Not-for-Profit Accounting Made Easy
Chapter One
Understanding the Basics of
Not-for-Profit Accounting
This chapter provides some very basic information about not-for-profit
accounting to provide a basis for understanding the principles
and standards that are discussed in greater detail throughout
the remainder of this book. A lack of understanding or
misunderstanding of these fundamentals will cause the reader to
be lost when trying to understand more complex principles. Specifically,
this chapter will:
Identify generally accepted accounting principles.
Define and give examples of assets, liabilities, net assets,
revenues, and expenses usually found in not-for-profit organizations'
financial statements.
Explain what is meant by the accrual basis of accounting.
How does this differ from the cash basis of accounting, and
which is better?
Describe what happened to fund accounting.
WHAT ARE GENERALLY ACCEPTED
ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES?
Non-accountants sometimes ask the question, "Well, if these accounting
principles are only generally accepted, that must mean
that there are other perfectly good accounting principles that have ... read full excerpt from Not-for-Profit Accounting Made Easy ebook
