What are Nonprofit Accounting Standards

Table of content:
0:00 Intro
0:56 Accounting Standards in USA (PCAOB, IRS, FASB, GASB, AICPA)
1:09 What's GAAP? (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
1:20 Unique Nonprofit Accounting Guideline (Report + Tax Return)
1:34 3 Primary Reports That Your Nonprofit Needs
1:40 Balance Sheet
1:47 Statement of Activities
1:57 Statement of Financial Expenses
2:07 Tax Returns For Nonprofits- 990 forms (990 E Postcards, 990-EZ, Full Form 990)

In this lesson, we will take a look at the standards that your nonprofit accounting system needs to adhere to. If you run a nonprofit and have gone through our previous lessons on how to build an accounting system, this is the lesson for you!
Like any business or organization, there are always expectations created by governing authorities that dictate how your operations are run and what forms you need to file. Accounting decisions for nonprofits in the U.S. are made by the PCAOB, AICPA, IRS, GASB, and FASB. The main point of these organizations is to determine rules that accounting must follow. We call these GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standards. All entities in the U.S. must adhere to these nonprofit accounting standards.

Nonprofit-accounting-standards-GAAP:

- Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) – Established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports.

- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) – The national, professional organization of CPAs, which sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments.

- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – The revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting taxes, and the interpretation and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code.

- Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) – The source of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) used by state and local governments in the U.S.

- Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) – A private organization whose primary purpose is to develop generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the U.S.

Depending on your operations, you will need to research the individual requirements of your nonprofit, but generally it all boils down to your reports and tax returns.

[URFinegrl]

I love how you take things that at first seem so overwhelming and hard, and break them down into short, , easy to understand, to the point videos. What you need to do, why you are doing it and what it's purpose is. Videos that are not 1 hour long webinars where the individual spends long periods of the time making corny jokes and every once in awhile throws in something important, never tells you why you should be doing it, speeds through the actual procedure, never tells you why it's important, uses terminology you are just learning, and by the end of it, you forget what you may have learned. I have found it hard to follow and apply the many long drawn out answers and procedures of entering things needed to keep the books in check. I'm new to all of this. Your videos have been so helpful. Thank you for simplifying things I have struggled to understand. I seem to do better with understanding something when I understand the "why" I'm doing it and explaining what the end result will be.

[stephenberinger]

Nonprofit people. Does your accounting department track finances by grant or program? For example, grant 100 will pay for a vaccine program and a diabetic program. So in the P&L, is everything listed under 100 or by program with 100 grant as a line item for funding?