Basic Guide to Non-Profit Financial Management

New nonprofit leaders and managers have to develop at least basic skills in financial management. Expecting others in the organization to manage finances is clearly asking for trouble. Basic skills in financial management start in the critical areas of cash management and bookkeeping, which should be done according to certain financial controls to ensure integrity in the bookkeeping process. New leaders and managers should soon go on to learn how to generate financial statements (from bookkeeping journals) and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business. Financial analysis shows the "reality" of the situation of a business -- seen as such, financial management is one of the most important practices in management. This topic will help you understand basic practices in financial management, and build the basic systems and practices needed in a healthy business.

Sections in This Topic Include:

The following links are to sections included further below in this Web page.

Basics and Getting Started

- - - Fiscal Sponsorship -- Help You Get Started? - - - Your Board Treasurer -- A Critical Resource to Help You Get Started - - - Getting an Accountant or Bookkeeper to Help You, If Needed - - - Getting a Banker - - - Buy Accounting Software to Help You? - - - Reviewing the Basics of Nonprofit Financial Management

Activities in the Yearly Accounting Cycle

Bookkeeping and Controls:

Nonprofit Bookkeeping (in Accounting) Financial Controls

Critical Operating Activities in Yearly Accounting Cycle:

Designing a Budget Managing Cash Flow (including managing your checking account) Credit and Collections Budget Deviation Analysis

Managing Program Finances Financial Statements and Analysis:

- - - Statement of Activities (Income Statement) - - - Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet)

Financial Analysis (of statements, using ratios, doing break-even analysis, etc.) Financial Reporting - - - Annual Reports

Special Topics
Lease Versus Buy Assessments and Audits of Nonprofit Financial Management Practices - - - Various Assessments to Check the Financial Health of Your Nonprofit - - - Financial Audits

General Resources
Free, Online, Self-Paced Program to Completely Build/Strengthen Your Nonprofit Basic Guide to Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing Various Types of Resources Various Major Sites of Online Information

Start Of Discussion
BASICS AND GETTING STARTED
Basics of Bookkeeping, Accounting and Financial Management
Fiscal Sponsorship -- Another Nonprofit Initially Supports Your Taxes and Finances? In some cases, you might want to pursue finding a fiscal sponsor. For example, if you're not sure you want to start a nonprofit, or if your nonprofit may not need to exist for long, then a fiscal sponsor may be useful for you. A fiscal sponsor might oversee your financial management activities until your organization is more developed or terminated.

Basic Bookkeeping Activities

Bookkeeping is basically recording various financial transactions. Bookkeeping activities can often by done by someone who's doing basic clerical work in the organization. Often, the board treasurer can help you develop and carry out your bookkeeping system.

Fiscal Policies and Procedures Manual (or Accounting Procedures Manual)

The board develops and authorizes a set of procedures for how the organization manages its finances, including how the following activities are carried out by your organization. The board treasurer usually coordinates the board's responsibility for the manual, including its regular review and update. The board and chief executive should make every effort to ensure compliance to the procedures in the manual.

Type of Accounting System and Recording of Financial Transactions

Accounting starts with basic record keeping (or bookkeeping). When your organization is just getting started, your bookkeeping system will probably be based on what's called a cash-basis accounting system, rather than accrual-basis system. Many organizations, when starting out, use the cash-basis system and a checkbook to track transactions. In the "memo" portion of the checkbook, they note if the amount depicted on the check is an

expense or revenue, and where the amount came from or is going to. As your organization grows, you'll begin using ledgers to track transactions, for example, you'll post cash receipts to a cash receipts journal and checks you write to a cash disbursements journal. As your nonprofit grows and as you begin using the accrual method, you'll likely need more types of journals, for example, a Cash Receipts Journal, Cash Disbursements Journal, Payroll Journal, Accounts Receivable Ledger, Accounts Payable Ledger, Sales Journal, Purchases Journal and General Ledger. (In an accrual-basis system, you post entries when you earn the money and when you owe it. Small organizations usually do not have the resources to use an accrual-based system. However, financial statements are prepared on an accrual basis. As a compromise, many organizations use the cash-based basis to record entries in journals, but get help to convert to an accrual-based basis to generate financial statements.) You can do postings using a single-entry or double-entry method. Double-entry works from a basic accounting equation "assets = liabilities + capital". The double-entry method makes sure that your books are always in balance. Every transaction has two journals entries, a debit and a credit. Each transaction effects both sides of the equation. Each posting might refer to accompanying documents that you keep in a file somewhere. For example, postings about cash receipts might refer to invoices that you sent to a clients which prompted them to write checks to your organization (checks which you posted as cash receipts). For example, postings about cash disbursements might refer to invoices that were sent to your organization which prompted you to write checks (checks which you posted as cash disbursements.) When you make a deposit to the bank, you'll file the bank's deposit receipt in a file.

