Do you know the biggest secret to keeping good books? Well, we’re going to let you in on it. It’s managing the balance sheet. Many of the problems we’ve seen with bookkeeping can be traced back to not keeping an accurate balance sheet. We see many people focus only on the profit and loss report, and…
Read MoreMany clients that come to us with messy books reconcile their operating bank accounts every month. Yep, the bookkeeper checks off the cleared items, gets to zero difference in the QuickBooks reconciliation window and happily clicks to Finish the reconciliation. If you are reconciling each month, why can you still have so many problems? The…
Read MoreIs the credit card liability on your organization’s balance sheet accurate? Credit card accounts should be reconciled each month just like your bank account. Options for Reconcile Date You can reconcile to the credit card statement, or you can reconcile to the balance at month end per the history in online banking. If you use…
Read MoreOver $50,000 gone was the latest estimate. Sadly this is a true story. The administrative assistant, a trusted employee, had been using her organization credit card to pay for personal expenses. She carried out the fraud over about a year, though no one will probably ever know exactly when the thefts started or exactly how…
Read MoreRarely do we find credit card activity entered properly in QuickBooks. Usually we see credit card purchases entered into QuickBooks when the card is paid. The credit card payment is painstakingly split out and manually entered line-by-line following the purchase detail on the credit card statement. Problems with This Approach This approach creates several problems:…
Read MoreWe keep getting “the question.” Hint — it’s not “Would you be our treasurer?” Though we get that one a lot, too. No, the question we refer to is when our client points to the net assets section of the organization’s balance sheet and asks, “Is that the money we have to spend?” It’s a…
Read MoreEarlier this month (May 2018) the IRS replaced their online EO Select Check tool with a new searchable database called Tax Exempt Organization Search. More Powerful Tool The prior EO Select Check tool, available since 2012, provided users with information about an organization’s tax-exempt status. The new Tax Exempt Organization Search tool provides much more…
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“Today, there are three kinds of people: the have’s, the have-not’s, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-have’s.” ~Earl Wilson When it comes to nonprofit organizations, nearly all fall into the “have-not-paid-for-what-they-have’s” category, even if managers are scrupulous about paying everything on time. That’s because at any given point in time, a nonprofit organization with active operations in pursuit…
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Recently a client asked us for help keeping track of restricted gifts. This organization has a program where they raise money for other charitable organizations in the community. The client said people are making contributions restricted for specific organizations and even for specific purposes. For example, they received a gift from one donor for a…
Read MoreWhen we talk to nonprofit organization leaders about budgeting, we find they are usually thinking in terms of budgeting cash in and cash out. Even if you budget on cash basis (as opposed to accrual basis), you still need to capitalize and depreciate fixed assets. Accounting for fixed assets throws a big monkey wrench into…
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