It’s that spooky time of year again! The leaves are crunching underfoot, the jack-o-lanterns are lit up on front porches, and the accountants in your neighborhood are beginning to have nightmares about their rapidly approaching “busy season.” While nonprofit accountants have it better than most – since many of our nonprofit clients have a fiscal year-end that does not fall on December 31st, thereby spreading out our resources more evenly across the year – the end of the calendar year still marks the start of a busy, stressful season of financial reporting, state and federal filings, tax forms, and reconciliations.
As the kids are ringing your doorbell this Halloween, consider some of these tricks and treats that might make your accountant’s upcoming busy season a bit more manageable – or a complete nightmare!
Trick
Procrastinating all those bookkeeping entries because you’re sure you’ll have plenty of time to catch up later…
Treat
Reconciling each account in minutes due to diligent daily transaction records.
Trick
Assuming your organization will reimburse you for those airport parking fees even though you lost the receipt. Your word is good enough, right?
Treat
Using an app-based expense manager like Expensify to digitally capture and track your expenses on the go.
Trick
Spending your Sunday night digging through boxes of old bills and bank statements before the auditors arrive on Monday.
Treat
Quickly sending your auditor a link to your organization’s cloud-based document management system.
Trick
When you forget to get a W-9 from a contractor, resulting in a last-minute flurry of frantic calls and emails to track down their tax information before February 1 (the deadline to issue Form 1099s for 2021).
Treat
Calmly sitting down to prepare your 1099s with a clean, complete, and well-organized record of all your independent contractors.
