Outsourced Accounting Services for Nationally Focused Local Nonprofit   

Business Situation:

The client is a local chapter that is a part of a national nonprofit organization that provides voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization gives youth members a safe place to learn and grow, with caring adults who help to inspire them and offer hope and opportunities for a brighter future.

The client was entering a time of transition after a key member of their accounting and finance staff gave notice that they would be retiring. The organization’s bookkeeper, who served the organization for 20 years, also performed other office management duties in addition to day-to-day accounting tasks. The estimate of non-accounting duties is approximately 20 hours per week out of a full week of 40 hours. The 20 hours of office management duties will remain with an internal employee within the organization.

As an alternative to replacing the retiring bookkeeper with a new full-time staff member, management is considering the addition of an outsourced accounting service provider to handle various accounting and finance responsibilities.

In looking at the club’s budget for potential outsourced accounting services, it was determined that the bookkeeper’s annual salary was $50K per year, and with benefits, the total annual labor cost is approximately $60K. Given that the organization is still going to require an internal employee to work 20 hours to complete various office management duties, a reasonable budget for the remaining 20 hours of accounting work is approximately $30K per year (1/2 of the bookkeeper’s annual labor cost).

In addition to the day-to-day accounting work, the club would like Proxenus to explore further optimization opportunities such as direct bank and credit card connections as well as the integration of donation software and payroll with the current QuickBooks Enterprise accounting system.

ProNexus Solution:

ProNexus was engaged by the client to provide Outsourced Accounting Services in the following functional areas:

Accounting Support Services

• Bookkeeping
• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivables
• Reconciliations of bank account & credit cards
• Processing payroll information into the general ledger
• Monthly financial statements
• Month-end close

Controller/CFO Services – As Needed

• Advice and support on a just-in-time project basis

Given the short time frame of the Bookkeeper’s departure, ProNexus was able to familiarize itself with the day-to-day accounting operations and maintain productivity within the accounting department in less than 30 days. In addition, after ProNexus started we were informed there were 2 audits that would need to be completed in the near future and they would need ProNexus’ full support in meeting the audit deadlines.

ProNexus was also able to complete the audits on a timely basis without the support of the previous Bookkeeper.

After productivity was maintained and the audits were completed, ProNexus continued working to further improve the client’s reporting and optimize its accounting systems which included, QuickBooks and implementing an Accounts Payable Processing application called Bill.com.

ProNexus continues to support this organization, and they have decided not to hire any internal accounting staff.