Latest posts
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Rebuilding Your Nonprofit’s Operating Reserves
Events of the past year put a dent in many not-for-profit’s reserves. Perhaps you tapped this stash to buy personal protective equipment or to pay staffers’ salaries when your budget no longer proved adequate. As the pandemic wanes and economic conditions improve, you’ll need to start thinking about rebuilding your operating reserves. Back on steady…
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Nonprofits: Hit your targets with benchmarking
How committed is your not-for-profit organization to benchmarking? Perhaps you think it makes sense in the for-profit sphere, but not as much for charities and other nonprofits. If so, you’re probably missing out on benefits — including long-term sustainability. Here’s how to overcome reluctance and learn to love benchmarking. True impact Even if your staff…
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New Legislation Proposes to Help “Rescue” Nonprofits
No one needs to tell nonprofit organizations how tough the past year has been. According to the John Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 7.7% of not-for-profit workers — nearly one million people — lost their jobs between February 2020 and January 2021. An even higher percentage of arts and education organizations lost jobs last…
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Estimated Tax Payments: The Deadline for the First 2021 Installment is Coming Up
April 15 is not only the deadline for filing your 2020 tax return, it’s also the deadline for the first quarterly estimated tax payment for 2021, if you’re required to make one. You may have to make estimated tax payments if you receive interest, dividends, alimony, self-employment income, capital gains, prize money or other income.…
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New Law: Parents and Other Eligible Americans to Receive Direct Payments
The American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law on March 11, provides a variety of tax and financial relief to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the many initiatives are direct payments that will be made to eligible individuals. And parents under certain income thresholds will also receive additional payments in the…
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New Law Tax Break May Make Child Care Less Expensive
The new American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provides eligible families with an enhanced child and dependent care credit for 2021. This is the credit available for expenses a taxpayer pays for the care of qualifying children under the age of 13 so that the taxpayer can be gainfully employed. Note that a credit reduces your…
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PPP Adjusted to Prioritize Very Small Businesses
When the Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) last year, the program’s stated objective was “to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.” However, according to federal officials, the recently issued second round of funding has distributed only a small percentage of the $15 billion…
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5 Ways to Streamline and Energize Your Sales Process
The U.S. economy is still a far cry from where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic hit about a year ago. Nonetheless, as vaccination efforts continue to ramp up, many experts expect stronger jobs growth and more robust economic activity in the months ahead. No matter what your business does, you don’t want your sales…
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New COVID-19 Relief Law Extends Employee Retention Credit
Many businesses have retained employees during the COVID-19 pandemic and enjoyed tax relief with the help of the employee retention credit (ERC). The recent signing of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) brings good news: the ERC has been extended yet again. The original credit As originally introduced under last year’s CARES Act, the ERC…
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How to compute your Company’s Breakeven Point
Breakeven analysis can be useful when investing in new equipment, launching a new product or analyzing the effects of a cost reduction plan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many struggling companies are using it to evaluate how much longer they can afford to keep their doors open. Fixed vs. variable costs Breakeven can be explained…
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Making Sense of Your Statement of Cash Flows
The statement of cash flows essentially tells you about cash entering and leaving a business. It’s arguably the most misunderstood and underappreciated part of a company’s annual report. After all, a business that reports positive net income on its income statements sometimes doesn’t have enough cash in the bank to pay its bills. Reviewing the…
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How Auditors Assess Cyber Risks
Data security is a critical part of the audit risk assessment. If your financial statements are audited, your audit team will tailor their procedures to answer critical questions about cyber risks and the effectiveness of your internal controls. While conducting fieldwork, they’ll assess how your practices measure up and whether your company has weaknesses that…