Manual or Automated Accounting System

Your record keeping system will be based on a manual system (where you make entries and total them by hand) or a computer system. You might even choose to outsource your record keeping system to another business that manages your bookkeeping activities (along with other financial management activities) for you. Soon you may evolve to using a computer-based system, which greatly automates entry of transactions, updating of ledgers, generation of financial statements and financial analysis (more on these later), and generation of reports needed for filing taxes, etc. The only drawback to using a computer is that you might underestimate the importance of knowing how your accounting processes really work -- that's an advantage of doing the bookkeeping yourself, if only for a few months. You should also generate your own financial statements and financial analysis at least for a couple of months. Having this knowledge and experience helps you develop an instinct for getting the most out of your financial resources.

(We'll talk more about that back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. Non-Profit Financial Management, after we've reviewed the rest of the information on this page.)

Accounts and Chart of Accounts

You'll post each entry according to the category, or account, of the transaction. Each account will be associated with an account number. These numbers are referenced when developing your financial statements (more on those later). You'll refer to a chart of accounts which will tell you what account number to use when you post an entry. You can design your own chart of accounts, including coming up with your own account numbers. The chart usually have five areas, including assets, liabilities, net assets (or fund balances), revenues, and expenses. The account numbers you come up with should depend on the particular kinds of revenues and expenses you expect to have most frequently. However, nonprofits have to report account activity according to the classifications functional(or programs) and natural (or supporting). Program transactions are those directly related to providing services to clients, members, etc. Supporting transactions are those in common to all programs, for example, general management costs, etc. It's not always easy to know which transactions belong to which category! We'll also talk more about managing program budgets back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. Non-Profit Financial Management, after we've reviewed the rest of the information on this page.

Budgets (Financial Forecasting)

You'll have a an operating budget (or annual budget), which shows planned revenue and expenses, usually for the coming year. Budget amounts are usually divided into major categories, for example, salaries, benefits, computer equipment, office supplies, etc. You might also have cash budgets, which depicts the cash you expect to receive and pay over the near term, for example a month. You also might have capital budgets, which depict expenses to obtain or develop, and operate or maintain major pieces of equipment, for example, buildings, automobiles, computers, furniture, etc. Development of the budgets is usually driven by the chief executive. In the case of corporations, the board treasurer can take a strong role in developing and presenting the budget to the rest of the board. The board is responsible to authorize the yearly budgets. You should develop a program budget, that is, a budget for each major service you provide to clients. For example, a transportation program, a child-care program. Many nonprofits have more than one program. It's critical to plan and track financial costs for each program. As much as possible, nonprofits should strive to minimize overhead or administrative costs, that is, costs to support the resources that support the entire organization and all programs, rather than just one program. Examples of administrative costs are rent for a building, office supplies, labor costs for personnel who support the central office or more than one program, insurance, etc. It's wise to develop a program budget that allocates indirect costs to programs. There are several methods to do this. We'll also talk more about these methods back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. NonProfit Financial Management, after we've reviewed the rest of the information on this page.

Usually, each month (during trial balancing -- more on that later), you'll update your budget report to include actual revenue and expenses. Then you can compare your planned revenue and expenses to your actual revenue and expenses. This will give you a good idea whether your operating according to plan or not, including where you need to cut down on expenses and build up on revenue.

Petty Cash
You'll have a lot of small, recurring expenses that you'll need to pay right away, for example, to buy a computer power cord, stamps, etc. You'll probably work from a petty cash fund. You might establish this fund by writing a check to your organization, and noting on the check that it goes to the "petty cash" fund. You'll withdraw from the fund by filling out a voucher that describes who took the money, how much, for what and on what date.

