Monthly bookkeeping and Form 990 preparation for 501(c)(3) organizations with $500K–$5M operating budgets.
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Reliable monthly books are the foundation of an accurate 990, and the annual return is the natural checkpoint for everything they contain. The same person who keeps the books prepares the 990 — no handoff between bookkeeping and filing. When questions come up during the year about how a decision will show up on the return, we can usually answer, because we'll be the ones preparing it.
Ongoing maintenance of your books on cloud-based accounting software, with regular communication and a clean trial balance every month.
Preparation and e-filing of Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-PF, including every required schedule and the governance and narrative disclosures.
Nonprofit accounting touches a wider range of situations than most generalist bookkeepers see in a career. The ones below come up often in our work, and the 990 has a specific way of asking about each of them.
Valuing, recognizing, and reporting non-cash donations — from professional services to vehicles to investment securities.
Net-asset classification, release-from-restriction tracking, grant accounting (in and out), and disclosures that align with donor intent.
Schedule G reporting, contribution-vs-exchange revenue splits, and FMV disclosures for sponsors and attendees.
Disclosure of supporting organizations, fiscal sponsorships, and controlled entities — and the transactions between them.
Schedule F reporting on grantmaking and program activities outside the United States, including grantee due-diligence.
Officer/director/key-employee reporting, conflict-of-interest policies, and reasonable-compensation documentation.
Every engagement begins the same way: we look at your prior 990s and current books before we propose anything. Switching providers mid-year is routine, and the records review is designed for exactly that. We'd rather decline than mis-scope.
A free 30-minute call to understand your organization, current setup, and what's prompting the conversation. No prep required on your end.
We look at your last two 990s, your current chart of accounts, and a recent trial balance. You get a written assessment and a fixed-fee proposal.
Access setup, chart-of-accounts rebuild if needed, and documentation of the policies and workflows we'll operate under going forward.
Monthly close, quarterly check-ins with the board if useful, and the annual return prepared and filed on schedule.
990 Books is led by Charles Floyd, whose background combines traditional accounting discipline with deep, hands-on familiarity with the nonprofit sector and its compliance landscape.
Charles Floyd is the principal of 990 Books. His career began at a large regional accounting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he learned the discipline of audit-grade documentation and the kind of structured close that holds up under outside review.
He spent seven years working with a company that provided formation and compliance services for hundreds of 501(c)(3) organizations across the country. That work immersed him in nonprofit compliance — the regulations, the disclosures, the ways well-run organizations document themselves — and gave him the perspective that now shapes how the practice approaches client work.
He holds a BA in Economics from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from HEC Paris. The practice today brings that combination of nonprofit-sector depth and accounting discipline to organizations that need both.
We built a QuickBooks Online app that generates IRS-compliant donor acknowledgment letters directly from a nonprofit's existing donation data. Available to any 501(c)(3), client or not.
If you're considering switching providers, late on a filing, or unsure which form your organization should file — the answer is probably below. If it isn't, send us an email.
Form 990 is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends — so May 15 for calendar-year organizations. You can file Form 8868 for an automatic six-month extension, which we generally recommend if there's any question about whether the books are ready. Missing the filing for three consecutive years results in automatic loss of tax-exempt status, which is expensive and time-consuming to reverse.
It's tied to gross receipts and total assets. Organizations with gross receipts under $50K can file the 990-N postcard; under $200K in receipts and $500K in assets can usually file the 990-EZ; everything else files the full 990. Private foundations file the 990-PF regardless of size. We figure out the right form during the records review — it's surprisingly common for organizations to file a more complex form than required, or the reverse.
It's routine. The records-review step is exactly designed for this — we look at where the prior bookkeeper left things, identify what needs cleanup, and either fold the cleanup into the engagement or quote it separately so you can decide. We're careful about the transition so nothing falls through during the handoff, and so the year that crosses providers still closes cleanly.
Yes. If you're one year late, we'll prepare and file the missing return and help you respond to any IRS correspondence. If you're approaching three years and at risk of auto-revocation, that becomes the priority. If revocation has already happened, reinstatement is its own process (Rev. Proc. 2014-11) and we'll walk you through which streamlined option applies to your situation.
We work with cloud-based accounting platforms and have experience across the major ones used by nonprofits. The right fit for a given organization depends on what you're already using, your operational needs, and what integrates well with your donor and payroll systems. We'll discuss it during the discovery call.
For an existing client where we've kept the books all year, the return is typically ready for board review within three to four weeks of the close. New clients in their first year with us run longer, mostly because of the records review and any reclassifications that come out of it. Complex returns — significant foreign activity, multiple related entities, a Schedule B with many large donors — take longer.
Churches: yes, though most churches are not required to file a 990. We can advise on what to keep on the books anyway. Private foundations: we prepare 990-PFs but generally not for foundations whose primary need is investment accounting. 501(c)(4)s and other non-(c)(3) exempt orgs: case by case — the disclosure regimes are different and the engagement looks different.
Document exchange happens through an encrypted client portal — never email. Access to accounting platforms is granted to us as a discrete user with appropriate role-level permissions, not as a shared login. Multi-factor authentication is required on every system we touch. We carry professional liability and cyber liability coverage; the certificate is available on request during the proposal stage.
New engagements typically start with a short call to understand your organization, current setup, and what you're looking for. Drop us an email and we'll go from there. If the fit is clear, the next step is a review of your current books and prior-year returns.
To get started, send a short note about your organization and what's prompting the conversation. We read every email and reply within two business days.