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Sometimes mistakes happen. Vendors over bill us or we accidentally overpay them. If the vendor is a recurring one and the amount isn’t too high, they will usually issue a credit memo to be taken off the next month’s bill. This is easily handled in QuickBooks and other accounting systems, because it is so common. But sometimes, the vendor will issue you a check back. If you don’t need to send him a Form 1099 (for independent contractors) and it isn’t important from your management reporting requirements, you can deposit the check through the Banking, Make Deposits screen. Just be...

QuickBooks® Online or desktop? How are you to know which QuickBooks would work best for your small nonprofit or church's specific needs?

(Updated 1/25/21)

Both QuickBooks Online and the desktop versions (Pro, Premier, and Nonprofit) are geared towards businesses, not nonprofits.

Many organizations use gift cards or prepaid grocery cards to assist those in need. Because the cards are the equivalent of cash, there needs to be procedures in place to keep them safe from theft and to document how they were used. I’ll step you through a very basic approach to this. First, think of the cards as a type of Petty Cash. You need to have one person responsible for keeping them secure and logging who is taking them out. The Gift Card Fundraiser Log in the Freebies tab can be used for this. http://accountantbesideyou.com/blog/accounting-for-gift-card-fundraisers/ If someone needs assistance...

Last week I wrote about receiving stock from donors. This week, I’ll discuss how to record the investment earnings and change in values. If your nonprofit or church has investment accounts, you will notice on the brokerage statements the earnings may be divided into Realized and Unrealized Income. Realized income is money earned and received into your account. Typical examples are dividend income, interest income, gain (or loss) on the sale of stock. Unrealized income/loss reflects the impact of current market conditions on your holdings. For example, assume the organization has 100 shares of stock in American Airlines it purchased...

The end of the year is close and, hopefully, donations are pouring in. Donating stock instead of cash to a nonprofit or church may have an additional benefit for the donor. (Please note, I am not a tax expert and am not giving tax advice. Your donors should seek the advice of their local CPA to see if this could be a benefit to them.) IRS regulations allow for stock donated to be deducted by the donor at the market value instead of the stock price when it was purchased. This means that if a donor has 100 shares of...