-
Recommendations for nonprofit social enterprise accounting services
Hello, I run a nonprofit social enterprise. It’s called Ready for Good Furnishings. We serve youth at-risk, aged 14-26, making the difficult transition to adulthood while growing up in the foster care or juvenile justice system, or recently aged out of those systems struggling to make their way in the world without family or support. We provide job training, mentorship, connections to jobs at partner employers, life skills workshops, resume development, interview practice, etc. We are a nonprofit employment-based social enterprise. Our budget is around 600,000/year, and I’m the ED. I’m looking for help setting up our accounting system better. It’s starting to become an issue because it wasn’t set up in the beginning very smartly. We aren’t able to track things well, using features of Quickbooks Online, because the chart of accounts, classes, projects, etc., aren’t set up effectively. As a result, it’s not making it easy when we have grant reports, and financial reports are less informative than they could be. I am wondering if there are any accounting/budgeting/book-keeping firms that specialize in helping nonprofit social enterprises with these things, if anyone has a few recommendations. Also, I just finished REDF’s Accelerator program for nonprofit social enterprises, last night actually– if you’ve ever heard of that cohort training program — and I know some others in my cohort were needing recommendations for accounting assistance from a firm/individual with experience, expertise, or interest helping set up accounting systems and practices for orgs like us (nonprofit employment social enterprises. Thanks so much!
-
10 Replies
-
You may want to join the facebook group “Quickbooks for Nonprofits” and search recent posts. Many people are asking for similar help so you may be able to find someone virtual or in your area.
-
Highly second Erica’s recommendation. The group is well run, very helpful and there are many who do nonprofit accounting who might be helpful.
There is a sample chart of accounts in the files section of the Facebook group
Greg Bosson does training in nonprofit accounting on QuickBooks. Tech Soup offers his training. I think he also has service providers.
Reaching out to both of those should provide some helpful leads.
-
I agree that Gregg Bossen/QuickBooks Made Easy is a great resource. https://quickbooksmadeeasy.com/ His YouTube channel is also very useful. The organization I work with also provides financial management/bookkeeping support to nonprofits (501 Commons, https://www.501commons.org/)
-
I co-founded a nonprofit that provides these kinds of services for other mission driven orgs. (https://www.structural-integrity.org/) If we can be helpful or you just want to talk it through, don’t hesitate to reach out! We also know some other folks working in the space that we can suggest if their expertise might be a better fit. Id’ say that traditional bookkeepers/accountants aren’t so focused on this systems setup piece, but they can be critical in helping maintain the system once established.
-
Hi Addison — I also hopped on to recommend you look into Greg Bossen’s QuickBooks Made Easy for Nonprofits! His program and recommendations are the gold standard for nonprofit bookkeeping/accounting. It can be confusing to set up effective nonprofit bookkeeping if you don’t know bookkeeping or QuickBooks. I specialize in nonprofit bookkeeping on one side of my business and retail/e-commerce on the other, so if you’d like, I’d be happy to jump on a call with you to take a look at what’s going on, see if I can make some suggestions or point you to some more resources. You can message me by clicking on my name to get to my profile, and then click the three little dots next to the “Connect” button.