Accounting and Finance Staff Room
Welcome! You’re in the Accounting and Finance Staff Room, where folks of your ilk gather to share information and resources, to network and to build skills and knowledge in the field of nonprofit accounting and finance.
Managers' Helpline FAQs
Accounting and finance tools
Submit a resource
Accounting and finance listserv
When do I record a contribution as income?
When you receive the promise or pledge in documentable form (usually written). This is even true of multi-year funding: It must be recorded as income in the year it was promised -- not spread out over the years in which it is received, regardless of whether you've received any, some or all of the payments. (SFAS 116 & 117)
What's the best way to allocate expenses?
There are no IRS-prescribed guidelines on cost allocation, but the recommended practice is to use a method that is reasonable, clear and consistent. Remember that an expense takes its function from the activity with which it is associated -- for example, a telephone cost may be either program, fundraising or administration depending on the purpose of the calls. It is easiest and clearest to allocate direct costs first, then jonit costs, then indirect costs (when allowable).
Don't see what you're looking for? Submit a question here. If you're a CAN member, you can also call the toll-free Managers Helpline number that you received in your welcome packet when you joined, or ask your peers on the Accounting and Finance Listserv.
Money Matters: 2007 Nonprofit Finance Conferences have concluded. Click here for more information about the 2008 Money Matters conferences.
Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp and QuickBooks for Nonprofits will be held back-to-back in Oakland and Palm Desert in September. They're selling out quickly, so register soon!
The Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp Blog contains follow-up information and resources from CAN’s Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camps.
CAN Alert Articles: Back issues of articles published by CAN in its bimonthly member newsletter, the CAN Alert.
CAN Bookstore
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Have a good resource to share that's not listed above? E-mail a short description and link to Alan Strand or call him at (213) 347-2070, ext. 206.
If you're a CAN member, you can join a listserv that connects you to finance and accounting staff in other member organizations! Network, share resources, tell stories from the trenches, and more. Click here to join the listserv today.
