Beneficiary → Case → Project: how to organize nonprofit case files

Why one folder for each person is not enough

Consider an association supporting two children. One needs therapy and transport to appointments; another needs adaptive equipment. Keeping a folder named after each child helps with filing, but does not answer all the questions the organization faces. Which need was a donation intended to address? Which project pays a specific invoice? What appointments are pending? What evidence is required for a project report? These questions concern different operational layers. That is why TidyOne separates people, cases and projects while allowing the organization to connect them.

One person can have two active cases at the same time. A shared project can support two people, with a different case selected for each. Do not create duplicate beneficiary profiles whenever a new need arises. Equally, do not copy a shared project into two otherwise identical projects merely to record spending by person. Use the relationships built into the multi-beneficiary mode and, when supported by evidence, the financial allocation feature.

Before you start: define a simple data model

Open the Association / Nonprofit workspace and confirm that the organization is configured for multiple people/cases. You can choose that mode during onboarding. If the organization already exists, check the type under Settings → Association. The single-beneficiary mode simplifies certain selections, so the same controls will not necessarily be present in both modes. If colleagues share the workspace, decide who may create beneficiaries, who reviews documents and who authorizes financial allocations.

Prepare only the information you need: beneficiary name, an authorized contact when relevant, a clear case title, the operational objective, any relevant deadline and a proposed project name. You do not need to fill in medical details to create a useful case structure. For cross-border treatment, you may need provider or hospital details, the countries involved, travel dates and supporting documents; add those only for an actual operational purpose.

Step 1 — Create the beneficiary’s core profile

Navigate to Beneficiari & Cazuri → + Beneficiar. The current Romanian interface labels the modal Beneficiar nou (new beneficiary). Nume (name) is the required field. You may also provide telephone, email, birth date and the parent or legal representative where there is an operational reason to retain that information. For a child, check that any contact details belong to the appropriately authorized person; never fabricate a telephone or email just to populate every field.

The full form also offers an optional disability classification, medical summary, other needs and image/PDF attachments. Medical information is sensitive, and the application requests confirmation that the organization has an appropriate legal basis or consent before it stores medical text or uploaded medical documents. Clicking the checkbox does not create a legal basis that did not already exist. Once the information is appropriate and checked, select Salvează beneficiarul (save beneficiary) and confirm that the profile appears under the Beneficiari tab.

If two people share the same name, use an authorized internal identification procedure rather than adding sensitive medical details to a public project title. Start with a minimally completed private profile and add more detail only when a genuine activity requires it. A well-structured system reduces unnecessary information, not just duplicated records.

Step 2 — Open a case with a concrete objective

From the beneficiary detail view, select + Caz. You may also use + Caz nou at the top of the page. The two required fields are Beneficiar (beneficiary) and Titlu caz (case title). Confirm the selected person before saving. In our example, enter “Recovery therapy 2026”. Naming the case only “Ana” would make it difficult to distinguish therapy from a later travel, education or equipment case for the same person.

Choose the appropriate Tip caz (case type): General, Medical, Therapy, Education, Social, Treatment abroad or Other. Set an honest status: Activ (active), Pauză (paused), Finalizat (completed) or Arhivat (archived). In Obiectiv principal (main objective), write a specific outcome the team can check later. For instance, “Arrange 12 recovery sessions by 31 December” is more actionable than “Provide as much help as possible”. If no project exists yet, leave Proiect principal set to Fără proiect principal (no primary project). We will return to this field once the project has been created.

Only enter hospital, provider, country, travel dates, accommodation and transport notes when they are relevant to the case. If you add health information to Rezumat medical / nevoi relevante, the form requires confirmation of an appropriate legal basis. Save the case, switch to Cazuri, open it and review the person, status and objective. The case must remain connected to the intended beneficiary, rather than to the person who happened to be selected by default.

Step 3 — Record meaningful milestones in the case timeline

Open the case and select + Eveniment (add event). Available types include Appointment, Therapy, Medical, School, Social assistance, Travel, Document, Payment, Task and Note. Give the event a specific title; enter the date and time when they are known, a due date if useful, the relevant provider or responsible person, and the operational details. The form can also associate an available project or document with the event.

“Initial assessment appointment — 12 October” helps a colleague understand what happens next. “Sorted out the problem” gives very little usable context to someone joining the case two months later. Set the actual event status: Planificat (planned), Finalizat (completed), Informativ (informational) or Anulat (cancelled). The case timeline is an internal record of progress; adding an event does not automatically guarantee an external email, SMS, push alert or proof that a supplier was paid.

Step 4 — Create the project and explicitly link the case

Open Proiecte & Fonduri → Proiect nou (Projects & Funds → New project). Enter the required Nume proiect (project name) and choose its Monedă (currency). Optionally enter a fundraising target, status, start and end dates, description and internal notes. For our example, create “Access to recovery” in RON with a fictional target of RON 12,000. A target is a planning value; it is not money already collected or available in the bank.

Under Beneficiari / cazuri asociate (associated beneficiaries/cases), tick Ana. Next to her name, select Recovery therapy 2026 from the relevant case dropdown. Select Salvează proiectul (save project). The explicit association matters because the same project can support more than one person. If you later add a second beneficiary, edit this same project, tick the additional person and choose that person’s case. Do not replace Ana or erase her association simply to add somebody else.

Step 5 — Set the case’s primary project

Return to Beneficiari & Cazuri, open Ana’s case and select Editează (edit). Inspect the Proiect principal field and choose “Access to recovery” if it is the main project funding that case. Save and reopen the record to confirm your choice. A primary project helps orient the case file, but choosing it does not automatically move a previously recorded donation, invoice or expense to another project.

