QuickBooks is a popular accounting software, which can be a good solution for nonprofits. If your nonprofit is using or considering QuickBooks for your accounting needs, you may want to evaluate how the software can support your chart of accounts. Consider these guidelines for using QuickBooks to build your chart of accounts.

Nonprofit Requirements

A chart of accounts is simply a detailing of major and minor categories of assets, liabilities, net assets, revenue and expenses. This chart provides the foundation of information in financial statements. Each nonprofit must find a balance for how detailed their chart of accounts should be. If the financial statements are too summarized, they are just as ineffective if they are too detailed.

Nonprofits must also track three additional categories in their charts of accounts, related to “functional expenses”:

• Programs
• Management and Administration
• Fundraising

QuickBooks Solutions

In QuickBooks, your nonprofit can accommodate these three nonprofit categories in a straightforward fashion:

1. Create an expense account for Program, Management & Administration, and Fundraising. This process creates three new “major” functional expense categories, which will not have transactions posted.
2. Create “sub accounts” for each of these major functional expense categories based on what you need, which creates “minor” categories. For example, a sub account “Salaries” may appear under all three major categories.

Source: Configuring QuickBooks for Use in a Nonprofit: Setting Up the Chart of Accounts

In the social media world, Pinterest has become a widely popular tool for users to share content. Compared to other social sites, though, it is considered somewhat new, and many organizations are still trying to figure out whether to use it and how. Consider these suggestions for getting started with Pinterest and building an audience who is engaged with you.

6 Steps to Get Started

Before you begin using Pinterest, it is good to get an understanding of what it is and how it works. Pinterest is a social content sharing tool where users “pin” content to “pinboards,” akin to tacking photos, paper, etc. on a corkboard.

The type of content that users can share, or pin, is unlimited to what is available online. Recipes, products, cartoons, infographics, video and more. What is required is that the content pinned has an associated image, which displays on the pinboard, along with the URL to the content and a user-submitted description.

Pins are organized by pinboards, which are essentially user-created categories such as “art,” “books I’ve read,” and the like. Users can share pins, or selectively choose content that remains private. Users can also “follow” other users.

1. Follow users with content you like. You can follow all of their pins, or you can choose which pinboards to follow.
2. Find users who are pinning content you like and repin it.
3. “Like” pins of content that you want to share with your followers, but don’t want to add to your own pinboards.
4. Upload unique content to share with your followers.
5. Organize your own unique pins and repins into pinboards.
6. Add the “Pin It” button to your own web site where you want content to be available for pinning.

Source: Put a Pin In It: The Nonprofit’s Guide to Pinterest

As challenging, and even scary, as it is to collect and analyze data, the truth is that if you are measuring, you are better able to change. By paying close attention to results, nonprofits can more easily identify problems, successes and opportunities to change. Resource Media has been focused on close measurement for over a year, and has seen a positive impact. Consider these suggestions for how your nonprofit may benefit from closely analyzing data.

3 Tips for Measurement Success

1. Start now. Measuring data doesn’t need to have the clearest of goals to start. The point is to start and you can adjust as you learn what works and what doesn’t. If you wait for the “right time,” you are missing the change to collect and understand your data now and establish a baseline.
2. Establish a routine. For measuring to be effective, you need to do it regularly. Establishing a set routine and timetable for measuring results allows you to always be “in the know” when it comes to your data. You can share this information regularly with stakeholders use it to adjust future efforts.
3. Find the right fit. Measurement can be a deep hole and, as such, you can spend time measuring, using tools and trying to analyze when it isn’t benefitting you. Carefully consider the tools that will let you do what you need without overwhelming you with features that aren’t relevant to your organization.

Source: What Gets Measured Gets Better