By Jim Simpson, CPA and director, Financial Technologies & Management |

Since 1999, we have helped over 350 nonprofit organizations throughout the Midwest improve their accounting operations and become more cost effective and efficient. Based on experience, here are some experience-based insights that can help boost your nonprofit accounting operations.

Let’s start by dispelling the myth that a nonprofit has a complete and comprehensively-skilled accounting staff.  There are simply too many required skills that a nonprofit accounting staff needs to have or develop for all these functions to be internally casino performed.

Additionally, the internal accounting staff typically has minimal accounting time available because typically they perform many other back-office functions, including information technology, human resources, facilities management, and office, program and fundraising administration.  Many nonprofit organizations don’t explore or under utilize an outside specialist because of the perceived costs of this resource.