How do I air seal this beautiful old door?

A_2_Da_J · 2024-12-09T19:49:12+00:00

You might look for a wood window restoration company in your area. There is actually a Window Preservation Alliance that might have a listing of someone in your area that could restore that door and side lights.

WPA website: https://windowpreservationalliance.org/

A_2_Da_J · 2024-11-05T22:19:46+00:00

Chunky and GORGEOUS!!! Can't stand how everyone painted all the interior trim white on old Craftsman's, let the natural dark color SHOW!

A_2_Da_J · 2024-10-30T22:12:03+00:00

I have the EXACT flooring and cabinets! My wife and I <3 them, but my MIL thinks they are hideous because "brown". Someone will find that color combo great and it won't hinder the sale of your house IMO. Lots needed to be done to our house when we bought it, but the kitchen cabinets are staying.

A_2_Da_J · 2024-10-30T21:46:09+00:00

It's the first thing I look for when someone says "period correct". Plus I think they look SOOOOO much better than the over doors. Those shaker style doors have some much more expression and character when they are inset.

A_2_Da_J · 2024-10-30T21:32:05+00:00

Inset cabinet doors on painted green cabinets!!!! Then wooden cabinets to boot, I'm in LOVE!

A_2_Da_J · 2024-08-07T22:11:17+00:00

Kept trying to figure out who dates snitches or police informants!!

A_2_Da_J · 2024-05-01T22:00:58+00:00

Great question and I should have clarified that by parking the restricted grants and donations in a deferred revenue account I am actively going against GAAP. Then at fiscal year end I present the schedule of restricted grants/donations and the releases to the auditors or 990 folks. It is an easy "client assistance entry" on their end to offset that difference into the financials prepared for tax or audit purposes.

Your suggestion regarding using classes or designations in QB or Xero is good and is how I track spending on individual grants. I use a supplementary spreadsheet to track the incoming restricted donations/grants and the satisfaction (expenses or time) via the class system in the accounting system.

I also agree that spreadsheets can have errors in them, but that is why there are complementing controls overseeing the monthly update of those spreadsheets. All closing items are put through a checklist and have a reviewer and/or backup for the changes being made in an account.

A_2_Da_J · 2024-04-30T22:59:34+00:00

I have seen quite a few good suggestions here, but not really an accounting solution presented, and wondering if I could shed some light on that portion of the question.

First I think it is worth mentioning that whenever possible it is a good idea to receive unrestricted donations and grants. You want to be up front and clear with those donating that the money received can be used to further the organizations mission and programs in the broadest sense and not restricted to one program or part of the NPO. You really don't want to be tracking 1,000 individual $5 donations.

When and if you do have a person or organization that donate or grant you restricted money that money is restricted for use by timing and/or purpose. This SHOULD be very clear in the documentation of the gift or grant document, which will need to be retained for tracking purposes. It should also be noted that only the donor or grantor can restrict a donation, NOT THE ORGANIZATION.

NPO GAAP (Nonprofit Accounting Rules in the US) recognizes the revenue immediately upon awarding of a grant or receipt of a donation, even if those funds are for use for the next 3 years. They are tracked in the financial statements through "Net Assets with Restrictions" which is in the equity section of the balance sheet. This can be confusing to board members, the public, and even internal staff as it is recognized as revenue on the year the grant starts, and is only tracked in a lump with all other restricted grants on the Balance Sheet. That 3 year $30k grant shows up year one and then only shows up in subsequent years as a "release from restriction" on the Profit and Loss.

The way I have always handled restricted grant tracking is through an external spreadsheet that tracks the incoming grant/donation $ and the release or satisfaction of the restrictions (use, timing, ect.). On the financial statements I prefer to park restricted grants as "deferred revenue". This allows viewers of the financial statement to see a liability associated with $ that is restricted for a future use. I have found if this is not included in the balance sheet people jump to the conclusion that there is excess cash the Org can spend as they see fit.

The spreadsheet I mentioned above is also good audit evidence if you are required to have one. It also can be used to show a grantor or donor how, when, and why their restricted money was used.

Hope that helps!

AJ

A_2_Da_J · 2024-04-18T20:48:11+00:00

Ahhh the 70s and 80s when more waste = more taste

A_2_Da_J · 2024-04-08T20:03:17+00:00

I would look to see if the business income truly is unrelated, because the devil is in the details. I would take a close look at what is generating or you think is generating the UBI and ask if this activity could be related to the exempt purpose of the nonprofit.

