Accounting

Overview

Accounting, budgeting, forecasting, and taxes can be hard, especially if you are new to keeping the books. This training series will cover everything you need to know to get started in keeping the books for your non-profit organization. We will cover:

Setting up Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel
Creating a Budget
Tracking Expenses
Tracking Sponsorship and Fundraising
Tracking Student Payments
Using a Credit Card and Paypal
Handling Payments from Sponsors Sent Directly to FIRST
Adjusting Budget Projections Mid-Year
Reporting and Protecting Student Privacy
Tax Preparation

By the end of this series, you will have set up a complete accounting system for your organization. You will be able to track all bank, credit card and paypal transactions. You’ll track everything against your budget. Your summary reports will automatically update every time you enter a transaction and multiple double checks will help you avoid mistakes. You’ll be able to track all student fees and do so in a way that protects student privacy. Finally you’ll have an easy way to fill out page 1 of the IRS tax form 990EZ, with advice and recommendations for completing the necessary tax schedules that go with it. If you are like many non-profit organizations that lack a steady revenue stream, the question “How are we doing?” can be very difficult to answer. This accounting system can help you answer those difficult questions and keep your team in good financial shape.

About the trainer: Scott Davis has been a mentor with KnightKrawler Robotics since 2015. Scott is not an accountant or attorney. All legal and tax advice should be verified with your professional representatives. Scott holds an MBA from the University of St Thomas and has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years. Scott currently operates two small businesses. Scott has been performing the accounting duties for his S-Corp and LLC businesses for over a decade with the guidance of his tax professional. He is the current treasurer for KnightKrawler Robotics, a registered 501(c)(3) in the state of Minnesota.

Note: This training was prepared with adults as the intended audience. The training was created with the dual purpose to prepare future treasurers for the KnightKrawler 501c3, but to also help other teams considering starting their own non-profit organization.

Lessons

Introduction

An overview of what we will build and quick demonstration of how it works
https://youtu.be/SedKbDsGUSQ

Lesson 1

Things to consider when choosing or building an accounting system. Skip this session if you already know you want to use Google Sheets or Excel
https://youtu.be/f7G4lC4PWoQ

Lesson 2

Choosing a fiscal year, creating a budget, tax planning and student equity considerations related to finances.
https://youtu.be/5Ayi4w4cNOY

Lesson 3

Tracking student paments with privacy considerations, tracking your banks deposits and withdrawls, breaking transactions into multiple budget categories, and reconciling accounts
https://youtu.be/1HLb64EutB8

Lesson 4

Comparing your actual income and expenses to your budget, and adjusting your budget projection mid-year
https://youtu.be/VSDUQNl1u38

Lesson 5

Creating reports, reviewing your activity, and budgetting tips for travel fees.
https://youtu.be/4XEVRaSWMB8

Lesson 6

Adding credit cards to your finance tracking, tracking student payments, and dealing with sponsor payments directly to FIRST.
https://youtu.be/iG_erinOZQw

Lesson 7

Getting your books in order for taxes, and important considerations to make tax filing easier.
https://youtu.be/0QiWsYMvzJk

Updates Since Recordings

KnightKrawler changed the fiscal year end from September 30 to June 30. Changing the year end to June was done for the following reasons:

Allows for accounts to be settled/reconciled at a time of the year when financial activity is lowest
Allows fundraising and sponsorship for next fiscal year to start before school starts, when students are more available during business hours.
Taxes are not due in the middle of build season (Nov 15 vs Feb 15)
Allows for budget meeting before school starts
Better aligns spending with team student leadership changes

501c3 organizations are allowed to change their fiscal year once every 10 years without extra paperwork. On your filing, set your Fiscal Year start to the previous start (Oct 1 in our case) and set the fiscal year end to the new end (June 30 in our case). The accounting software should detect this is a truncated year filing and prompt you to indicate if this is a business termination filing, or a change of fiscal year filing. There isn’t a checkbox on the form (as of 2025) to indicate a change of filing year. Changing your fiscal year will always result in a 3, 6, or 9 month filing. You cannot for example wait 3 extra months to file a 15 month tax form. You must file a 3 month, then your normal 12 month annual filing for the new fiscal year.

KnightKrawler changed our fee structure pertaining to travel. See the Wiki article Season Structure and Fees.

For budgetary purposes, travel donation income is estimated to be 65% of estimated costs for Regional 1, and 20% of estimated costs for Champs. As a result the team must use fundraising and sponsorship to make up roughly $4,000 in travel costs for Regional 1, and $28,000 in costs for Champs travel (if the whole team travels to champs). Travel donations have been slightly restructured in our new budgeting process, compared to the video. However because travel costs are such a significant part of the budget, we still maintain summary rows in our budget to compare travel vs non-travel expenses.