewhere in Civora lands here: paid expense requests, supplier bills from procurement, payroll, grant receipts, partner disbursements. Budgets read their *actual* from the ledger, so budgets, grants and the books always agree.

Its menu

Each entry in the workspace menu and what you do there. You only see the entries your role allows.

  • Overview

    Cash and bank, restricted and unrestricted funds, surplus, money in and out by month, and what needs attention.

  • InvoicesMoney in

    Invoices to customers (for example a consultancy), sent from your own mailbox, with part payments and tax withheld.

  • Money receivedMoney in

    Money received: grant tranches and other income, with bank charges and the original foreign-currency amount.

  • BillsMoney out

    Supplier bills, usually from procurement's purchase orders, matched to goods received and approved by someone other than the preparer.

  • PaymentsMoney out

    Payment runs and direct payments, with remittance advice.

  • Staff advancesMoney out

    Staff advances and their accounting: receipts and cash returned.

  • Payroll approval (HR)Money out

    Payroll prepared by HR waits here for finance approval; the cost posts to each grant by certified time.

  • Bank & M-PesaBanking

    Bank, M-Pesa and cash accounts, transfers, statement import and reconciliation.

  • Funds & grantsAccounting

    Balance of each fund: what each grant has received, spent and has left.

  • JournalsAccounting

    Journal entries, with reversal (nothing is ever deleted).

  • Chart of accountsAccounting

    The chart of accounts.

  • Fixed assetsAccounting

    Fixed asset register: capitalised assets with depreciation, and donor-expensed items kept for custody.

  • ReportsInsight

    Income and expenditure, balance sheet, budget against actual, ageing, trial balance and general ledger.

  • Suppliers & customersInsight

    Suppliers and customers.

  • Period close & taxSettings

    Month-end checklist, lock date, withholding tax schedule for iTax and KRA remittances.

  • Accounting settingsSettings

    Tax status, approval limits and defaults.

Setting it up

1Set up accounting

Finance manager

  1. Choose New → Set up accounting. The wizard starts from a Kenyan NGO chart of accounts and KRA tax codes.
  2. Add your bank, M-Pesa and cash accounts with their opening balances.
  3. Bring forward the balance of each grant fund on the opening date.
  4. Choose whether to post requests that were already paid before Civora.

How to

Pay an approved expense request

  1. Open the request from your attention list.
  2. Choose the account it is paid from and record the payment reference.
  3. The payment posts to the ledger on the request's grant, project and budget line.

Approve and pay supplier bills

  1. Bills from procurement arrive matched to the goods received; check them in Bills.
  2. Someone other than the preparer approves; bills above the executive threshold also need the executive director.
  3. Choose New → Pay bills to pay several at once and send remittance advice.

Reconcile the bank

  1. In Bank & M-Pesa, import the statement CSV (any bank or M-Pesa; map the columns once).
  2. Civora matches lines automatically; match the rest by hand or record what nobody recorded (bank charges, interest).

Close the month

  1. Work through the checklist in Period close & tax.
  2. Set the lock date so nothing can be posted into a closed month; only the executive director can reopen.
  3. Export the withholding tax schedule for iTax and record the KRA remittance.

Rules Civora enforces

Controls built into the system, so good practice does not depend on memory.

  • Nothing is deleted from the ledger: mistakes are reversed with a journal that points to the original.
  • The person who prepares a bill or payroll cannot approve it (maker-checker).
  • A supplier bill is approved only for what was actually received (three-way match with the order and the goods received note).
  • Nothing can be posted on or before the lock date.
  • Approving a request is never treated as paying it: payment is recorded separately.

How it connects

Grants & FundingGrant receipts settle tranches; spending per grant feeds report packs and the funding overview.Procurement & LogisticsPurchase orders commit budgets; goods received unlock supplier bills.Human ResourcesPayroll is approved by finance and posts to the ledger by grant.ProgrammesPartner tranches are paid as bills; Finance cannot approve one while a partner report is overdue.

Last checked against Civora on 30 Oct 2026.