Comments for Not-For-Profit Accounting

Comment on Year End IRS Charity News and Updates by accountingedmonton

accountingedmonton — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:19:04 +0000

Good Information shared Alan.
I just want to add this:
For all donations of property, including clothing and household items, get from the charity, if possible, a receipt that includes the name of the charity, date of the contribution, and a reasonably-detailed description of the donated property. If a donation is left at a charity’s unattended drop site, keep a written record of the donation that includes this information, as well as the fair market value of the property at the time of the donation and the method used to determine that value. Additional rules apply for a contribution of $250 or more.

Comment on End of Year Donations by Tom

Tom — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:17:06 +0000

I am confused about the classification of my tax year. Our 501 (c) 3 has a fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30. When discussing my fiscal year, do I use the calendar year in which my fiscal year ends or when it begins? In short, am I currently in Fiscal Year 2011 or Fiscal Year 2012?

Comment on Gifts-In-Kind Valuation by Tim

Tim — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:47:17 +0000

If a board member offers up services like auditing, website design, legal work – do they count toward their responsibility to contribute to the board? Regardless, how are they valuated?

Comment on End of Year Donations by Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:13:21 +0000

I believe the word “item” is key. QB treats items as objects or services you sell. Using a sales receipt requires you to create an “item”. QB isn’t great at nonprofit accounting, so you have to fool it. Try creating a “service” item, and “sell” it to your donor, putting in the amount of the donation. It should automatically create a matching entry in undeposited funds.

I don’t do it this way. Instead, I created an “Other Current Asset” account called Undeposited Funds, and then make a Deposit to our Donations account (an Income account) on 12/31, and select the Undeposited Funds account from the “Deposit To” drop down. When we actually deposit the funds into the bank, I specify the bank account in the Deposit To drop down, and on the line item corresponding to these funds, a specify a From account of Undeposited Funds.

This method is helpful in other situations too. For example, if you use Razoo, you have the situation that a donor might give money to Razoo for you in December, but Razoo doesn’t actually send you the money until January. Razoo isn’t actually a bank account, but it sort of acts like a bank account that automatically transfers to your real bank account every month. At year end, I need to show that money as income, but it hasn’t been deposited into the bank yet. So, I create an Other Current Asset account for Razoo and use the above method so that the balance sheet will correctly show that income as an asset and the P & L will correctly reflect the actual donations we received for the year.

Comment on End of Year Donations by Alan

Alan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:28:07 +0000

Hi Catherine,

Sales receipts need to be associated to income (or sometimes expense or bank) accounts. Sounds like you might be trying to link it to another type of account?