Bookkeeping for NonProfit - Fund Accounting

[JacksonAO]

I had a local nonprofit contact me to help get their books back in order. They have been using volunteers to enter accounting information and it is a
"true" double entry accounting program, not something like quickbooks that does the double entry for you behind the scenes.

I feel comfortable in my ability to provide bookkeeping services, but their books right now are a mess and they really need a CPA to help them clean it up, and get the chart of accounts set up appropriately.

Right now their fund accounts are overstated, their checking account is balanced properly.

They are not really ready to make a commitment to a CPA but I advise in a conference call that this is the route they should take, after which I would be glad to do their bookkeeping for them. But being the sucker that I am, I want the experience, I want to get my hands on the software they are using. So I volunteered to spend some time looking at the program to see if there was anything I could sort out but I made no guarantees. They are however thrilled that I offered to help and if I can make it work, I for sure will have an on going job.

But of course, now I may be in over my head.

I'm nervous about going in to try and un-tangle a mess that's been collecting for a long time. But all I can do is try and if I am out of my league I will push to have them use a CPA to straighten it out - and pray that the business will still come my way after it's fixed.

I emphasised that they need a consistent bookkeeper to maintain the day to day transactions by a set procedure so it doesn't come to this point again.

Any tips? What would you do in this situation?

[virtual writing]

Sarah, I don't think you've set yourself up for any problems. You are volunteering, after all, and probably your perspective on things can help them a whole lot. Once you get in there working with their software, you'll be able to give them a professional recommendation, for which they should be grateful. So don't worry, I bet you get the long term gig out of this for sure!

[Office Goddess]

I have been doing the books for a non-profit horse rescue for a year now. The first order of business for me was to have the Chart of Accounts looked over and adjusted by a CPA. Once that was done, the clean up was considerably easier to complete and maintenance is a breeze.

[Tess]

It sounds like you've really provided an honest perspective from the beginning and so anything you CAN do for them will be nothing short of miraculous and received with gratitude - and if you find it really isn't something you can complete for them once you've gotten into their software, etc. you've not set yourself up to take on any blame but are then in a position to help guide them to someone who *can* get them set up (at which point you could take over the account).

Depending on your relationship with the client, you could even sub out the initial fix-up and then move in to take care of the regular maintenance (if that was your intention?)

[JacksonAO]

Yes absolutely my intention. You all are fantastic - giving me an extra bit of confidence. I think I may be prepared with a local CPA contact just in case so I can offer that.

Lily, does your non profit use fund accounting?

[StephanieP]

Hi, I work for a non-profit as an administrative assistant/bookeeper and I highly recommend having an accountant look over their books. I'm not a trained bookeeper but have kind of learned along the way. Our books were a little (ok, a lot) out of sorts when I took them over because our Finance Manager quit last year, then the GM took over doing the books, THEN we had an outside source do them. No two people did them the same way and things weren't allocated appropriately, partly because no one was all that familiar with Quickbooks (even the original finance manager). I've been working very closely with our accountant (who is also a certified Quickbooks specialist) to get everything straightened out so that I can confidently maintain the books. Plus, although I wouldn't say that non-profit accounting is really that hard, it can be a bit tricky if you're dealing with grants and such on top of normal books. For instance, I have to keep in mind that I can't pay for travel out of SBA funds and I have to make sure that supplies bought for a certain program are paid out of that program's account and not another's. It's definitely a learning experience and can be a lot of fun. But an account (and there are accountants who specialize in non-profits) is almost a MUST in my opinion. Once we get everything straightened out and I know what I'm doing, our accountant will kind of sit in the background and check to make sure everything is running smoothly every so often.

I don't know how large your non-profit is, but we have to go through an audit process every year and we are scrutinized. Making sure the books are in order beforehand will help to prevent a lot of hassles at the end.

Just my 2 cents

[Office Goddess]

No, we don't use fund accounting as all incoming funds are either straight donations or fund-raiser purchases (they do a calender featuring some of their rescued horses each year). I do, however, have to track the expenses and specific donations by horse (and llama, goat, duck... )

The biggest challenge for me was that all of their accounting was being done in Excel when I started doing their books!

[Melissa~HVAS]

Hi, I work for a non-profit as an administrative assistant/bookeeper and I highly recommend having an accountant look over their books. I'm not a trained bookeeper but have kind of learned along the way. Our books were a little (ok, a lot) out of sorts when I took them over because our Finance Manager quit last year, then the GM took over doing the books, THEN we had an outside source do them. No two people did them the same way and things weren't allocated appropriately, partly because no one was all that familiar with Quickbooks (even the original finance manager). I've been working very closely with our accountant (who is also a certified Quickbooks specialist) to get everything straightened out so that I can confidently maintain the books. Plus, although I wouldn't say that non-profit accounting is really that hard, it can be a bit tricky if you're dealing with grants and such on top of normal books. For instance, I have to keep in mind that I can't pay for travel out of SBA funds and I have to make sure that supplies bought for a certain program are paid out of that program's account and not another's. It's definitely a learning experience and can be a lot of fun. But an account (and there are accountants who specialize in non-profits) is almost a MUST in my opinion. Once we get everything straightened out and I know what I'm doing, our accountant will kind of sit in the background and check to make sure everything is running smoothly every so often.

I don't know how large your non-profit is, but we have to go through an audit process every year and we are scrutinized. Making sure the books are in order beforehand will help to prevent a lot of hassles at the end.

Just my 2 cents

I'm so glad I searched here & found this thread because I received an inquiry this week from a small, local nonprofit about taking over their bookkeeping. I'm very excited about the potential opportunity, but was wondering if there are any major differences between QB Pro & QB for Nonprofits, which is what they want to begin using. :huh2: