4Thought Blog

Your nonprofit CPA auditor should help you assess opportunities, risks and financing opportunities.

They should have connections in the community and a good relationship with your board so your organization can be on solid financial footing.

Nonprofit leaders have a lot of important duties to accomplish. Right behind following your mission should be managing your finances – without best practices in force, nonprofit leaders could make some costly missteps.

See our best financial practices for nonprofit organizations below. And these are not just for the CEO, CFO and other executive officers – nonprofit board members have fiduciary responsibilities to their organizations, including having a deep understanding of the finances.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is in the business of rulemaking, and there’s a new one nonprofits need to be aware of.

Back in 2016, FASB issued new guidance required for all nonprofit organizations with fiscal years ending after December 15, 2018. While the majority of the changes are purely cosmetic, understanding each will make your year-end financial reporting much easier.

If the financial covenants between your company and your bank are based on GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) Financial Statements and include any measure of total liabilities – which most do – you need to be ready for what is coming.

Under an Accounting Standards Update which was issued in April 2016 and effective for 2020 to non-public entities with calendar year ends, the GAAP treatment for leases is changing. This ASU will remap your balance sheet and make your past success with covenant compliance take an unexpected turn for the worse. 

Managing limited resources and dodging between various compliance issues, nonprofit organizations are at greater disadvantage than their for-profit counterparts.

One way they can take on this challenge is with the proper monitoring of cash flow. Nonprofit entities use two reports to this end – the annual budget and a cash forecast.