So you bought a laptop computer. That’s great! Quick question: Is it an asset or is it an expense? Answer: It depends. Don’t you hate that? For one organization the laptop is an asset. For another organization, it’s an expense. It all depends on the organization’s capitalization threshold. The what? Capitalization Threshold Let’s define capitalization…
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Aging. Now there’s a topic we can all relate to! But I’m not talking about the kind of aging you and I experience each day. I’m talking about accounts receivable aging. The biggest difference is that accounts receivable, unlike you and me, do not get better with age. In our last post, Why Care About…
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“We have pledges receivable, but they are not on our books. Shouldn’t they be in our books?” Such began our consulting engagement with a local nonprofit organization, Spring Center (not the real name). Pledges Receivable and Accounts Receivable Our Chart of Accounts Grand Tour continues with the next type of account commonly found on the…
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We kicked off our Nonprofit Chart of Accounts Grand Tour last week with an overview of cash. While mission is the heart, cash is the lifeblood of a nonprofit organization. All nonprofits must manage cash to survive and thrive. To that end, we offer you the following list of ten pointers on managing cash. 1.…
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This week we pick up our Nonprofit Chart of Accounts Grand Tour talking about cash. Cash is the lifeblood of a nonprofit organization. It’s also the first account on the balance sheet since it’s the most liquid asset. Nonprofit cash has attributes that are very different from the cash of for-profit companies. In this post…
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It’s a new year and a chance to give your nonprofit accounting a fresh start. Right? Not so fast. If your year for accounting purposes is the calendar year (as opposed to a fiscal year ending in a month other than December), your profit and loss report starts out in 2018 with fresh, clean accounts…
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We’ve heard many times from nonprofit executive directors: “My board only understands cash.” Even executive directors themselves often admit to being more comfortable with cash basis than with accrual basis financial statements. And we can’t blame you – all you cash basis fans out there are rightly concerned about, well, cash! Introducing ASU 2016-14 And…
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This post is the fourth and final (but probably not the last) in a series of posts on functional expenses. Actually five posts if you count the introductory post, Demystifying Nonprofit Overhead. Here’s a list of the preceding posts and topics in each post: Demystifying Nonprofit Overhead: Deconstructed the term “overhead;” why you should care…
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This post is the third in a series of four posts on functional expenses. An introductory post, Demystifying Nonprofit Overhead, clarified the term “overhead” and made the case for why you should care about it. In Understanding Functional Expenses – Part 1 of 4, we covered the definition of cost vs. expense and went into…
Read MoreIn our last post, Understanding Functional Expenses – Part 1 of 4, we covered the definition of cost vs. expense. We then dove into the nitty gritty of what expenses are considered to be fundraising. The post just prior to this series, Demystifying Nonprofit Overhead, made the case for why you should care about overhead and…
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