What's a good free Excel Template for Simple Bookkeeping?
August 29, 2022 11:24 AM   Subscribe

I'm the treasurer of a small non-profit arts organization. We have a simple financial profile. We charge students for courses and we have expenses for teachers, insurance, office supplies etc. I'm looking for an easy, short learning-curve way to keep track and generate a P/L at year end. I'm guessing Excel, and if that's right, what's a good free template I can use? (Is there something better than Excel?)

We plan to stay small for at least the next few years, though we plan to get an accountant perhaps next year if things perk up.
posted by storybored to Work & Money (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would strongly recommend Quickbooks Online and the cheapest plan - which is all you would need - is Simple Start at $30/month. I completely understand if this isn't in the budget (I've also worked at small non-profits), but it will save you so much time and headache. If all income/expenses go through a bank account, you can connect it to QBO and then your job is just to label the transactions. QBO will automatically create a P&L for you in the background.
posted by dngrangl at 2:01 PM on August 29, 2022 [4 favorites]


I suggest you have a look at Xero - it will do everything you need and everything you don't yet know you need in the future, starting at $12 per month. Using a 'proper' accounting system rather than Excel will also make it easier if you do take on an accountant, as they will be able to easily retrieve historic information and access your data remotely.

If you're set on using Excel, you can search for templates in the 'file > new' menu path and there are lots to choose from (but you probably knew that).
posted by dg at 4:56 PM on August 29, 2022


Excel is perfectly fine - as an accountant, I prefer my clients to use software that they understand, rather than accounting software, which is great for me and other accountants, and is usually a total mess when anyone else uses it. Double entry is the original data integrity system - as every database engineer knows, "Redundancy ensures integrity", but correcting mis-posted items becomes a real slog

My comment to clients, "You are running this business 364 days and when you come and see me on day 365, I DO NOT want you to ask me, 'Did I make a profit?' Your system/software should be good enough that you know the answer before you come to see me." Excel seems intuitive enough that most people can figure out what is going on.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 5:55 PM on August 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Quickbooks

do not use Xero they are absolutely terrible and also make it as difficult as possible to move your data and docs later
posted by Jacqueline at 8:22 PM on August 29, 2022


Sorry if this comes across as a condescending question, but are you sure you're a nonprofit?

Do you have articles of incorporation, a board, an IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN)? Are you prepared to file a nonprofit tax return (Form 990)? Are you aware that you need much more than a year-end P/L to do that?

If the answers are yes, then congratulations! You're a real nonprofit, and your organization needs Quickbooks Online at a minimum. You're going to need to generate a number of financial reports to support any institutional fundraising you may do, not to mention 990 preparation.

If the answers are no, then you are not a nonprofit; you're a little for-profit school, and you're not tax exempt.

In that case, if your organization wants quickly to achieve legitimate nonprofit tax-exempt status and stick around and grow, a terrific option is to find a fiscal sponsor -- an established nonprofit aligned with your mission that is willing to take you under their wing and do your financial reporting and support your fundraising for a cut of your revenue (usually around 10%). They incubate you, lend you their nonprofit status, help you grow, teach you to stay in the nonprofit lane, and help you achieve independent nonprofit status when you're ready.

And to get back to your question: In that case, you don't even need a spreadsheet. Your fiscal sponsor will set you up to report to them the information they need to do your books for you.

So: If you're a real nonprofit, don't even think of using anything less than basic Quickbooks Online. If you're not a real nonprofit, stop spending time jury-rigging a bookkeeping scheme and start calling established nonprofit arts organizations to discover the ones that fiscally sponsor fledgling organizations like yours.
posted by Scarf Joint at 12:30 AM on August 30, 2022


Response by poster: @Scarf Joint. Sorry I should have mentioned we're in Canada, and we are incorporated as a non-profit corporation.
posted by storybored at 5:54 PM on August 30, 2022


Excellent! I have no idea about nonprofit status in Canada, and its tax-exempt responsibilities, so my comments last night are irrelevant. Best of luck sorting this all out and best of luck with your work!
posted by Scarf Joint at 6:26 PM on August 30, 2022 [1 favorite]


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