Keeping Lillah, Zakat and General Funds Separate in Madrasa Accounts
Separating restricted money from general money starts at the receipt book, not at the ledger. Use a separate receipt series for each fund, keep a separate ledger page and a separate closing balance for each, and decide in writing which costs each fund may pay before the year starts. Sabaq holds each fund as a named record with its own opening and running balance, from 500 BDT per month.
| What it is | How a madrasa in Bangladesh keeps lillah, zakat and general money in separate accounts, on paper and in Sabaq. |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | The person who keeps the books, and donors or trustees who want to see that restricted money was spent as intended. |
| Languages | The interface runs in Bangla, English and Arabic. Support is given in Bangla. |
| Where it runs | Runs in a web browser on any device. The companion app is Android only, through the Play Store. |
| Price | 500 BDT per month, 5,000 BDT per year or 20,000 BDT one time, per madrasa. Installation is 2,000 BDT under 200 students and 5,000 BDT above that. |
| In use by | 658 institutions in 62 districts of Bangladesh. |
Prices and figures on this page were checked on 10 September 2026.
Which funds does a madrasa usually keep?
Most madrasas in Bangladesh run two main funds. The general fund carries ordinary income and ordinary running costs. The lillah fund, called lillah boarding in many places, carries the food and accommodation of poor and orphan students.
Beyond those two, institutions add funds as they need them: a construction fund, a mahfil fund, a book fund. Fewer is better, because each fund needs its own receipt series, its own ledger page and its own closing balance. Decide the list once, at the start of the year, by committee decision.
Which money goes into which fund?
The table below shows the split that is commonly used in Bangladesh. Your institution’s own rule may differ, and if it does, yours is the one that counts.
| Money received | Usually goes to |
|---|---|
| Monthly tuition and admission fees | General fund |
| Ordinary donations and local monthly subscriptions | General fund |
| Zakat | Lillah fund |
| Sadaqah and fitrah | Lillah fund |
| Vows and expiation payments | Lillah fund |
| Proceeds from qurbani hides | Lillah fund |
| Sponsorship for a named student | Lillah fund, listed against that student |
| A donation given for a building | Construction fund |
One rule matters more than the table. If the donor says what the money is for, that instruction is binding and it must be written on the receipt at the moment it is taken. Splitting money by guesswork afterwards is where trouble starts.
Why does the receipt book come first?
A madrasa still working entirely on paper can start today, at almost no cost, and it is the single most effective step.
- Print a separate receipt book for each fund, in different colours if you can
- Print the fund name on the receipt itself rather than writing it by hand
- Keep the serial number series separate so two books never share a number
- Decide who holds which book; one person holding both leads to the wrong book in a hurry
- Never tear out a cancelled receipt, leave it in the book so the sequence stays unbroken
How do the ledgers stay apart?
If the receipts are separate, the books must be too. Each fund gets its own ledger page, carrying only that fund’s receipts and payments, and producing its own balance.
At month end, check the two balances separately. Their total should equal cash in hand plus the bank balance. If it does not, an entry has gone to the wrong page. Where a madrasa can hold two bank accounts, one per fund, that is cleaner still. Where it cannot, keep them apart in the books and write the fund name on the deposit slip.
In Sabaq each fund is a named record with an opening balance and a running balance. Money can be moved between funds, and the transfer is recorded as a transfer rather than appearing as fresh income on one side and an expense on the other. The full accounting picture is on the madrasa accounting page.
Which costs may the lillah fund pay?
Write the answer down once, at the start of the year, and put it in the committee minutes. Deciding case by case produces a different answer every time, and that is what makes accounts unreadable a year later.
The common division is that food, accommodation, medical care, books and clothing for poor and orphan students come from the lillah fund, while teacher salaries, electricity, repairs and office costs come from the general fund. The difficult cases sit in between: the cook’s wages, the gas bill for the kitchen. Decide those in advance and then hold to the decision for the whole year.
What should a donor actually receive?
Someone who gives money wants to know where it went. A single page, prepared once a year, answers that and makes the next donation far more likely.
- Date received and receipt number: when, and how much
- Which fund it went into: lillah, construction, stated plainly
- Heads of expenditure: food, books, medical care, broken out
- Number of students who benefited: a count, not names
- Closing balance: how much is still unspent
Be careful with one thing. Do not put the names, photographs or family circumstances of orphan or poor students into a donor report or a fundraising leaflet. A count and a head of expenditure tell the whole story, and protecting a child’s dignity is part of the institution’s duty. If a sponsor asks about a specific student, get the guardian’s permission before sharing anything. What a madrasa can reasonably show a donor abroad is set out on the donor reporting page.
How do you present two funds to a committee?
Show them side by side in two columns, never added into a single figure. Four lines are enough for the summary.
| Line | General fund | Lillah fund |
|---|---|---|
| Opening balance | At the start of the year | At the start of the year |
| Income for the year | Total by head | Total by head |
| Expenditure for the year | Total by head | Total by head |
| Closing balance | At the year end | At the year end |
Put the head by head detail underneath. The committee reads the four lines, and the detail is there when someone asks.
Where does it usually go wrong?
| What goes wrong | What prevents it |
|---|---|
| One receipt book used for both funds | Two books, two serial series, the fund name printed on the receipt |
| Both funds sitting in one bank account with no separation in the books | Two accounts where possible, strict separation in the ledger where not |
| Borrowing from lillah when the general fund is short | Avoid it. If it must happen, minute it and set a repayment date |
| The donor never receiving any statement | One page a year, sent without being asked |
| Not recording which head the donor specified | Ask at the counter and write it on the receipt |
What changes when the numbers get bigger?
Two funds and a few hundred receipts can be kept on paper. Once there are three or four funds and a thousand receipts in a year, working out each fund’s balance by hand becomes a job of several days, and the errors that creep in are the kind nobody notices until the committee meets.
In Sabaq, fee income, subscriptions, donations and other income are recorded against separate heads, each fund carries its own balance, and the ledger, day book and cash book can be read at any point in the year rather than assembled at the end of it. Asking the donor which head the money is for, and deciding which costs each fund may pay, remain human decisions.
Want your funds set up properly?
Tell us how many funds your madrasa keeps and we will set them up in a demo with your own heads of income and expenditure.