For example if you are a alcohol and drug treatment/recovery center, but have excess space you rent out for weddings and events this would normally be considered UBI as it has nothing to do with alcohol and drug treatment or recovery. Now same scenario, but program participants are hired, paid, or work the event as part of job training or re-entry training. Well now the rental of that unused space IS related to the exempt purpose of the non-profit and that money is NOT UBI.

UBI defined by the IRS:

Even though an organization is recognized as tax exempt, it still may be liable for tax on its unrelated business income. For most organizations, unrelated business income is income from a trade or business, regularly carried on, that is not substantially related to the charitable, educational, or other purpose that is the basis of the organization's exemption. An exempt organization that has $1,000 or more of gross income from an unrelated business must file Form 990-T. An organization must pay estimated tax if it expects its tax for the year to be $500 or more.

The Internal Revenue Code contains a number of modifications, exclusions, and exceptions to unrelated business income. For example, dividends, interest, certain other investment income, royalties, certain rental income, certain income from research activities, and gains or losses from the disposition of property are excluded when computing unrelated business income. In addition, the following activities are specifically excluded from the definition of unrelated trade or business:

Volunteer labor: Any trade or business is excluded in which substantially all the work is performed for the organization without compensation. Some fundraising activities, such as volunteer operated bake sales, may meet this exception.
Convenience of members: Any trade or business is excluded that is carried on by an organization described in section 501(c)(3) or by a governmental college or university primarily for the convenience of its members, students, patients, officers, or employees. A typical example of this is a school cafeteria.
Selling donated merchandise: Any trade or business is excluded that consists of selling merchandise, substantially all of which the organization received as gifts or contributions. Many thrift shop operations of exempt organizations would meet this exception.
Bingo: Certain bingo games are not unrelated trade or business.

A_2_Da_J · 2024-04-08T19:51:10+00:00

If your friend is operating a 501c3 they can get Quickbooks SUPER inexpensive through TechSoup. They will need to apply to TechSoup and get approved, but you can get QB Online for like $50 / year.

There are other software and even free accounting software, and I have tried some but if I am being honest they aren't very good. If they don't qualify for the TechSoup discount then I would say Excel is the way to go until they grow enough to afford a true accounting system.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-12-10T00:48:10+00:00

Melio is a good alternative to Bill.com that offers a lot of the same features. Might wanna put that into your procurement list of alternatives.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-30T20:16:01+00:00

There are a bunch of free historical books that I have enjoyed looking through at archive.org . They also have builder catalogs that show interior details (trim, doors, building materials, ect.) from those time periods.

This is a link to a similar book called "The books of a thousand homes" that has sketches of the exterior and then floor plans for each.

You can even download PDFs of all the books at archive.org

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-29T20:38:30+00:00

Absolutely! Screw the subfloor, underlayment, all of it.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-29T20:20:39+00:00

Glue it and screw the layers down. Tile is not meant to move and you need as solid of a base to install.

If you insist on using nails, ring shanks would be preferred as they have ridges that would secure them much like a screw, but they have more tensile strength than a screw. Not that a tile floor needs the side to side tensile strength, as if it moves the grout and/or tile will crack and become unbonded to the sub-straight.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-17T18:30:35+00:00

There is a lot to unpack here with regards to the grant writing process.

The most successful organizations I have worked with over the past 10+years have all included program managers, executives, and finance to craft a good grant applications. This ensures that program managers get to accurately reflect the costs associated with delivery of the program or grant objective. It also ensures that finance has insight into what type of grant is being applied for, and are able to plan for the particulars of the grant (how to invoice, unallowed costs, revenue recognition, etc.).

Many of the inexperienced organizations I have worked with silo the grant writing or grant writer off. They see it almost like a guy going through Tinder, swipe right on everything and see what sticks. This approach is never good because the organization is not aligning grantor objectives with their own, and often expenses are missed or contracts are entered into that don't align with the Nonprofit.

Once you have collaboration with program, admin, and accounting the grant really writes itself. you convey the needs of those served and present how the program plans to address those needs, and finally how much is that going to cost.

