01
The reconciliation marathon
Fundraising exports a spreadsheet, finance keys it into the general ledger, and the two numbers still do not match. Month-end becomes a hunt for the difference.
Ignite Finance
Development and accounting,on the same number.
Ignite Finance runs batches of gifts, pledges, and recurring giving through one engine that feeds journal entries, trial balance, and a balance-verified GL extract, so development and accounting stop reconciling two systems.
- Batch, pledge & recurring processing
- Balance-verified GL extract
- One record with fundraising
The month-end tax
Two systems never agree at month-end.
Development reports one number. Accounting certifies another. Closing the gap between them is somebody's week, every month.
02
Gifts on the wrong record
A donor-advised fund check arrives from an intermediary, and crediting it to the donor who deserves it is a manual detective exercise every time.
03
A ledger held together by exports
Batches, pledges, and recurring gifts live in one system; the statement lives in another. Every handoff is a chance for the numbers to drift.
One record, from the gift to the statement.
Batches of gifts, pledges, and journal entries are platform records on the same constituent data your fundraisers work from, not a second ledger to keep in step.
Batch entry
Every batch has a clear status.
Transaction counts, amounts, dates, entry types, and posting status sit in one working grid, so nobody has to ask which batch is open and which one already posted.
- Batch sources, statuses, and headers for auditable entry
- Batch templates and defaults that flow into grid and single-gift entry
- Smart transaction entry with a rapid-entry grid for high volume
Batch operations
The whole entry operation, measured.
The Batch Operations dashboard rolls the backlog, the posting pace, and the posted value into one view, so a slow week surfaces before month-end finds it.
- Open-batch backlog and posted counts side by side, for the timeframe you pick
- Total posted broken out by gifts, pledge payments, recurring plans, and events
- Batch throughput by month, straight from the batches themselves
Fiscal-year journals
Debits and credits stay in view.
Fiscal-year totals and account-level activity live inside the financial record, so reviewing the year does not mean waiting on an export from another system.
- Journal entries and trial balance generated inside the platform
- Account activity with debits, credits, and transaction counts by account
- Account class and type validation on the accounts behind the numbers
The handoff
Give accounting a file that already balances.
The gap between fundraising and accounting closes at the source, so the extract is a formality instead of the start of an investigation.
Balance-verified extracts
The GL extract engine verifies that the extract balances and stamps a checksum before anything leaves the building.
A file your GL imports
Export templates for QuickBooks Online and Microsoft Business Central, plus clean CSV and XLSX for any other general ledger.
A tracked extract lifecycle
Each extract moves from generated to exported to reconciled, with re-open and discard permission-gated and logged.
Restrictions the ledger respects
Funds carry names, codes, restriction classification, and status, so restricted money posts where it belongs.
Enter the gift once. It carries all the way to the statement.
Ignite Finance
Watch a gift travel from donation to statement.
See one live workflow in 30 minutes, with real data and no slide deck.
Three teams. One set of numbers.
Gift processors, accountants, and development leadership each get a working view built for their job, and all three are reading the same record.
- Smart transaction entry and a rapid-entry grid keep high-volume days moving.
- Batch templates and defaults mean the same fields do not get typed twice.
- Tribute, memorial, and anonymous gifts are handled as gift types, not workarounds.
- The donor-advised fund check from an intermediary credits the right constituent.
Open batch
Rapid entry, defaults applied
Rapid-entry gridHigh-volume days keep moving
Batch defaults appliedThe same fields, typed once
Tribute gift enteredA gift type, not a workaround
Third-party payor
DAF gift, donor hard-credited
- Check from the intermediary
- The right constituent credited
Pledge installment
Posted on schedule
- Applied against the schedule
- Balance updates on the record
- Journal entries and trial balance generate inside the platform, not after an export.
- The GL extract balances and carries a checksum before it reaches your accounting system.
- Export templates for QuickBooks Online and Business Central, or CSV and XLSX for any GL.
- Adjustments, refunds, reversals, and write-offs happen on the record, not in a side spreadsheet.
GL extract
Balance verified, checksum stamped
Journal entries generatedInside the platform
Balance verifiedDebits and credits agree
Checksum stampedBefore it reaches your GL
Trial balance
Debits and credits agree
- Generated without an export
- Ready for month-end review
Adjustment
Reversal recorded on the gift
- Refunds and write-offs on the record
- No side spreadsheet
- Development and accounting read one record, so month-end stops being a negotiation.
- Transaction volume, batch activity, and recent movement sit in one operational view.
- Posted gifts link back to the opportunities that produced them.
- Ignite Intelligence reasons over the same numbers your board report is built from.
