TidyOne can produce a report for any month, although there is no separate “Monthly report” option. Open Association → Reports, select Accounting report, choose Period → Custom, and enter the month's start and end dates. Click Update report, then review income, expenses, the difference between them, projects and funds, donor information, and expenses without linked supporting documents. Full exports require the applicable Association PRO entitlement. An AI narrative is a draft that you must check before sharing.
Why does a nonprofit supporting one person need a monthly report?
When one or two people run the organization, information often arrives through unrelated channels: donations shown on a bank statement, invoices in email, photographed receipts and spending for several distinct needs. You may know how much money arrived this month but still struggle to explain what was used for therapy, which supporting document is missing or why a figure in the app does not match the bank.
A monthly report is an internal review and communication tool. It can help you prepare for a discussion with your accountant, track projects and brief your team. It does not itself constitute statutory accounts, close an accounting period or certify the use of restricted funds.
What you will have at the end
Before you begin: check four essentials
Switch to the correct Association workspace and verify the active organization. In one-beneficiary mode, the primary beneficiary is the default context: you do not have to select that person on every report. However, you still need accurate transactions and separate projects or funds where you want to track distinct needs.
Gather the month's bank statement, invoices, receipts and evidence for incoming money. Decide whether the goal is an internal TidyOne transaction review or a package for your accountant. If an invoice was issued in August but paid in September, do not alter the transaction date simply to force the app to match a bank statement. Ask your accountant which date conventions and additional records are required.
How to create a monthly report, step by step
Step 1 — Review donations, sponsorships and expenses
In your financial records, check the transactions for the month. For income, verify the amount, currency, date and linked donor or sponsor where known. For expenses, check those same fields, the category, and the correct project and fund. If you entered a payment manually and subsequently approved an AI invoice extraction, make sure you did not create two expense records for the same payment.
If you are unsure how to link an incoming donation, see the Donation → Project → Fund → Report guide. Avoid creating a separate project for every receipt: a project represents the need you are tracking, while the document is evidence associated with an operation.
Step 2 — Resolve unanalysed documents and missing supporting evidence
Open Documents and check items that have not been analysed by AI as well as proposals awaiting review. Compare the original file with the extracted issuer, date, reference number, total, currency and project. The report also identifies expenses without a linked document. Investigate those gaps rather than attaching an unrelated file merely to improve the coverage figure.
If you are preparing a separate handoff to your accountant, follow Documents → Accountant → Month-end. The internal “Sent” flag is maintained in Documents; do not confuse the percentage of AI-analysed files with the number actually sent.
Step 3 — Open Reports and choose the correct report type
From the Association navigation, open Reports. Under Report type, use Accounting report for an organization-wide monthly review. For a specific campaign or funder, use Project / funder report. The Annual NGO report is labelled for annual reporting and is not the simplest route when you only want one month's operational figures.
In one-beneficiary mode, the separate Beneficiary and Case filters are hidden by design. The Project and Fund selectors remain available so you can review the whole organization or a specific need.
Step 4 — Set the exact first and last dates of the month
Under Period, choose Custom. Fill in From and To, for example 1–31 August 2026. Do not leave “Current year” selected when you need a single month: the year preset covers the full calendar year.
Start with All projects and All funds. Click Update report. After reviewing the overall picture, select a project or fund and update the report again. Record the scope before comparing two reports; a filtered project report should not be expected to match the entire organization's total.
Step 5 — Understand the five headline measures
The report summary presents Income, Expenses, the difference between them, Donors / sponsors, and Documents. In the current application, the donor figure counts donor- and sponsor-type contacts linked to the selected period's income transactions. It is not the entire historical contact list.
Income minus expenses is calculated from TidyOne's transactions for the chosen period. Do not label this difference the closing bank balance without accounting for the opening balance and any other reconciliation items. RON, EUR and CHF amounts stay separate; the app does not invent exchange-rate conversions.
Step 6 — Check projects, funds and expenses without documents
Review Income by category and Expenses by category in the detail area. Where you use funds, check their Inflow / Outflow / Available figures in the fund's currency. Here, “Available” is calculated from the filtered period's movements; an August report does not necessarily show the fund's cumulative position since the project's start.
If you select a project with a fundraising target, the report may show progress against that target. The amount raised shown there refers to the selected period; use a wider date range and verify the underlying entries for lifetime progress. In the document section, review “Expenses with linked document”, “AI-analysed documents”, “Unanalysed documents”, and the list of expenses without linked evidence. An uploaded file linked only to a project might not count as evidence linked to a specific expense.
