Nonprofits operate on a foundation of trust. Your donors, grant agencies, and the community you serve put faith in your ability to use funds ethically and effectively. Program accounting is the key to showing that your organization is a good steward of resources.
But I get it – tracking income and expenses by individual programs can feel overwhelming! I’m here to break it down and show you it’s not as scary as it seems.
What is Program Accounting?
Let’s start with a simple definition: Program accounting is the process of tracking all financial activity related to specific programs within your nonprofit. This is different from your general bookkeeping, which gives you an overall financial picture.
Why is it so important?
- Funder Requirements: Grantors almost always want to see financial reports specific to the program their money supports.
- Transparency: Clear program accounting builds trust with your donors, whether they give $25 or $25,000.
- Decision-Making: Knowing how much programs actually cost helps you budget better and make informed decisions about resource allocation.
Setting Up Your System for Program Tracking in QuickBooks
QuickBooks offers a powerful tool for program accounting: Classes. Here’s how to leverage them effectively:
- Class Activation: If you haven’t already, enable the “Classes” feature in your QuickBooks settings.
- Program as Class: Create a unique class for each program you operate within your organization (Ex: “Youth Mentoring Program”, “Food Bank Operations”).
- Nesting Classes for Complex Programs: QuickBooks allows you to create nested classes, perfect for programs with sub-programs. For instance, your “Youth Mentoring Program” class could have sub-classes like “Elementary Mentoring” and “High School Mentoring.” Important Note: Transactions should only be coded to the sub-class level, not the parent class, to ensure accurate reporting.
- Allocating Personnel Costs: Personnel often represents a nonprofit’s biggest expense. Develop a process for allocating staff salaries and benefit costs across programs based on time spent or other relevant factors. This provides a clearer picture of each program’s true cost.
- Distributing Common Costs: Costs like rent, utilities, and insurance benefit all programs to some degree. Establish a system to distribute these common costs across programs on a monthly or quarterly basis.
- Chart of Accounts: Your chart of accounts should be more generalized to capture the nature of each transaction (rent, salaries, donations, etc.). Once the program data is captured in the class field, the chart of accounts can be simplified, focusing on overall categories. A good template for a Nonprofit Chart of Accounts can be found here. (Courtesy of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs)
Real-Time Tracking
- Coding Receipts: Get into the habit of coding every invoice and receipt to the right program class.
- Timesheets Matter: If staff work on multiple programs, track their hours meticulously for accurate payroll allocation.
Reporting Made Easy
Once your system is humming, generating program-specific reports is simple:
- Income Statement by Program: Shows how much money a program brought in vs. spent.
- Budget vs. Actual Reports: How much did you plan to spend on a program vs. what you really spent?
The Power of Clean Program Accounting
Yes, it takes a bit more effort than just basic bookkeeping. But the rewards are HUGE:
- Confident Grant Applications: You’ve got the data to back up your requests.
- Satisfied Donors: They can see their impact clearly.
- Smart, Mission-Focused Decisions: You aren’t guessing about which programs make the greatest impact.
Need a Helping Hand?
Nonprofit bookkeeping is our specialty. Whether you need setup help, ongoing support, or staff training, let’s chat!