Financial overview
Volume, batches, recent activity
Transaction volumeThe month at a glance
Batch activityOpen, posted, and recent
Recent movementOne operational view
Gift attribution
Gifts linked to opportunities
- Posted gifts trace to the pipeline
- Opportunity to ledger, connected
One number
Fundraising and finance agree
- The board report and the GL match
- Month-end stops being a negotiation
The capability list
Everything in Ignite Finance.
One module, from donation to statement. Every capability below works on the same live record fundraising works.
Gift processing
Every gift type, entered once.
- Smart transaction entry & rapid entry grid
- Flexible form & grid entry formats, with customizable templates
- Batch processing: sources, statuses, dashboards, templates & defaults
- Gift, pledge & recurring plan handling
- Non-cash gifts: securities & gifts-in-kind, with valuation
- Soft credits & multiple designations per gift
The donor's terms
The gift as the donor intended it, recorded that way.
- Tribute, memorial & anonymous giving
- Donor-covers-fees handling
- Configurable gift-counting settings
- Acknowledgements, receipts & billing statements
- Third-party payor records for DAFs & intermediaries
The ledger
From donation to statement, verifiably.
- Journal entries & trial balance
- GL extract with balance verification & checksum
- QuickBooks Online, Business Central, CSV & XLSX export templates
- Fund records with restriction classification
- Marketing and Opportunity gift attribution
Payments & corrections
The rails, and the records behind them.
- Stripe & PayPal gateways; ACH via Payflow
- Apple Pay & Google Pay in the giving experience
- Adjustments: refunds, reversals, reallocations & write-offs
- Pledge installments, payment application & overpayment carry-forward
- Data Import Service
Two systems never agree. One record always does.
| A CRM plus a spreadsheet | Ignite Finance | |
|---|---|---|
| Month-end | Export, re-key, hunt for the difference | One record; the numbers already agree |
| Gift to GL | Manual journal entries after the fact | Journal entries generated on entry |
| DAF gifts | Detective work to credit the donor | Donor hard-credited, DAF recorded as payor |
| The extract | A file you hope balances | Balance-verified with a checksum |
| Restricted funds | A convention the team remembers | Classification carried on the fund record |
| Source of truth | Two systems, two numbers | One record, one number |
Proven foundation
Built from the ground up on a modern, AI-first architecture.
Ignite is a new platform, built by the team nonprofits have trusted with their constituent and financial data for over 15 years.
4.5/5
Average on G2.
20M+
Constituent profiles managed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
$1B+
In annual giving processed across the StratusLIVE platform family.
“One source of the truth about our contacts, donors, and partners that is easily kept up to date.”
Robert W.
Director of Fundraising Operations & Digital Solutions
Verified review · G2
“A powerful tool that empowers our team members to not only enter new data but also see a historical perspective of our donors and corporate partners.”
Maria M.
Director of Investor Management
Verified review · G2
“Removes the need for manual import and export of data.”
Charmaine V.
Small-business nonprofit
Verified review · G2
Questions
Asked by every finance team that switches.
Direct answers, because you've sat through enough vendor slides.
Book a working sessionHow does Ignite Finance work with our accounting system?
The GL extract engine generates balanced, checksum-verified extracts and exports them as files your accounting system imports, with dedicated templates for QuickBooks Online and Business Central, plus clean CSV or XLSX for any other general ledger. These are formatted export files rather than a live two-way connection. Journal entries and trial balance live inside the platform, so what you hand accounting is already reconciled.
What does "gift to statement" actually mean?
Every gift, pledge payment, and recurring charge is processed once and carries through to journal entries, trial balance, and GL extract inside the same platform. Development and finance look at the same record, so month-end stops being a reconciliation exercise between a CRM export and the accounting system.
Which payment methods can donors use?
Stripe and PayPal gateways, with ACH via PayPal Payflow, and Apple Pay and Google Pay through our integrated giving experience. Donor-advised funds and other intermediaries get first-class payor records, so the check from a sponsoring organization credits the right donor.
How are restricted funds handled?
Funds are records in the platform, each carrying a name, code, restriction classification, and active status. Because the classification lives on the fund rather than in a team convention, restricted and unrestricted money posts to the right place and the extract reflects it.
Does Ignite handle acknowledgements and receipts?
Yes. Acknowledgements, receipts, and billing statements are templated, scheduled, and driven by conditional logic, generated from the same record that processed the gift. Donors also download their own year-end tax statements through the Ignite Self-Service donor portal, so receipting stops being a January project.
Is Finance a separate accounting system we have to run?
No. Ignite Finance is the nonprofit subledger, not a replacement for your general ledger. It handles gift processing, batches, pledges, adjustments, and fund accounting on the same record as fundraising, then hands your GL a balanced file. Your accounting system stays where it is.
Watch a gift become a journal entry.
See a batch post, a trial balance agree, and an extract come out balanced, in one demo.