Moving On

Just a quick note to say that I am moving on from the California Association of Nonprofits (CAN). My last day in the office will be this Friday, December 12. After the first of the year, I will continue my work as a consultant and trainer in the area of nonprofit accounting and finance and continue blogging and providing resources as well.

It has been my pleasure to work with CAN for nine years to help the nonprofit sector, to develop and lead the Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camps and other financial trainings (1,300 trainees across the state and nation!) and to speak with thousands of you on our helpline and at our events around the state. I look forward to continuing my relationship with you in the years to come and I want to say thanks to all of you for helping me learn about and grow with this sector over the last nine years. It has been an interesting journey, and I could not have done it without you.

It is hard to believe that this blog has been up and running for over a year and a half, and that we get almost 2,000 readers a month. Thank you for that as well. I'm not sure what the status of this blog will be in the weeks and months ahead but I will continue my interest in the area of nonprofit finance and accounting in another forum for those of you who are interested in reading yet another not-for-profit accounting blog.

I wish you a happy and relaxing holiday season.

Alan J. Strand
Interim Executive Director, California Association of Nonprofits (until 12/31/08)
Principal, Strand Financial Services (starting 1/1/09)
www.notforprofitaccounting.net

Retirement Account Changes

Does your nonprofit have a 403(b) retirement plan for its employees? If it does have you heard about all the changes taking effect for 403(b) plans? Do you know what you need to do to get ready for them?

As if getting ready for a new form 990 wasn't enough we also have to make sure our 403(b) plans are in order. The National Council of Nonprofit Associations is holding two webinars about the changes that will be presented by Bob Architect, Senior Tax Law Specialist at the IRS.

The first, a general presentation regarding the changes and how they will affect your organization, is Tuesday, October 28 at 3:00 - 4:15 pm Eastern. The second one, a comprehensive presentation regarding the changes for individuals who handle employee benefits, is Wednesday, November 12 at 3:30 - 4:45 pm Eastern. CAN Members get $10.00 off the $35.00 registration fee.

Pre-Tax Benefits

Two Things:
One - I have changed the name of our blog. Slightly. Over the last fourteen months of this blog (fourteen months!) it has changed from just being a resource for the Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camps we are doing to a broader look at the nonprofit finance and administrative world. I think the name should reflect that, but the change should not be too big to confuse people.

As the link above points out we are still doing the boot camps and I am still doing nonprofit accounting presentations around the state and in other states. Check the CAN home page for the latests educational events or click here to sign up for our enewsletter to have all the latest news delivered to your in-box.

Two - A tip of the hat to Kim at California Payroll. Pre-tax transportation benefits! Here in CA we are pushing $4.50 a gallon so anyway to help counts. These benefits won't lower prices but could help out tax-wise and any benefits that we can offer our employees that don't cost the employer much are win-win. From Kim's email:

In a nutshell, your employees can set aside $115 per month in pre-tax income to use towards riding in a commuter highway vehicle (qualified vanpool arrangement) between home and work and for purchasing transit passes. Also, your employees can set aside $220 per month for qualified parking.

Find out more from IRS Publication 15-B, The Employers Guide for Fringe Benefits. Click here to download a PDF of the publication. Thanks Kim!

QuickBooks Help

I frequently get emails about folks who need help with QuickBooks; new installations, re-tooling their existing set-up, user questions, you name it. I'm happy to give advice and CAN is able sometimes to get out and help folks. But there are other options two that are supported by Intuit and QuickBooks:

1. Check out the Other Resources Section below for links to books and forums to ask questions and get answers.
2. Look for a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. You can select by zip code and area of expertise and then get a list of folks to interview.

Hope that helps,
Alan

Image Source

CAN's Employment Center

Not an accounting post but a heads up out there for people looking for work. CAN has created a new Career Center on its website. So check it out and let me know what you think.

Cal CPA Nonprofit Courses

Most of you probably already know about our nonprofit accounting boot camps, and our annual Money Matters finance conferences. But the California CPA Society's Education Foundations has a couple of good programs as well. The have a day long conference on nonprofit issues in LA and San Francisco and two day long classes. The first is a nonprofit accounting and auditing update that spends a day talking about the latest doings and the second is a tax update covering both CA and federal issues.

This link will take you two a listing of their nonprofit events. They also have classes that are primarily designed for auditors that focus on A-133 audits and other government programs that folks out there my find useful, do check them out.

Updated Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp Schedule

Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp
Three new boot camps have been added for 2007 in Los Angeles, Oakland and Palm Desert. Click the link for details and prices.

Something New

To go along with the new website I have set up a news feed display that searches Google news for various topics. Go to the link in the title to see it or you can click on the link in the CAN Resources section below. Post any comments here (or there) and let me know what you think.

Alan

New website, new tools

Hey everybody, CAN has a brand new website! with an area dedicated just to us finance folks! There is a listserv so we can further the dialog and get questions answered by our peers and a growing list of resources beyond what we have here.

So check it out and let us know what you think, if you find any bugs, whatever.

Thanks!

Accountability and Transparency, Part 2

CAN also has an Ensuring Nonprofit Integrity Initiative, what we consider a "thoughtful response to the nationwide increase of nonprofit watchdogging and accelerating calls for accountability by donors, policy makers, and the general public." Please do check it out, there are tool kits and workshops to help you along the way.

Plus you should stop by and check out our new website! Very new and improved...

Latest Boot Camp Event Info

The latest info is on the CAN website, click the title of this post to get there.