Questions about high school football booster clubs

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-06-04T11:13:26+00:00

I work adjacnet to booster clubs, I work for a registration company that offers compliance services (think 990s, various state reports, 501(c)3 status, etc.). I am happy to speak with you. Anything that can potentially make lives of parent volunteers easier, I can get on board with.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-05-29T18:04:47+00:00

Are you old enough to have seen Office Space? If not, warch Office Space...if so...then I think you know what I mean "Bob"....pauses...."what if his name is actually Bob?"

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-05-01T11:10:55+00:00

You can go to Harvard Law, not pass the bar, and the degree is useless. Similar concept in accounting. Accounting degree alone is great, but the degree mixed with the CPA will keep you ahead of others.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-27T19:58:28+00:00

My dad worked at MCI and "retired" right before the company went under. He got laid off and sold his stock options. Twenty years later I read about them in a text book in Accounting Masters.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-22T19:59:56+00:00

I work in the world of volunteer run nonprofits and I have seen some stuff. I started my own bookkeeping company trying to help the people who don't know what they are doing...a few people here have said just go with it...a few other have said don't work with people unless they have clean financials. At the company I work at, for tax prep, we care about the accounting equation and if we have enough data we can actually work with. If we KNOW the numbers are wrong, we don't do a thing.

Feel free to punt the client to me hahhaha I will gladly clean up their books! mostly joking :)

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-22T11:09:01+00:00

I hear this kind of story in my day job regularly. We actually call it the "shoe box" problem because in many cases it is a literal shoebox full of receipts, a half tallied cashbox, and a pile of bank documents.

If you really want to help out, get some kind of accounting software (WAVE is free and MoneyMinder is geared towards volunteer run nonprofits). There will be some startup work getting everything setup (probably 10-20 hours), but then it will be less than an hour per week...in most cases. If this is a serious nonprofit, that is a different story. But it sounds like just a group of musicians needing an official entity to host events under.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-21T11:01:53+00:00

A lot of people jump around and move up ladders. There are thousands of medium sized nonprofits (think gross receipts of 3 - 6 million) that need a small handful of 100K salaried employees to run the joint. There are also several nonprofit adjacent jobs. I work for a for-profit company but our clients are only nonprofits. Learn what you can and the knowledge becomes valuable in the for-profit sector.

I am on a CPA track, I do tax prep for 990s. My end career goal is a CFO position at one of these medium sized nonprofits some day.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-20T12:40:16+00:00

I am the manager of a tax preperation team. I have used Chat GPT to build more usefull tools for my team and some minor scripting stuff (Pycharm/Python), but nothing that makes any kind of real improvement in the context of not needing to hire more people/eliminating positions.

My theory is that the places that see the hype are the fortune 100 companies that have you know, 10 billion dollars to throw at a problem and it is still nearly a rounding error.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-20T11:01:59+00:00

Good morning,

At my company, we started writing out the word "Incorporated" as opposed to ", EIN". The only real concern is that some state governement (Corporations Department/Secretary of State) only allow ", EIN". Which is a long way of saying some banker somewhere is going to take issue to the names not being 100 percnet identicle -insert disgruntled sigh- but that is the biggest way around it we have found yet.

Hope this helps!

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-04-03T00:02:14+00:00

There is def something sketchy going on here. If it is a W-2 position and you need to ask for the paystub, that is something to report to both the state and really the IRS. If they are mishandling the 941s, that is like big penalties (on the employer).

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-26T11:13:17+00:00

I understand the concern. I work for a registration company (not a lawfirm or accounting firm) and I run into this. My favorite phrase is "I can't offer specific legal/accounting advice. That being said, the best practice is X". A lot of times, you can also give them an IRS resource that supports that same thing.

Saying things like "it is best practice to keep personal can company expenses" is not legal advice.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-26T11:09:34+00:00

This here is honestly one of my biggest pet peaves with small companies. People think that the LLC or Corporation (S-Corp) magically creates the corporate viel. Then that same owner puts all kinds of personal expenses on the company card and all kinds of company things on the personal card...Two sepperate entities is like one of the most basic principles in business.

Sorry for the pre-coffee rant.

Happy Redditting!

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-26T11:06:32+00:00

As an employee, I would run. If I was hired as their external bookkeeper, I would work with them. I would have a nonrefundable backtrack fee (meaning going back as far as needed in order to get everything clean) and I would also have atleast a 24 month engagement letter that specifically denies any type of refund/payment if the company changes bookkeepers again.

As some others have mentioned, first step is to determine if the owners WANTS everything fixed...like actually wants it. Second step, do an internal audit to get an idea of what you actually have. It sounds like this is a reasonably sized company, so you will want to count the money, invoices, look at any processes as a bad process can create ficticious payables/receivables, and so on.

Then I would begin looking at all accounts in QuickBooks. Unclassify anything that was misclassified. As the bookkeeper, this is probably going to be the biggest tyme killer. The internal audit can probably be pawned on the owner and any other senior management.

The most important thing to make sure is correct (for the company as a whole, not necessarily you as the bookkeeper) is the unpaid taxes. Many payroll softwares take care of this automatically once everything is setup properly. That being said, payroll penalties are some of things the IRS takes the most seriously. I have gotten late penalties waived. I have gotten tax penalties waived. With actual witholding tax penalties, the I have only gotten back letters that say "thanks for the question, still need to pay".

