One of the first fiscal decisions organizations make is to define their fiscal year. A fiscal year is the one-year period after which an organization must close their books and file taxes.

The two primary tools that harm reduction leaders reported using the most to track their transactions (money received and money spent) were the Excel spreadsheet and Intel’s Quickbooks.

You will also need to decide on either cash or what is known as “accrual” accounting. Cash accounting is accounting for transactions at the time payments are made or received. For many small organizations this will be perfectly adequate. However, because there is often a disconnect between when a transaction occurs and when payment is […]

One of the next decisions organizations will need to make when setting up their accounting system is their expense categories or “chart of accounts”. These are broad categories for accounting that help track income and expenses – they are the basis of accounting.

Creating a budget is an essential part of strategic planning for your organization. Budgeting can be challenging for harm reduction organizations because funding is often so dependent on foundation and government grants and contracts, which can radically transform the budget and what an organization is able to do in any given year.

The rules and common parlance of nonprofit finance are mostly the same as any other business, but nonprofits have some specialized language and practices.

One of the things that many leaders said they had heard from financial professionals was that three categories of expenses are especially scrutinized by the IRS: reimbursements, petty cash, and employee mileage.

An audit is an official inspection of an organization’s accounts that is undertaken by an outside party – either a CPA or a tax attorney.

Though organizations can do their own bookkeeping and tax filings, it is often both easier and more transparent to hire a professional.