QuickBooks is an inexpensive way for non-profits to keep track of their income and expenses. Those who receive grant monies usually have to submit spending reports in order to be reimbursed for expenses already paid for. QuickBooks makes this process easy.

Jobs (Grants) – In QuickBooks you can set-up jobs in the customer set-up that will keep track of your grant monies received and spent. For example, if Duke Energy gave you a grant for 2010 and for 2011 you would set-up a customer called Duke Energy. Under Duke Energy you would set-up jobs called 2010 grant and 2011 grant. Then when you would spend the money, you would tag the expense to the appropriate job. At the end of the month (or the frequency that reports are due to the grantor) you would generate a profit & loss statement and filter out the specific job. For example, you would filter Duke Energy:2011 grant and the report would show all the monies spent that would be reimbursed by that grant and submit it to Duke Energy.

Class Tracking – Class tracking could be used to tag income and expenses to specific activities or programs that you run. For example, you might have ESL training, Adult Literacy classes, and After School Tutoring programs. When you receive fees for a specific program you tag it to the appropriate class. When you spend money on a program you tag it to the appropriate class. Then you can generate a profit & loss statement and filter out the specific class to see if the program is making money or losing money.

Class tracking reports can be combined with job reports that would show you monies received and spent not only by grant but also by program. For example, $500 could have been spent on books for the Adult Literacy class that would also be reimbursed by Duke Energy:Grant 2011.

Those are just a couple of ways that QuickBooks could help if you run a non-profit agency.

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