Open the project again and confirm that Ana is an associated beneficiary and that her case is selected correctly. If the links fail to save, do not create another identically named project as a workaround. Check whether the database migrations for beneficiary_cases and project_beneficiaries have been applied, whether the tables are available and whether the signed-in user has the necessary access. The app displays a warning when certain additional case or project data are unavailable.

Step 6 — Connect the structure to funds, documents and transactions

Once the people, cases and projects are correct, you can create a Fond nou (new fund) in Proiecte & Fonduri. Choose the associated project or a general association fund, specify Restricționat (restricted) or General / nerestricționat (general/unrestricted), select the currency and add the purpose and any relevant target. Create separate funds when the organization actually needs to distinguish funding purposes, not for every minor purchase. Contractual or legal restrictions still apply even if the software offers an alternative operational classification.

In Financiar (Finance), record donations and expenses with the correct project, fund, beneficiary and case. When one donation or expense concerns multiple people, the multi-beneficiary form offers Împarte suma între mai mulți beneficiari (split amount across beneficiaries). If you use it, enter allocations that add up exactly to the original transaction. Do not create two full transactions for the same payment. Always compare an invoice with the bank statement or other payment evidence before describing it as paid.

Medical documents uploaded through the beneficiary profile can be saved under Documente → Documente medicale, linked to that person. For documents uploaded through other entry points, inspect their context separately and verify the person, case or project association. Having an image or PDF somewhere in the archive does not by itself guarantee that a particular expense is linked to that document as supporting evidence.

Worked example: two beneficiaries, two cases and one shared project

The fictional nonprofit “Support for Tomorrow” creates beneficiary profiles for Ana and Radu. Ana’s case is “Recovery therapy 2026”; Radu’s is “Transport to treatment”. Their shared project, “Access to care”, associates each person with their relevant case and has a general RON fund. Sensitive diagnoses are not placed into the public-facing project title. In October, the organization receives one unrestricted RON 2,000 donation for the project and later receives an invoice for RON 900 covering services for both people.

What should the team check? There is one profile per person; each case belongs to its intended person; both links exist on the shared project; the original expense totals RON 900; and the two allocations add up to exactly RON 900. The RON 2,000 donation must not be presented as RON 2,000 received by each beneficiary. Likewise, the RON 1,100 difference is not automatically the reconciled available bank balance. For donations carrying mandatory restrictions, the documented funding terms determine how the money may be used.

Verify the links using beneficiary, case and project reports

The beneficiary detail view offers a Raport beneficiar link, while the case detail view offers Raport caz. Alternatively open Rapoarte (Reports), select Raport beneficiar / caz, choose the person or case and period, then select Actualizează raportul (refresh report). To review the entire shared campaign, use Raport proiect / finanțator separately. These reports answer different questions. A project report is not automatically a formally approved financial allocation to each individual.

Check currencies separately, review transaction dates, follow supporting documents and confirm any allocations. The operational case overview can display a wider context through linked project transactions, so do not treat an overview figure as an exclusive audited allocation to that case without checking the underlying records and filters. For external communications, minimize personal details and reconcile reports with the original evidence and the organization’s accounting records.

Seven common mistakes to avoid

1. Creating a new beneficiary for each therapy. Keep one person profile and create different cases when the goals or documentation differ.
2. Saving a case under the wrong selected person. Check the beneficiary both before saving and after reopening the record.
3. Treating primary project and project-side association as a single field. Review both when both are needed.
4. Assuming the quick-create form completes the full case file. Return to the full profile for authorized contacts, documents and optional details.
5. Duplicating the invoice for a shared project. Enter one original financial record and use properly evidenced allocations where appropriate.
6. Confusing “Completed” case status with a completed bank payment. Case status is an operational milestone, not payment reconciliation.
7. Putting unnecessary medical facts in project titles or public reports. Keep sensitive data in an authorized private context, and only where needed.

Protect personal and medical information

Case files may contain children’s information, health data and sensitive family circumstances. The nonprofit must identify an appropriate GDPR legal basis and, for health data, the applicable condition for processing a special category of personal data. Restrict team access and do not assume that checking an in-app confirmation universally establishes lawful consent. Collect only the information necessary for each purpose, and define a consistent process for access, corrections, retention and deletion according to the organization’s applicable obligations.

Before sharing reports with donors, check the permissions and agreements relevant to the beneficiaries or their representatives and prefer aggregated financial information where possible. AI may help propose document classifications or draft narrative summaries, but it should not infer missing diagnoses, decide which person deserves support or allocate funds without human authorization. For official background, consult the European Commission’s information about EU data protection.

Checklist: is the case file ready?

Frequently asked questions

Can one person have several cases?

Yes. Keep one beneficiary profile and open different cases when a need, goal, calendar or set of documents should be tracked separately.

Can a project support several beneficiaries?

Yes. Under Beneficiari / cazuri asociate in the project form, select several people and optionally assign one relevant case to each.

Can I create a beneficiary while creating a project?

Yes. The project form offers quick beneficiary and case creation, but the quick forms contain essential fields only. Complete the beneficiary’s full record later.

Will changing a case’s primary project reassign existing donations?

Do not assume so. Inspect the project and fund on each affected transaction and correct records only when the underlying evidence supports the change.

What if the case list does not load?

Check the association mode, displayed errors and database migrations. In particular, the case and project–beneficiary link tables must exist and be accessible. Do not create duplicate people or projects to work around a technical error.

Can AI choose which beneficiary receives a donation?

No. AI can help read and organize information, but funding purposes and decisions about beneficiaries must be approved by people according to source documents and applicable rules.

Continue with a related guide

This guide describes the TidyOne interface examined in the local version dated 23 September 2026. All examples are fictional. It is not legal, medical or accounting advice. Authenticated features must still be verified in your own test account.