Trial Balances
Usually, once a month, you'll do trial balancing. Often, the board treasurer can help with this activity. This activity usually starts by totaling the entries from the journal(s) into a general ledger. (As your business grows, you may use other types of ledgers, too, for example for equipment, payroll, etc.) When using double-entry accounting, you'll add up totals on both sides of the ledger to make sure that total debits equal total credits. You'll make sure that the individual postings and totals are correct by comparing each to its accompanying documentation. For example, your recording of cash disbursements will be compared to your bank's monthly checking statement that indicates what checks you wrote over the month. Your recording of cash disbursements will also be compared to accompanying invoices and other forms of billing to your organization, to verify there was a need for each check that was written to pay bills.

Internal Controls
You will have various forms of internal controls to ensure the business is following its plans, minimize the likelihood of mistakes, avoid employee thefts, etc. There are a wide range of internal controls. For example, you'll be careful about whom you hire. You might have authorization lists about who can access which areas of the building, types of information, etc. As mentioned above, you'll carry over totals to various financial reports, including your budget, to see if your financial activities are according to plan or not. To minimize employee theft, the business's mail will be opened by one person who logs in each check that is received. This person will be someone other than the person who deposits the checks to the bank. Disbursements of large amounts, for example, over $500, may require a secondary signature, for example, from the board treasurer. Another form of financial control is an audit. An audit is a comprehensive analysis, by a professional from outside the organization, of your financial management procedures and activities. The auditor produces a report, with a variety of supplements, that indicates

how well your organization is managing its resources. Some nonprofits are required to have audits. It's usually good practice to have an audit, whether you're required to or not.

Financial Statements
In order to know how your organization is doing, you'll do some ongoing financial planning and analysis. In this planning and analysis, you'll likely use your bookkeeping information to produce various financial statements, including a cash flow statement, statement of activities and a statement of financial position. Your cash flow statement depicts changes in your cash during the year. Your statement of activities (known as the income statement before) depicts the changes in your assets over the past year. This statement is particularly useful to tell you if you are operating with extra money or at a deficit. This gives you a pretty good impression of your rate of revenues and spending. It signals areas of concern, as well. Your statement of financial position depicts the overall value of your organization at a given time (usually at the end of the year), including by reporting your total assets, subtracting your total liabilities and reporting the resulting net assets. Net assets are reported in terms of unrestricted, temporarily restricted and permanently restricted assets. Funders often want to see the statement of financial position. (You'll learn a lot more about financial statements, including examples, later on back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. Non-Profit Financial Management)

Financial Analysis
By themselves, numbers usually don't mean much. But when you compare them to certain other numbers, you can learn a lot about how your organization is doing. For example, you can compare the planned expenses depicted on your budget to your actual expenses in order to see if your spending is on track. Another form of comparison is by using ratios. A ratio is a comparison made by mathematically dividing one number by the other. For example, nonprofits are expected to keep administrative costs down in order to make more money available for programs. Dividing a program's expenses by your total expenses indicates the amount of administrative overhead to run your program. The interpretation of results from various types of comparisons depends on the nature of the nonprofit. For example, an association might expect to spend far less on administrative overhead than would a social services agency during their first year. You'll learn a lot more about financial analysis back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. Non-Profit Financial Management.

Financial Reporting
The types and frequency of reports depend on the nature of the nonprofit and its situation. For example, if the nonprofit is in some sort of crisis, the board may require frequent reports.

Your board should require regular financial reports at each board meeting. When your organization is just getting started, the chief executive will prepare and present financial reports to the board. However, as the organization develops, a board treasurer will likely take a strong role in helping the chief executive to present financial information to the board. The finance committee, led by the board treasurer, ensures that financial reports are complete and helps present them to other members of the board. The board may require a statement of financial position and statement of activities at each meeting. They also may request descriptions of finances for each program or of affordability for upcoming, major initiatives. They may request information prior to filing taxes. They will certainly need to see any results from financial audits. You'll learn a more about financial reporting back in the topic Basic Guide to U.S. Non-Profit Financial Management.

