Links to Year-End Help Blog Posts
If your organization has a December 31st year end, January is a very busy time.
Besides the 1099s to independent contractors and the W-2s to employees, you also need to clean up all your accounts so your records will be correct. In this post, I’m going to link you to older blog posts to help. Many of these are written using QuickBooks desktop as the example, but the same concepts can be used by most other accounting systems.
Do you have too many accounts in your chart of accounts? Maybe you have an account for postage and another for shipping. Or perhaps you have 20 different donation options, but you really only need two. This blog post will show you how to merge these accounts.
Do you have unpaid pledges at year end? Here is one way to handle them. Click here.
Don’t forget that your donors need their year-end contribution statements. Besides taking the opportunity to thank your donor, this is also an IRS requirement. See if this blog post helps.
(If you need guidance on who should receive contribution statements, check out Church Accounting The How-To Guide for Small and Growing Churches. Even if you aren’t involved with a church, the information is also valid for nonprofit organizations.)
If your organization has an investment account, you’ll need to record the year-end change in value. Recording Stock and Endowment/Memorial Donations With Unrealized Gains and Losses should help.
Finally, I recommend going through each of the accounts on your balance sheet and understanding exactly what is in them. This post, Tips to Get your Nonprofit Financials Ready for an Audit will step you through the process.
I hope this helps. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page to get more information, tips, and discounts.
