Nonprofit Bookkeeper: Key Duties, Salary & Free Job Template

We may be biased, but we recommend that your organization outsource its accounting services to a nonprofit-specific firm like Jitasa. Our expert accounting team has worked with nonprofits of various sizes and missions for more than 15 years, and we use our experience to create tailored solutions for every organization. We also offer bookkeeping services and fractional CFO guidance through the Jitasa Strategic Advisory Team (J-SAT) to develop a well-rounded financial management system for your organization.

Nonprofit Bookkeeping & Accounting For Dummies Paperback – October 3, 2023

Export profit/loss, sales tax, cash flow, comparative, and more reports with visual graphs that makes the information easy to comprehend. Overspending a grant budget may have significant financial implications for a nonprofit. Careful consideration needs to be made each time a nonprofit enters into a grant. Learn more about the various scenarios in which a nonprofit may be unable to use grant funds on costs that the organization thought were acceptable and what the organization should do.

• Now, more than ever, financial clarity and transparency are critical to your organization’s success.
• Fortunately, various tools and resources are available that can help streamline nonprofit bookkeeping processes, save time and money, and ultimately contribute to the success of the organization’s mission.
• You compare each transaction in your nonprofit bookkeeping software against the bank’s records, identifying any discrepancies.
• Fire off estimates and invoices, snap receipts, and track expenses—even on-the-go—with Wave’s simple money management solutions for contractors.
• Compare actuals to budget monthly and explain variances greater than 10 percent.

Compliance and Regulations for Nonprofits

With everything consolidated, you can track inter-entity transactions to improve reporting and donor-dollar traceability. In addition, as you build new global entities, you can seamlessly add them to the software. For large nonprofits, the Intuit Enterprise Suite solution provides additional project management and multi-entity reporting features that are particularly useful for tracking finances across locations. These categories are based on the Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA), a standardized COA model that aligns with nonprofit reporting The Key Benefits of Accounting Services for Nonprofit Organizations requirements. However, most small to mid-sized organizations find the UCOA too detailed and prefer to use other online templates that they can customize to only include the accounts they need.

• Tasks like bank reconciliation, invoice processing, expense tracking, and financial reporting can be automated to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Create systems that ensure continuity in your nonprofit accounting practices.
• This is not a document that you’ll only visit once each year, but one that you’ll review over and over again, continuously course-correcting according to your organization’s most prevalent needs.
• Some are unrestricted net assets and some are considered restricted net assets.
• But when you’re trying to paste together your numbers with a part-time bookkeeper or a volunteer accountant, it’s nearly impossible to get the transparency you need to run your nonprofit organization.
• Restricted net assets are donations that have certain terms and restrictions attached, have special accounting procedures, and must be kept separate from other net assets.

Importance of Adhering to Donor Restrictions

FreshBooks accounting software accomplishes all of these tasks with ease and is an excellent choice depending on your needs. You should also hire a financial officer or a treasurer who knows how to do bookkeeping for a nonprofit and is familiar with specialized accounting software. The basis for an accurate https://nerdbot.com/2025/06/10/the-key-benefits-of-accounting-services-for-nonprofit-organizations/ bookkeeping and accounting system is recording all financial transactions. Nonprofit organizations have a tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If they want to maintain this status, they need to do accurate bookkeeping.

• Bookkeeping services for nonprofit are critical to the success of their organizations.
• Embracing technological adjustments can streamline operations, financial management, and reporting to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
• Where exactly your income and expenses come from and how you group them in your budget will depend on the nature of your organization.
• And we’ll even help you understand the story behind the numbers, so you’re never left speechless in front of your finance committee.
• Rent, utilities, payroll, and related costs are included among the expenses of a nonprofit.

Easy to understand accounting reports

Ask your bank whether they offer business checking accounts tailored to nonprofits. Most nonprofits elect some kind of treasurer or financial officer to manage all of the organization’s finances. Using a personal bank account and keeping a shoebox full of receipts isn’t going to cut it. Nonprofit bookkeepers must create accurate invoices for vendor payments, retail sales if they have a store, membership subscriptions, tuition fees, and more. Invoices help nonprofits track funds and give donors proof of their gifts. A bookkeeper with experience in fund accounting will create detailed fund accounting reports to help your accountant file quarterly statements and perform audits.

Data Visualizations to Guide Your Decision-Making

Restricted net assets are donations that have certain terms and restrictions attached, have special accounting procedures, and must be kept separate from other net assets. Nonprofits have tight rules around what they can and can’t spend money on. They need an organized system that makes sure purchases are ordered, budgeted for, and fulfilled properly from the get go. Get free guides, articles, tools and calculators to help you navigate the financial side of your business with ease. As your nonprofit grows, you must protect yourself and the organization from fraud. In this article, we’ll discuss key bookkeeping responsibilities and steps to efficient bookkeeping and provide 3 software options that can help.

• Yet proper accounting serves as the foundation that enables your mission to thrive.
• Unify your business back office with doola—an all-in-one platform that handles LLC Formation, Bookkeeping, Taxes, and E-commerce Analytics.
• To fulfill your mission and impact the communities you serve, you have to raise and allocate funds wisely—That’s why bookkeeping for nonprofits is an essential part of what you do.
• The sheer volume of reporting requirements can overwhelm even well-staffed nonprofits.
• You will also need an accountant to audit your financial statements and help work with you on future financial plans.
• If they have employees, nonprofits must comply with all relevant employment laws, such as minimum wage laws, anti-discrimination laws, worker’s compensation insurance requirements, etc.

The Charity CFO serves all types of nonprofits and charities

Income accounts should include all sources of revenue for the organization, such as donations, grants, fundraising events, and program fees. Expenses should be categorized as salaries and wages, office supplies, rent or mortgage payments, utilities, and other operating expenses. Donors often request access to a nonprofit’s financial statements before making donations or grants. These standards provide guidelines on how nonprofit organizations should record transactions accurately while adhering to ethical practices. Our bookkeeping and accounting professionals can offer full-service support at a reasonable rate. Schedule a free call with 1-800Accountant to learn more about working with America’s leading virtual accounting firm for non-profit accounting services.