Nonprofit Bookkeeping (in Accounting)

Now that you have a sense for the overall, recurring activities in nonprofit financial management. Let's take a closer look at what happens in nonprofit accounting. One of the biggest challenges is knowing how to enter each type of transaction in the journal and ledger. The following links are very useful for this challenge. What is the difference between cash basis and accrual basis accounting? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) How do we develop functional expense classification? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) What should our chart of accounts include? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) How can we allocate indirect costs to programs? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) What is depreciation?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What is the unrelated business income tax? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) How do we account for pledges? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) How to account for donated goods Accounting for Contributions Received and Contributions Made Is there a way to just show a figure for "net fundraising events" ...? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) answers to a variety of questions about accounting in the Nonprofit FAQ Critical Issues in Financial Accounting Regulation for Nonprofit Organizations

Frequently Asked Questions

Financial Management Click here to find a consultant or service provider that specializes in financial management (choose finance and administration as a field of concentration).
Questions
1.

What are the elements of an accounting system?

2.

What are the differences between nonprofit and for-profit accounting?

3.

How do we develop functional expense classification?

4.

How can we allocate indirect costs to programs?

5.

What is the difference between cash basis and accrual basis accounting?

6.

What should our chart of accounts include?

7.

What is depreciation?

8.

What is the unrelated business income tax?

9.

What accounting software package should we buy?

10.

What is an audit?

11.

Should we get an audit?

12.

What is an A-133 audit?

13.

How do we prepare for an audit?

14.

What is tax deductible for membership dues, special events, and other fundraisers?

15.

What information are we required to provide to individual donors?

16.

How do we account for pledges?

17.

How should we invest our short-term cash balances?

18.

What is the board's responsibility in investment?

19.

What is cash flow and how should we manage it?

20.

How much cash should we hold in reserve?

21.

How do we prepare a budget?

22.

What internal controls are needed for cash disbursement?

23.

What is petty cash and how should we handle it?

24.

What internal controls are needed for payroll?

25.

What is an internal accounting control system and how can we make ours effective?

26.

What financial statements are nonprofits required to issue?

27.

What financial reports do management and the board need?

28.

How do we interpret our financial statements?

29.

Is there a way to just show a figure for "net fundraising events" rather than listing each event under both income and expense?

Financial Controls
There are certain practices that you should consistently follow to ensure that financial transactions are consistently recorded in an accurate fashion. These controls also help to minimize risk, including employee theft. What is an internal accounting control system and how can we make ours effective?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What internal controls are needed for cash disbursement?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What internal controls are needed for payroll?(click on Financial Management and scroll down)

Also see:
Assessments and Audits of Nonprofit Financial Management Practices Insurance Information for Nonprofits Risk Management Information for Nonprofits

RITICAL ACTIVITIES IN YEARLY ACCOUNTING CYCLE: Budgeting (Financial Forecasting) and Cash Management Managing Operating Budgets
A budget depicts what you expect to spend (expenses) and earn (revenue) over a time period . They are useful for projecting how much money you'll need for a major initiative, for example, buying a facility, hiring a new employee, etc. They also help track whether you're on plan or not. There are yearly (or annual or operating) budgets, cash budgets, capital budgets (for major assets, such as equipment, buildings, etc.) and proposal budgets (for fundraising), etc. The following links are about annual budgets. How Do We Prepare a Budget? (for yearly budgets)(click on Financial Management and scroll down) How Can We Make a Budget for the IRS Before We Start Work? (multi-year org'l budget) Variety of answers to questions about budgeting in the Nonprofit FAQ

Managing Cash Flow

As a new or small nonprofit, your biggest challenge is likely to be managing your cash flow -- probably the most important financial statement for a new business is the cash flow statement. The overall purpose of managing your cash flow is to make sure that you have enough cash to pay current bills. Businesses can manage cash flow by examining a cash flow statement and cash flow projection. Basically, the cash flow statement includes total cash received minus total cash spent. Cash management looks primarily at actual cash transactions. (Note that nonprofits must file a financial statement called Cash Flow Statements, or Statements of Cash Flow -- this statement is not the same as a cash flow budget.)

Basics of Cash Flow Management -- articles specific to nonprofits

What is cash flow and how should we manage it? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) How much cash should we hold in reserve?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) How Should We Invest Our Short-Term Cash Balances?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What is petty cash and how should we handle it?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What is the Board's Responsibility in Investments?(click on Financial Management and scroll down)

More Basics of Cash Management

Note that cash management activities, whether nonprofit or for-profits, are essentially the same.

