BASICS AND GETTING STARTED

Basics of Bookkeeping, Accounting and Financial Management

Fiscal Sponsorship -- Another Nonprofit Initially Supports Your Taxes and Finances?
In some cases, you might want to pursue finding a fiscal sponsor. For example, if you're not sure you want to start a nonprofit, or if your nonprofit may not need to exist for long, then a fiscal sponsor may be useful for you. A fiscal sponsor might oversee your financial management activities until your organization is more developed or terminated. See
Fiscal Sponsorship -- Is it For You?

Your Board Treasurer -- A Critical Resource to Help You Get Started

An active board treasurer can be the most important resource in the long-term financial health of your nonprofit. As a new nonprofit organization, you must get accounting expertise somehow, if you don't have strong skills in this area yourself. You (or, ideally your board chair) should get someone on your board with accounting skills to be your treasurer. See
Role of Your Board Treasurer

Getting an Accountant, If Needed

You might choose to do the basic bookkeeping activities yourself. You should get an accountant initially to help you set up your bookkeeping system, generate financial statements and do some basic financial analysis.
Getting and Using Accounting Services

Buy a Software Package to Automate Your Financial Management?

There are a number of very useful software packages that will help you automate bookkeeping, generation of financial statement and their analysis. See
Buy Accounting Software to Help You?

Getting a Bank and Banker

You'll need to start a checking account. Probably the best way to find a good bank is to ask for advice and references from other nonprofits, especially other nonprofits that are of the size and nature of yours. If you're just starting out, you probably don't have much money. You may be able to get buy with a non-interest-bearing checking out that has no, or minimal, fees.The following link may be useful
Getting and Using a Banker

No Matter Who Does Your Finances, YOU Should Know Basic Accounting Principles

To matter your finances as effectively as possible, you should at least have an understand the basic accounting process. To get an overall sense for the recurring financial activities in the typical nonprofit, read the following article. (You'll soon get more basic information below in the section titled "Nonprofit Bookkeeping (in Accounting)".)
Basics of Nonprofit Financial Management

Now, to Expand Your Learning of the Basics ...
Next, look at the wonderful range of information at the site of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management FAQ's. This site provides an excellent overview of the aspects of nonprofit bookkeeping, accounting and financial management! Although links to that site are included throughout this topic in the library, the reader might best be served to review all of the FAQ information at that site. Two key links to review now are:
Click on Financial Management and scroll down to "Basic Elements of an Accounting System"
Click on Financial Management and scroll down to "Differences Between Nonprofit and For-Profit Accounting"

Other sites that you might benefit from are:
Barton's Bookkeeping Tutorial
All Bookkeeping resources
Online Learning Center's tutorial