5 Sections Nonprofits NEED In Their Quickbooks Chart of Accounts

[@HarvestingFaithHomestead]

I am a bookkeeper for a non profit and when I first started with them I had no experience or training in the non profit sector. I’ve had to figure a lot of stuff out on my own, including cleanups due to a BADDDDD conversion from QBD to QBO, and have felt so so overwhelmed with it all. I’ve finally finished the cleanup after taking some courses from a tax auditor, and now I need to figure out how to manage the grants. It looks like the last person who managed the books had the COAset up with a lot of the “don’ts” on your list, and it is extraordinarily overwhelming to look at and try to figure out. I’m really thankful to have found you, and I hope that I can get things in order so that things work smoother for us.

[@adriandiazkeith1761]

I'm volunteering at a local Board with a focus on Treasury. You definitely spoke to me! Defining the sections with Do's and Don't was key in this video. Thank you so much.

[@germeeng700]

You're so welcome. Please let me know if there are other topics you'd like me to cover.

[@Wia_Creations]

Found this to be a good background to setting up a CoA for Non-Profit. Keep it up

[@filmonTewolde]

Thank you for the video. This helps a lot. Can you please do a video on how you handle the way QuickBooks online automatically moves Net Revenue into Retained Earnings at the end of the fiscal year rather than to the Restricted and Unrestricted accounts. Thanks.

[@germeeng700]

I will add that to the rotation

[@bill8985]

Where have you been all my life? ;o) Your explanations are very clear and on point. Thank you. I've subscribed and will likely binge your vids.

[@germeeng700]

Glad these have been helpful!

[@emilyfisher9649]

Crystal clear explanation, sounds like good advice, great communication, thank you so much.

[@richardschneider9279]

Thank you for the valuable information!!

[@JunkanooBob99]

Love your videos, very clear.

[@germeeng700]

Thank you!

[@mradroable]

This was a very good video for me to watch, I like the Dos and Don'ts you presented which is very helpful. I am working for an organization which is non-profit. Actually I am mostly volunteering.

[@staceysmith9482]

Great info. Thank you

[@user-vp4me4lq1p]

Thank you, Germeen!! You did an amazing job of clarifying the COAs for NPs. I have an established NP that I will be converting from QBD to QBO and I have some idea of what my NP individual needs are, but would like a COA template so I can pick and choose? They were not using classes so things needed to be downloaded into to an excel spreadsheet and then reported to the board. Ugg so laborious! I want to be able to create these customized reports and just pull them monthly to save time. Thank you in advance!!!

[@BreeHarris-uf3gl]

Thank you so much for these videos. Do you have a video or pdf available that gives a suggested list of the chart of account names?

[@staceysmith9482]

Thank you I appreciate this guide. My current chart of accounts is a mess. Can you provide more payroll expense for liabilities for the BS reporting how it should be listed?

[@ITSSHELLY7507]

This video is so helpful! Do you have a video explaining how to handle pledges receivable in the chart of accounts?

[@sammelnick8301]

I think that belongs on the financial position statements on accrual accounting. Maybe!

[@cyouinthemajorleaguesfound4276]

Thanks for the video. I'm curious, though. With this system of putting functional expenses under Class, how would you label a program expense or fundraising expense in the bigger picture of categories?

[@germeeng700]

Not sure I understand your question. Theres a separate class for program expenses and fundraising expenses. If you want to dig deeper, you can use subclasses for specific programs or fundraisers.

[@normarosado8411]

This is all different for churches, do you have a chart of acct for churches?

[@germeeng700]

I tweak the COA specifically for churches that work with us but I dont have a template. We do follow the same logic however with keeping the COA simple and natural categories.

[@shekinadrumer1]

A house of worship that does not have to file a 990. Would you recommend that they still categorize by functional classes such as Admin, Fundraising and Programs for Grant Seeking purposes? Blessings!

[@shekinadrumer1]

I'm trying to make an Equity account for Net Asset for restricted and unrestricted funds? What detail type should I use, Owner's Equity? Blessings again!

[@diajackson]

We inherited an overcrowded COA. What can we do to streamline it?

[@germeeng700]

In this case, I typically would come up with a better version of the COA where we're either consolidating lines or getting rid of certain accounts altogether. We then present to management and the board. All of this gets done outside QBO so that you can get buy in. Once approved, we make the changes. Depending on timing we usually wait until the beg on the new year or when audit season is over.

[@theprepfactory171]

Is there a COA set up video?

[@germeeng700]

You can check out this video>> kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqiulKKfZ7dnga8

[@Rlvthatsme123]

I have done all the don'ts..... I need to start over. Can this be done. Can I start from Scratch?

[@germeeng700]

It depends on how "messy" the file is and whether clean up is worth the time investment.

[@user-eh6ru4ds5w]

Do you have a full COA list?

[@germeeng700]

I dont have one that I share

[@NoNonsenseNan]

both net assets with donor restrictions and net assets without donor restrictions cannot be Retained Earnings and if I create Net Assets with sub accounts the sub accounts cannot be retained earnings - so what type do we use?

[@germeeng700]

you can use owner's equity

[@michaelmueller3228]

That is the impossible dream, I don't believe you can have multiple net asset balances (restricted fund, general fund) in QB.

[@user-sx1go8fy2i]

"this gives me anxiety" made me laugh

[@germeeng700]

lol!

[@robertoyaonajr.4542]

There’s an option to make your quickbooks a non profit book.

[@juniorjohnson4971]

I agree am just getting started with it

[@cjckendall-bandera]

You lost me when you didn't include "program, fundraising, & admin expenses"

[@germeeng700]

We don’t crowd the chart of accounts with functional expenses. We take a simplistic approach and use the COA for natural categories and use classes in QBO to track program, admin, and fundraising expenses. That way we have multiple ways we can pull reports and we can choose the level of detail.