Basics of Cash Management

The Importance of Cash Management Techniques for Improving Cash Flow

Preparing a Cash Flow Statement

Preparing Your Cash Flow Statement Cash Flow Worksheet cash flow worksheet

Preparing Cash Flow Projections and Forecasts

More information on doing cash flow forecast Annual Cash Flow Projections Short-Term Cash Flow Projections

Managing Your Bank Account

For a new nonprofit, your check register very likely will be your primary means to record and track cash. Whether yours is a new nonprofit or an established nonprofit, you'll need

to know how to manage your bank account. See Reconciling Your Bank Account

Credit and Collections

Matters of credit and collections are similar between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, other than that nonprofits obviously grant free services much more than for-profit organizations. Consequently, nonprofits are not nearly as likely to utilize credit and collections procedures. Credit and Collections Debt Collection-Know Your Rights Getting Paid What Your Owed Getting Back on Track, including collections

Budget Deviation Analysis

You learned above that a budget depicts what you expect to spend (expenses) and earn (revenue) over a time period. Budget deviation analysis regularly compares what you expected, or planned, to earn and spend with what you actually spent and earned. The budget deviation analysis can help greatly when detecting how well you're tracking your plans, how much to accurately budget in the future, where there may be upcoming problems in spending, etc. A budget deviation analysis report might include columns with titles: Difference % Deviation Planned for Month Actual for Month (planned minus actual) (Difference x 100

ACTIVITIES IN YEARLY ACCOUNTING CYCLE: Financial Management of Programs, Assets, Inventory, etc. Managing Program Finances
Usually, there are two major types of costs to consider: indirect costs and direct costs. Indirect costs are what we sometimes call "administrative" or "overhead" costs, for example, costs to run the central facility. Direct costs are those that fund resources which directly produce services to clients, for example, supplies and materials for books provided to clients. Usually, the lower your administrative costs, the more it looks like your resources are going directly to services to clients. In addition, you may have restricted grants (that is, grants that are dedicated for certain programs), which require you to report monies spent on overhead and directly on the program. Therefore, it's wise to track carefully how much money each of your programs requires to operate and how much revenue it generates, as well. A major challenge is to analyze how much of the indirect costs are associated with each program. How can I determine my program costs easily? How can we allocate indirect costs to programs?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) How do we develop functional expense classification?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) Managing Restricted Grants: Routine or Risk Business.

Also see Basic Guidelines for Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing.

ACTIVITIES IN YEARLY ACCOUNTING CYCLE: Financial Statements and Analysis Financial Statements
In order to know how your nonprofit is doing, you'll do some ongoing financial planning and analysis. In this planning and analysis, you'll likely use your bookkeeping information to produce various financial statements, including a cash flow statement, statement of activities and a statement of financial position. What Financial Statements are Nonprofits Required to Issue?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) Financial Statements of Nonprofit Organizations How to Read a Nonprofit Financial Statements

Statement of Activities (Income Statements)

These statements include much money you've earned (your revenue) and subtracts how much you've spent (your expenses), resulting in the total of your unrestricted net assets. The statement of activities includes how much money you've earned (your revenue) and subtracts how much you've spent (your expenses), resulting in how much you've made money (your profits) or lost money (your deficits). Basically, the statement includes total sales minus total expenses. It presents the nature of your overall profit and loss over a period of time. Therefore, the Income Statement gives you a sense for how well the nonprofit is operating. Statement of Activities

Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheets)

Whereas the statement of activities depicts the overall status of your profits (or deficits) by looking at income and expenses over a period of time, the balance sheet depicts the overall status of your finances at a fixed point in time. It totals your all your assets and subtracts all your liabilities to compute your overall net worth (or net loss). This statement are referenced particularly when applying for funding. Statement of Financial Position

Financial Analysis (individual statements, ratios, break-even analysis, etc.)

Financial analysis can tell you a lot about how your nonprofit is doing. Without this analysis, you may end up staring at a bunch of numbers on budgets, cash flow projections and financial statements. You should set aside at least a a few hours every month to do financial analysis. Analysis includes cash flow analysis and budget deviation analysis mentioned above. Analysis also includes balance sheet analysis and state of activities analysis. There are some techniques and tools to help in financial analysis, for example,

profit analysis (yes, these can be used even in nonprofits), break-even analysis and ratios analysis that can substantially help to simplify and streamline financial analysis. How you carry out the analysis depends on the nature and needs of you and your business. The following links will help you get a sense for the "territory" of financial analysis.