Step 7 — Export only after you have checked the figures
If your organization has an active Association PRO full-export entitlement, you can use PDF / Print, Transaction CSV, and Accounting ZIP package. The PDF route opens the browser's print interface; choose Save as PDF where your browser supports it. The CSV covers transactions in the selected report scope.
The ZIP is an operational package: it includes CSV files, a JSON summary and supporting documents that can be retrieved from storage. To keep browser downloads manageable, it embeds up to 250 document binaries from the selection, while the full document list remains in the CSV. Inspect the archive before sending it. The FREE plan displays the basic report but does not unlock full exports.
Step 8 — Treat the AI narrative as an editable draft
Once the report has been updated, you can select Generate AI draft. TidyOne sends the report period and selected filters to the reporting function; the backend rebuilds the authorized context from its data. Read the output critically. Check every amount, project description, donor statistic, and statement about outcomes. If a result has not been documented, describe it as pending or unknown rather than confirmed.
Illustrative example: an August report for a one-beneficiary nonprofit
A fictional nonprofit tracks two needs, Therapy and Transport. During August it records the following RON transactions and a separate donation in EUR. This is an illustrative operational calculation, not statutory accounts or proof that donor restrictions have been met.
| Transaction | Project | Amount | Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donation | Therapy | RON 2,500 | Receipt and any stated purpose |
| Sponsorship | Transport | RON 1,000 | Agreement and transaction |
| Paid therapy invoice | Therapy | RON 1,400 | Invoice and payment evidence |
| Paid transport expense | Transport | RON 600 | Document linked to the expense |
| Separate donation | Therapy | EUR 100 | Keep the currency separate |
The monthly difference in RON is 3,500 − 2,000 = 1,500 RON. The EUR 100 stays separate. This does not automatically equal cash in the bank: you may have entered August with an opening balance, and there may be other transactions. A fund might also contain amounts carried over from earlier months, which a report filtered to August does not show in full.
Checklist before sharing the report
Common monthly-reporting problems
The report shows the entire year instead of one month
Switch Period from “Current year” to “Custom”, enter both dates and click Update report again. Seeing date fields does not, on its own, change the annual preset into a monthly one.
We received EUR, but the RON total looks different
Do not add different currencies together. Verify the amounts in each currency separately and ask your accountant whether a formal statement requires exchange-rate conversion.
The invoice is in Documents, but the report still says supporting evidence is missing
Check for an actual link between the file and the correct expense transaction, rather than just a similar filename or project assignment.
The fund shows zero for the month even though we have money left from earlier months
The fund table uses movements in the filtered period. Extend the range or separately reconcile opening and closing fund positions. Never present a monthly flow as the fund's all-time balance.
PDF, CSV and ZIP buttons are disabled
Confirm that your organization has Association PRO with full-export entitlement and that you have updated the report. The FREE plan allows a basic report preview, not complete exports.
Frequently asked questions
Does TidyOne have a separate Monthly report button?
Not in the version covered by this guide. Select “Accounting report” and set a custom date range for the month. For a specific campaign, add a project or fund filter.
Why are the Beneficiary and Case fields hidden?
In one-beneficiary mode, the primary beneficiary is the default context. Those selectors are meant for multi-beneficiary organizations.
Can I create a monthly report for only one project?
Yes. Choose the project and, if needed, a fund, then update the report. Compare the result with the organization-wide version only after checking both sets of filters.
Does the donor number include every contact in the database?
No. It counts linked donor and sponsor contacts for income recorded in the selected period. Income can still be included in the total if the contact link is missing, without adding to this count.
Does the report show our real bank balance?
Not automatically. It summarizes TidyOne transactions in the chosen interval and scope. A bank balance requires the bank statement, opening balance and reconciliation.
Can I send the AI report directly to a funder?
Use it as a draft. Check the numbers, descriptions, stated purpose of funds and the funder's requirements. An EU grant agreement may prescribe specific templates, evidence and reporting dates.
Continue with these guides
Start with the exact dates and all projects. After reviewing the result, run the report again for one project and compare the two scopes.
For EU-funded grants: The European Commission describes the reporting and record-keeping requirements for projects under grant agreements. These requirements do not apply identically to all nonprofits; check your own agreement, local rules and accountant's advice.
What part of monthly reporting would you like us to explain in more detail?
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