Managing Risk in Today's Economy - nfp seminar Thursday, January 29, 2009

RubinBrown accounting's not-for-profit team is presenting a seminar called "Managing Risk in Today's Economy" for Thursday, January 29, 2009. Please visit their web site for more information.

How Healthy is your Medical-Wellness Benefits Program? - We'll know next month!!

Today's meeting was cancelled because of road conditions caused by the winter storm. We will address this topic next month with speakers from B&H Associates. If you have a specific issue you would like the speakers to address next month, then please send it to Paul at pogier@lssmo.org.

How Healthy is Your Medical-Wellness Benefits Program? - Topic for January 27, 2009

Uncertain about how to offer medical continuation correctly? Stressed by the medical insurance bidding process? Unaware that waiting periods and eligibility requirements are actually enforced by medical insurers? Searching for ways to save money on health insurance expense?

If these and other questions have your blood pressure rising, then start off the New Year with a toast to good health by bringing the best practices, ideas, questions, or failings of your nfp's medical benefits or wellness programs to our next meeting, January 27, 2009. The January meeting will be the first of a two-part series on the medical/wellness topic, and will involve a general discussion of health-wellness benefit best practices and issues. So please come ready to share your ideas, concerns, and questions, and we'll do our collective best to provide resolutions. We'll reserve all the unanswered items for the second meeting, February 24, when Bill and Barb Heftel of B&H Associates, a benefit consulting firm, will lend their expert advise and facilitation to what ails us. B&H is associated with MRCT/Benefits Plus, a St. Louis based benefits consulting firm.

Banking Services for nfp's - Topic for November 25, 2008

Join us at our next meeting, Tuesday, November 25, 2008 when our featured speaker from Commerce Bank will present services banks now offer to nfp's. Services include remote deposits, positive pay, paycards, charge card management, electronic donations and other time savers.

The New 990 - Be Prepared

On Tuesday, October 28, 2008, Allan Larson and Darrell Songer of LarsonAllen LLP discussed key changes to the revamped 990. The 990 core form was last updated in 1979 and was in need of some upgrades. But who could have imagined the outcome of the updating process: Eleven Parts and Sixteen Schedules!

To help us prepare for these changes, Larson and Songer focused on two key areas: Governance and Compensation. Their tips for managing all the changes to the Governance Part are to tighten up policies and procedures (Conflict of Interest, Whistleblower, Document Retention and Destruction, Compensation, Safeguarding Exempt Status, Expense Reimbursement, and Gift Acceptance) and check that they are documented and followed.

Compensation is a hot topic for the new 990. Larson and Songer mentioned that compensation is recorded on a calendar basis (per W-2 filings) but need not be reconciled to salary expense on
the Statement of Functional Expense for nfp's that use a fiscal year other than the calendar year.

You can visit the IRS web site's section on the 990 to get more information about the new form.

Contact Julia for a copy of the powerpoint slides from the presentation.

The New 990 - Topic for October 28, 2008

Our next meeting, Tuesday October 28, Allan Larson and Darrell Songer from LarsonAllen LLP will take us through the complexities and intracacies of the new IRS form 990. We covered this topic last year but felt that so many areas remain unexplored that we should cover it again. So please join us, come filing time next year, you won't regret doing so!

Trading our Tips of the Trade

The nfpFMA members came well-prepared to share valuable tips at the meeting September 23, 2008.

Here are the tips we shared:

• To enter a series of numbers in an Excel spreadsheet: Highlight cells, then click Edit, then Fill, then Series.
• Enterprise Leasing’s Trip Optimizer is a time saving and money saving tool.
• You can save on food budgets by partnering with a Co-op.
• Use accounting software’s recurring invoice feature to manage recurring expenses.
• Keep in mind that Disaster Recovery plans are critical.
• Keep all documents related to each grant together in one place.
• Use the comment feature in Excel to keep notes on the expenses are included in each line item for grants.
• Require that any trip outside metro area be made using Enterprise rental cars. All time in the rental car is company time. No need to reimburse mileage at IRS or state rates.
• Disaster Recovery – appoint someone to make backups; protect data from viruses, stay current of updates, try Open Source accounting software, Visit Tech Soup to learn about deals for non profits, take advantage of the non-profit services consortium.
• Don’t hesitate to change vendors to save money. Bid out services on a regular basis. Also, use caution when relying too heavily on pledges to fund capital projects. The donor can back out and the nfp has no recourse.
• For nfp’s with more than 150 employees, consider self-insuring for medical coverage. Request discounts from Fedex and UPS. Don’t pay more than 5 cents per minute for long distance and don’t pay for full minutes if partial minutes are used.
• Take time to develop a job procedures chart for all tasks accounting staff does. The chart will prove invaluable during extended employee absenses.
• Use stock donation form when receiving gifts of stock.
• Consider reaching out to volunteers to fill staffing needs to cut back on training costs.
• Draft Interim Communication with Auditor letter to give advance notice to auditors of significant changes , issues and events.