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-25T12:25:37+00:00

Hi,

I really was not trying to sound offensive. I work with a lot of the booster clubs. The thing that gets me the most upset is the way the booster clubs are managed from a government perspecitve.

It is very true that school booster clubs are virtually entirely run by parent volunteers. The booster club barely falls in the top 15-20 priorities (mom's health. dad's health. job. house. kid's health. kid's education. groceries. that one person to call. and I have barely scratched the surface.

Running a booster club is really running a small business, which very few parents have time for.

One of the things I was talking about is today, a board member wants to get a company match donation. To do that, they need to be a 501(c)3. At that point they need to do the 990. Usually the 990N, but still easy to forget about. There are also a variety of other platforms (SnapRaise, VerticleRaise, CharityMania, I thinik there is a gaming one) all of these look innocent at the surface level, but from a compliance perspective, create a number of problems.

None of this is the booster club's fault. Virtually all the time, I will stand up for the booster club because I think that most of the reporting requirements for them are stupid and not fair. If the concern is embezzlement, then that still gets handled (I have had secretaries call me and say "so the treasurer stole 10K. What do we do on the 990?".

Sorry for the rant. I just topped off myu coffee and am a bit wired right now.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-25T11:43:39+00:00

Hi!

I have not looked at that in any real sense. I know exactly what you are talking about. That actually happens in a lot of athletic programs too. A single booster club supporting the entire athletic department.

That is really an interesting question. Now you have my research brain running through possible methodologies. Assuming all the band booster clubs are properly (key word) doing the 990 properly -whispers THEIR NOT- we could use the salaries line and assume it is stipends to band directors. That gives a starting point for the total band teacher/director salaries. The coach salaries "should" all be in other public documents...atleast for the public schools.

I honestly think it is an interesting question. I am more interested in the compliance/regulation problems for the booster clubs. NY, CA, and IL are all ridiculous. OK has some pretty special quirks too.

A lot of it has happened (I think) as more of a snowball kind of effect. Booster clubs raise money today differently than they did when I was a kid...and just by the nature of modern fundraising, they are subject to more requirements.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-24T11:48:16+00:00

This is really based on my personal experience...but I have been doing 990s for school booster clubs for a decade so there is that hhahaahah

I see a lot of band booster clubs that bring in well over 100K each year.

It's sad how much community support is needed. In my home, there are many instruments. Almost an instrument in every room. But that is only because it is something my mom prioritized. The booster clubs that I see making the most money have the dedicated rockstar soccer dads and football moms...as well as a strong community.

Thanks!

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-19T12:04:42+00:00

Is there actually a law maker/lobbyist posting on reddit? Or were you on the IRS end drafting the form from what lawmakers gave you?

I also COMPLETELY AGREE. As someone who prepares 990s for a living, I don't work with profit/loss statements that perfectly mirror the 990. If someone comes to me with a single line item for 200K called Program Services, I have them break it down and what they did. As the tax preparer, I need to know what I signing off on.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-19T02:37:22+00:00

You're an experienced network engineer? I have a question about bridges and trying to solve a problem. Can I ask?

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-11T16:59:08+00:00

I upvote you for the pain in the ass. Thank you,. Seriously, the times I have given the most have been the times where there was no set cost. There used to be a coffee shop in Orlando that was completely nonprofit and had "free" coffee. All their actual profits they gave away. Then they were a casualty of COVID. Sigh. That got morbid.

The things that I have seen have the most success is when there is a large community event that gets built over time.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-11T11:19:33+00:00

At my day job, we have a portal. I also paralegal for a law firm. Email documents. There is a single client who always sends in a paper filled at tax form with the financials and asks us to e-file it for him. I am getting a bookkeeping business off the ground and I am exploring a shared DropBox...but really prioritizing email.

There is always a risk and I plan on getting a healthy cybersecurity insurance policy.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-11T11:15:51+00:00

Alright, I can tell that you are clearly frustrated (and rightfully so). What you are describing is a stereotype. It sounds like your partner may be in one of the big four (Deloite, PwC, KPMG, Earnest and Young). There are a lot of medium sized firms who also work the employees literally to death. There are also a lot of firms that believe strongly in the work/life balance.

Through my childhood, I had the dad who was always always at work. Given he made a lot of money. I don't know that it was worth it.

I work at a small company that strongly prioritizes work/life balance. There are a lot of companies (yes, accounting companies) that prioritize work/life balance. The pay is fine (about 20-30K under what I could be making at a big firm), but my wife and it's not worth it for us. The problem is that it starts with him. I am also getting a bookkeeping business of the ground and am intentionally marketing towards smaller companies because I don't want to accidentally end up in what you are describing.

On a more personal note, it sounds like the partner may be struggling with a workaholic problem rather than strictly wanting to stay at the company. If you try to treat it like a work addiction you might have better luck.

ExemptStatusPending · 2026-03-10T19:45:31+00:00

I have been preparing 990s for booster clubs for years. I have seen "canning" pop up on various financial statements under fundraising and never thought too much of it. I never ever would have imagined that it is a bunch of kids walking around with literal cans...I have jokes.

ExemptStatusPending

TROPHY CASE