Your nonprofit organization depends on a well organized and healthy budget. That means regular check ups by your accountants or budget staff is essential.
But what do you look for? And how often should these regular check ups happen?
Luckily, Abila put together a handy dandy checklist to help you review and maintain your budget.
Checkups should be held both monthly and quarterly
To keep the budget for your nonprofit organization healthy, it’s best to hold monthly and quarterly check up meetings.
During monthly check ups, you should:
- Review actual vs budgeted review, for each program and the overall organization
- Review your balance sheets
- Review your year-end forecasting
During quarterly check ups, you should:
- Review actual vs budgeted for the quarter
- Review grant budgets (used vs. unused funds)
- Review budget as a whole – look for unbudgeted expenses
Have a plan for each quarterly checkup
There are four quarters that make up the fiscal year. So each quarter you should review various things to maintain your budget.
For example, in Q1 you should go ahead and schedule the various checkups with your stakeholders. And in Q2, you should obtain approvals for mid-year budget revisions.
Start the next year’s budget preparation early
When you enter Q3 and Q4, you and your budget team should start prepping for the next year’s budget. This is to give you and your team enough time to review the financial data, grants, etc. and make a well thought out nonprofit budget.
Abila’s checklist recommends doing the planning in Q3 and creating the budget in Q4, however you should organize it best for your organization.
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Contact the Nonprofit Accounting Software Experts Today
Maintaining a healthy budget is necessary for every nonprofit organization. If you are unsure how to budget or want to learn how you can use nonprofit accounting software to make your financial processes easier, contact us here.