General Information
How Do We Interpret Our Financial Statements? (select Financial Management and scroll down)

Financial Planning and Analysis -- Ratios

There are a variety of ratios that can be used to help determine the current and future condition of a nonprofit. The following links provide explanation and procedures for using those ratios. The ratios are produced from numbers on the financial statements. Note that the usefulness of ratios often are from comparing ratios from different time periods in the same nonprofit or from standards for a type of nonprofit, eg, social services, associations, civic organizations, etc. Nonprofit FAQ's questions about ratios (find them in this section) The following articles are in reference to for-profits, but the principles behind the ratios also apply to nonprofit organizations. Basic Financial Ratios Overview of major types of ratios and how they're computed

Financial Planning and Analysis -- Break-Even Analysis

The break-even analysis uses information from the statement of activities and cash flow statements to compute how much sales or revenue much be accomplished in order to pay for all of your fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are expenses that you'd have regardless of the level of sales of products or services (eg, sales, rent, insurance, maintenance, etc.). Variable expenses are incurred according to the level of sales of products or services (eg, sales commissions, sales tax, freight to ship products, etc.). Break-even analysis can help you when deciding how much to charge for a service, how much to ask for from donors, etc. Break-Even Analysis Break-Even Analysis Break-Even Analysis

Financial Reporting
The types and frequency of reports depend on the nature of the nonprofit and its situation. Banks might want reports to verify financial strength to pay back loans. Foundations, individuals, or other donors may want reports to verify that donations are being spent as expected by the foundation or donor. The Internal Revenue Service will want certain reports when filing yearly tax forms.

Overviews
What financial statements are nonprofits required to issue?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What financial reports do management and the board need?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What information are we required to provide to individual donors?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) AICPA SOP 98-2 and its Impact on Financial Reporting Basics of Nonprofit Financial Management

Annual Reports
Tips for Creating a Good Annual Report Tips for Reading an Annual Report Sample Report: United Way of America The Annual Reports Library

General
Nonprofit Resource Center AICPA SOP 98-2 and its Impact on Financial Reporting (also see "General Information" in Nonprofit Taxation)

SPECIAL TOPICS Lease Versus Buy

The Basics of Leasing many articles on leasing Cost of Lease vs. Purchase Leasing Versus Buying Cars Leasing Office Space

Assessments and Audits of Nonprofit Financial Management Practices

Various Assessments and Indicators
Financial Indicators Minnesota Council of Nonprofits "Principles and Practices", section about finances Seven characteristics of financial healthy nonprofits

Audits
What is an audit? (click on Financial Management and scroll down) Should we get an audit?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) What is an A-133 audit?(click on Financial Management and scroll down) How do we prepare for an audit?(click on Financial Management and scroll down)

GENERAL RESOURCES Various Types of Resources

Sources of Online Assistance and Information
Resources for Nonprofits

Software to Help Manage Your Finances

Software for Nonprofits

Getting and Using Banking Services

Finding a Bank that Fits Your Needs, Choosing a Bank for Your Business Setting up Your Bank Accounts

Getting and Using Accounting Services

Ways in Which an Accountant Can Help How Do I Select an Accountant? Keeping Accounting Costs Down Business Contracts (this will be useful if you sign any contracts with the accountant) You should carefully consider whether you should hire an outside accountant, or hire your own employee. The IRS pays increasing attention to the hiring of independent contractors. Potential Issues in Hiring Consultants (general information and IRS-related issues)

Have a Treasurer to Help You?

Does a nonprofit organization need a treasurer? Role of Board Treasurer Being a Club Treasurer -- the Basics

Fiscal Sponsorship -- To Help Get Your Finances Started ...

Frequently Asked Questions About Fiscal Sponsorship (from GENIE) Fiscal Sponsorship FAQ's (from ABOUT.COM) What is a Fiscal Agent and How Do I Find One? Guidelines for Fiscal Sponsorship Charities Must Take Care in Serving as Conduits

Miscellaneous Other Resources

Financial Calculators (many kinds)