That’s a great question that I hadn’t considered before now. I’m not a financial advisor and can only give my opinion, but I do have a DAF that falls under the Asset column and I further categorize it as “Charitable” using the Group column in the Accounts tab. I’m ok to see it there because I view it as a Charitable investment account which can gain or lose value depending upon how it is managed. Even though I’m never getting the money back, I like to see it there for tracking and planning purposes. And since I’ve categorized it, I can see it broken out separately anyway.
All that said, I do agree that strictly speaking it’s not an Asset. A similar discussion might arise regarding a primary residence for those who are homeowners. Some don’t view that as an asset and some do - in any case, most everyone I believe will put it in the Asset column for tracking purposes, since to my understanding the only Classes available are Asset and Liability.
So as far as the impact on Net Worth, you’re right that it should be excluded. Maybe someone else will chime in as to whether there is a pre-built template that could handle another class. But in the meantime I can think of a simple solution that I’m planning to employ.
In the Balances sheet, in cell G5, I’ll enter the formula:
=H5-VLOOKUP("YOUR DAF",B:D,3,FALSE)
H5 is the cell that has the pre-built Net Worth total. “YOUR DAF” is the account name of the DAF. The lookup is important because that layout can change and move around.
This will display the Net Worth excluding the value of DAF next to the pre-built Net Worth value that includes it. I’ll put a label as such right above it. It could be done similarly in the Net Worth sheet or another template that displays Net Worth. I’m working on my own Net Worth sheet to customize my own layout at the moment.
Of course, the other option is to choose Hide for this one in the Accounts sheet and then it won’t show up at all in several reports like Balances and Net Worth. Then you could have your own separate report for that account or glance at it periodically on the Balance History sheet.