The first question
How do you keep restricted and unrestricted funds apart?
Rationale Services builds the fund structure into your books rather than tracking it in a spreadsheet alongside them. Every receipt is recorded against the fund it belongs to and every cost against the fund that bears it, so the balance of each restricted fund is a figure you can read at any time.
The usual failure is not carelessness, it is a chart of accounts that was never designed for this, so restricted money sits in one bank balance and is tracked by hand beside the books. The hand-kept version drifts, and then a funder asks a question nobody can answer quickly. Building the structure in means the answer comes out of the same system that produces your statements, and the two cannot disagree.
- The fund structure built into the books, not kept beside them
- Every receipt recorded against the fund it belongs to
- Every cost recorded against the fund that bears it
- Each restricted fund balance readable at any time
Grants, cost allocation and what the board sees
Can you report grant spend against the grant budget?
Yes. Rationale Services sets each grant up with its budget lines in your records, then reports actual spend against budget by line, with the balance remaining and the period covered. Costs are coded to the grant and the line when they are entered rather than allocated at reporting time.
Grant reporting is painful when the books are organized one way and the funder wants the figures another way, because each report becomes a translation exercise. Coding at entry removes it. It also catches overspend on a line while there is still time to do something about it, which is worth more than a tidy report at the end. Where a funder has its own format, we build the mapping once and reuse it.
How do you keep program and administrative costs distinguishable?
Rationale Services records program, administrative and fundraising costs separately, using an allocation basis for shared costs that you agree with us and that we then apply the same way every period. Staff time, premises and shared services are split on that basis and documented so the figures can be explained.
Boards and funders both look at this split, and it is only credible if it is consistent and supported. An allocation reinvented each year invites questions about every one of them. We write the method down, apply it, and keep the working papers behind it, so when someone asks why a cost sits where it does, there is an answer on file rather than a reconstruction.
What reporting will our board actually get?
Rationale Services produces a monthly or quarterly pack: statement of financial position, statement of activities, fund balances showing restricted and unrestricted separately, budget against actual, and cash position. It is written to be read by trustees who are not accountants, and it is the same format every period.
Most board packs fail in one of two ways: too thin to govern with, or a data dump nobody reads. We lead with what changed and what needs a decision, then show the statements behind it. Consistency matters as much as content, because a board that sees the same report each time starts noticing trends rather than relearning the layout. Accounting describes the reporting side of the work.
Services
The services organizations use most
The same work described elsewhere on the site, organised by fund, grant and program.
-
Accounting and reporting
Monthly accounts and a board pack in the same format every period.
-
Business support
Help with grant reporting and the administration around it.
Funder requests, payroll and scope
Our funder has asked for an audit. Can you do that?
No. Work of that kind is referred out to a firm that performs it. What we do is prepare the records and statements such an engagement starts from: reconciled accounts, documented fund balances, supported allocations and the working papers behind them.
In practice this is where most of the time in that process goes. Organizations that arrive with unreconciled accounts and fund balances held together by spreadsheets spend weeks on preparation before the engagement properly begins. We can have your records in a state where that work is straightforward, hand over a clean set of files, and answer questions during the process. If you would like an introduction to a firm that does this work, ask us.
Can you run payroll for our staff, including people funded by grants?
Yes. Rationale Services runs payroll for nonprofits with salaried and hourly staff, part-time roles and people whose time is split across programs or funded from more than one grant. We post payroll cost to the funds and programs it belongs to, using time records rather than estimates where they exist.
Split-funded staff are where nonprofit payroll gets difficult, because the split has to be defensible, not approximate. We set up the method with you, including what time records are needed to support it, then apply it consistently. That keeps grant reports accurate and keeps the program cost figures in your board pack honest.
What does nonprofit bookkeeping cost?
It depends on the number of funds and grants, how much funder reporting is involved, whether payroll is in scope, and the state of the current records. Rationale Services scopes that with you in conversation rather than quoting from a list. See how we work.
Questions
Common questions from nonprofit organizations
We are small and run on volunteers. Is this overkill?
Not usually. A small organization with one or two restricted grants still needs those funds tracked properly, and it is far less work to set up correctly than to reconstruct later.
Can you take over records kept in spreadsheets?
Yes. That is a common starting point. We agree what has to be rebuilt, move the fund balances into a proper structure, reconcile from there, and keep the spreadsheets as supporting history.
Do you handle our annual filings?
We handle preparation and filing work within the scope we agree with you — see taxation. We confirm that scope at the outset.
Can you work with us remotely?
Yes. We work remotely with organizations across the United States. Board and funder reporting is produced and reviewed the same way regardless of where your office is. See where we work.
Give your board figures it can rely on
Tell us how many funds and grants you carry and we will set out what the structure would take.