QuickBooks nonprofits bookkeeping that keeps your funds, grants, & board reports compliant.

A nonprofit bookkeeper tracks money by fund, not just by account. That means recording every transaction against the right restricted or unrestricted fund, tagging grant activity so you can report to funders, and splitting costs across program, administrative, and fundraising for functional expense reporting. A general bookkeeper records income and expenses; a nonprofit bookkeeper answers the question your board and funders ask most: how much of each restricted dollar is left, and what it can be spent on.

Pricing depends on monthly transaction volume, how many restricted funds and grants you track, and add-ons like payroll, cleanup, or Form 990 coordination. Most engagements run on a flat monthly retainer rather than hourly billing, which keeps the cost predictable for budgeting. Use the estimate tool on this page for a starting range, then book a free call for an exact quote based on your books.

Most 501(c)(3) organizations are exempt from federal income tax on revenue tied to their exempt purpose, but exemption is not the same as no filing. Nonprofits generally still file an annual Form 990, may owe unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on income unrelated to their mission, and remain responsible for payroll taxes. Clean, fund-level books are what make all three accurate.

It's the nonprofit version of a balance sheet. It reports assets, liabilities, and net assets at a point in time. The key difference from a for-profit balance sheet is that net assets are split into funds with donor restrictions and funds without, so a reader can see how much of the organization's money is committed versus available.

Restricted funds are donations or grants a funder has limited to a specific program, project, or time period, so they can only be spent as the donor specified. Unrestricted funds carry no such limits and cover general operations. Commingling the two is one of the most common nonprofit bookkeeping errors and the fastest way to fail an audit, which is why fund-level tracking is the foundation of nonprofit books.

Yes. We keep your books audit-ready year round: reconciled accounts, documented fund balances, supported entries, and clean functional expense allocation. If federal funding triggers a single audit under Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), we organize the schedules and records your auditor requests. We don't perform the audit itself, which keeps your books and your audit independent.

We coordinate Form 990 prep by keeping the financials accurate all year and producing the functional expense and net asset detail the 990 requires. Depending on your organization, it's filed by our tax team or handed to your existing CPA in clean, ready-to-file shape.

Most of our nonprofit clients run QuickBooks Online with class and location tracking configured for funds, or Xero for leaner organizations. As a top 2% QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm and a Xero partner, we set the platform up correctly for fund accounting. If your fund and grant structure has outgrown those tools, we'll tell you and recommend a dedicated fund accounting platform instead. See our QuickBooks for nonprofits page for setup detail.

Outsourcing usually starts to make sense around $500K or more in annual budget, or once you add your first restricted grant, paid staff, or a board that wants real reporting. Below that, a well-configured QuickBooks file and a periodic review are often enough, and we'll say so rather than sell you a retainer you don't need yet.

Yes. Churches are 501(c)(3) organizations with the same fund accounting needs as other nonprofits, plus designated giving, building funds, and benevolence funds tracked separately. Our nonprofit team handles church bookkeeping with the same fund-level discipline and US-based oversight.

Yes. Your books are handled by a US-based bookkeeper with senior accountant oversight. We don't offshore nonprofit work, because fund accounting, grant compliance, and board reporting depend on context that's easy to lose across a handoff.

Yes, and it's a common way nonprofits start with us. We assess how far behind the books are, separate commingled funds, rebuild fund balances, and bring prior periods current before moving you onto a clean monthly close. The cleanup is scoped and quoted up front, so there are no surprises.