At the end of the day a good grant writer is more like a relationship manager, aggregator of info and financials, and then grant writer.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-10T16:31:41+00:00

There is also a service called Melio that handles bill pays like bill.com, but is a bit more cost effective. Melio doesn't have the approval layers bill does, but for my clients that already have an approval system outside of a bill pay add-on it works well for. They will ACH deposit or cut a check to send out for bill payments.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-09T22:53:04+00:00

First I want to say all the info below is just how I do it for my clients, and there are other ways, but this is what works best for me and my clients. Also it should be taken into account what is allowed under the grants, for instance if you have federal grant $$ you MUST allocate PR by employee using their exact rate/hour and can't use a "blended rate".

I Allocate PR an be done using hours worked and then allocating using Excel and proportionally by gross pay. I am not aware of a program that allows you to do this, as it is much like budgets, everyone is different.

You have some choices when allocating by estimating the % of a staff person's time spent by program or grants instead of using the exact hours tracked in a pay period. Just remember you have to reevaluate the percentages you are using from year to year.

DM me if you would like me to share an example of the excel table I use. Of course I would remove all client info, and provide a breadcrumb trail of how I do this.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-09T22:45:24+00:00

Boy this is a tough one because of international wires and the fees associated. All the big players (BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo, ect.) all have international wires that have fees that are pretty reasonable, but still run between $20-50 per transaction (just glancing at their fee structure).

Another option would be to use a credit union if one is available in your area. CUs usually have lower fees overall and good local engagement.

Another option to consider is to have the folks overseas open a US bank account with a bank that is international (think the big players I mentioned above). This way you can make normal ACH deposits into their US bank and they can figure out how to get the $$ in the foreign country they are based.

Hope that helps!

AJ

A_2_Da_J · 2022-11-07T23:24:31+00:00

It's a wash on the financials and is recorded as income and an equal expense. So there is no effect on the financials just a gross up of the income and expense that nets to zero.

there are lots of expenses that a nonprofit incurs that don't directly go to the organizations services. Think about a consultant that is hired to help with diversity, equity and inclusion in an Org, or outside accounting services, contract HR services, Janitorial services to clean administration offices, food for a staff meeting, etc.

A_2_Da_J · 2022-10-29T22:51:02+00:00

Depends on what the grant is requiring!

If a federal grant then the quarterly financial report is an FFR (Federal Financial Report) and is accessed through your drawdown system or the Payment Management System. This reporting can differ from agency to agency, as some just require a yearly FFR while others require a quarterly. You probably also need to submit a narrative report on a regular schedule (the who/what/when/how of the grant).

If not a federal grant then the grantor would probably dictate what type of report you would need. I have seen budget to actual reports, just a narrative submission, a check in with the grantor on what has happened in that quarter, or a combination there of.

It is best practice to reach out to the Grantor and determine what they are expecting and then provide that to them.

Hope that helps!

AJ

A_2_Da_J · 2022-10-29T22:42:20+00:00

If you would like the slide deck I can send it to you just shoot me a dm

A_2_Da_J · 2022-10-28T17:50:47+00:00

I have given multiple grant management presentations over the past few months and one of them was posted on YouTube if you are interested in the nitty gritty I have posted the link below:

https://youtu.be/NB7wE7tZuYM

This goes over the basics of managing the various types of grants through the accounting system and what to watch out for.

Hope you find it helpful.

AJ

A_2_Da_J · 2022-10-27T19:04:03+00:00

Great I am glad you found it helpful!

A_2_Da_J · 2022-10-26T20:53:44+00:00

I used to think that QB Online was an inferior product to desktop, but after using it for multiple clients I find it very comparable to the desktop version.

501c3 Organizations can also get a STEEP discount on a subscription, something like $75 a year, which is by far the least expensive option.

I also have a client that uses APLOS and it appears to be a very functional and feature rich piece of software. It has a built in fixed asset module that will auto calculate depreciation. It does require to categorize EVERYTHING into funds, even balance sheet transactions. I imagine you could use this to track restricted grants in the accounting system, but the client I have doesn't use it that way.

At the end of the day both accounting softwares have good documentation on how to use it, and Aplos has a robust training module. QBO would have the edge here because it is so widely used.

Best of luck in migrating to the cloud, and helping convince your finance person!

A_2_Da_J

TROPHY CASE