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A Primer on Nonprofit Contributions and Revenue from Contracts with Customers
The Impact of ASU 2014-09 on Nonprofits You may have heard the buzz about the new revenue recognition standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, (ASU 2014-09), which is now effective for all nonprofits. You’re wondering what kind of impact, if an …
IRS Tax Form 990 [Deadline Extended]: How to File It, When to File It, and Why It’s So Important
Special Covid-19 note: The IRS is giving a break this year to individuals and businesses. The IRS states in Relief Notice 2020-23 that filing due dates, including extensions, which were due after April 1st but before July 15th, can be postponed until J …
No Budget, No Mission: A Guide to Basic Nonprofit Budgeting
What has always drawn me to a nonprofit organization is the mission. The mission of an organization speaks in ways that numbers do not. The mission instills hope, meaningful change, and impact. It elicits images of a stronger community and evokes the p …
Accounting Procedures Manual Template
Has “Create an Accounting Procedures Manual” been on your To Do list for several months now? For several years? You aren’t alone. We often stumble on this task for two, curiously contradictory reasons: Creating an Accounting Procedures Manua …
Get the Most Value from Your Audit
Audits are expensive in terms of money, staff time, and board attention. CPA Dennis Walsh tells us how to wring the most value from them: An IRS tax audit has been described as an autopsy without the benefit of death. The financial statement …
Outsource Your Bookkeeping!
The most strategic decision you make regarding how to staff your accounting department may be to not staff it at all. Well, at least not with employees of your organization. Outsourced accounting — having the accounting done by an outside person …
Nonprofit Bookkeeping Test
If you’re not an accountant yourself, it can be hard to hire a qualified bookkeeper. How can you tell if an applicant really knows bookkeeping? CPA Dennis Walsh created this terrific assessment test you can give candidates for bookkeeping and ac …
How to Hire a Great Accountant for Your Nonprofit
For many executive directors, hiring an accountant is fraught with anxiety. How will we find the right person? How can I tell if someone really knows accounting? Will an accountant fit in with the rest of us? As difficult as it is to hire a good accoun …
An Agreed-Upon-Procedures (AUP) Success Story
An Agreed-Upon-Procedures Engagement is one where an auditor performs tests on only a portion of the organization’s finances, and can therefore be done at much lower cost. CPA Dennis Walsh discusses how this little-used process could be utilized more f …
Seven Ways to Reduce Your Audit Costs
Too many of us think of audit costs as an expense to suffer, not to manage. CPA Dennis Walsh tells us differently: Executive Director Blair Benson of the Mental Health Association in Greensboro, North Carolina, was hoping her audit costs wou …