Learn About the Chart of Accounts

Your chart of accounts is the list of accounts that your organization uses to track funds and financial activity. It's called a "chart of accounts" by accounting convention but it isn't really a "chart" in the typical sense, so you might prefer to think of it as a "list of accounts". 

Your MonkeyPod is setup by default with the chart of accounts recommended by the National Council of Nonprofits for small nonprofit organizations, so you're good to go from the start! You can also make modifications as needed.

Where do I find my chart of accounts?

You can access your chart of accounts by choosing My MonkeyPod > Chart of Accounts from the main menu.

What are the different account types?

In nonprofit accounting, you will have five basic types of accounts:

• ASSET
  • Things that you own that have quantifiable value, like cash, investments, real estate, or equipment. Assets also include less tangible things like money that people owe you (i.e. accounts receivable) and sometimes can even include wholly intangible things like intellectual property. 
• LIABILITY
  • Money that you owe to others, such as accounts payable (i.e. bills that haven't been paid yet) or a balance on a credit card. 
• NET ASSET
  • Net assets are what's leftover when you subtract your liabilities from your assets. They represent the "bottom line" of an organization's financial position. If you have $100 in assets and $75 in liabilities, then you have $25 in net assets.
• INCOME
  • Income accounts track financial activity related to your organization's sources of revenue or income (such as donations or sales). Unlike the three types described above (which describe your financial position at a given moment in time), income accounts describe things that happen (i.e. financial transactions/events) that cause changes to your financial position. 
• EXPENSE
  • Expense accounts track financial activity related to your organization's spending and what it costs to do your work and deliver your programs and services. 

Although the five account types listed above cover all of the standard accounting scenarios, in MonkeyPod, you may occasionally encounter a sixth account type as well:

• VIRTUAL
  • Virtual accounts don't have any real meaning in an accounting sense. They will never show up on your financial statements or tax returns. You can't even record transactions to them directly. Virtual accounts are sometimes useful for special transactions that MonkeyPod needs to track even though they don't impact your official books. For example, if you import a donor's donation history from before you started bookkeeping in MonkeyPod, we might use virtual accounts to ensure those donations don't distort your official financial records.

What is a subtype?

Each account also has a "subtype" that describes it a bit more specifically. For example, an income account will have either the "Contributed" subtype (for sources of contributed revenue like donations or grants), the "Earned" subtype (for sources of earned revenue like ticket sales or contract fees), or the "Other" subtype (for things like investment income and other non-operating sources).

Can you describe how some subtypes and accounts are used?

Of course! Here are some examples of the subtypes and what they're used for. Some of the subtypes and default accounts are used for specific transactions in your MonkeyPod.

Assets

Bank Account

The Bank Account section is where you'll have all checking, savings, petty cash, investment accounts and CD’s and other accounts that hold cash for periods of time. These can include PayPal, Venmo, Cash App etc.

Undeposited Funds

This section has your undeposited funds account. This account can be a default for manually entered donations and sales. This account tracks cash, checks, or other donations that have been received but not yet deposited into the bank. It serves as a temporary holding account for these funds.

When recording a donation or a sale in MonkeyPod, the payment can go into the Undeposited Funds account. Once the checks or funds are deposited in the bank, you record the deposit (Finance > Deposit Funds), and the amounts will transfer to the checking account.

Accounts Receivable

This section tracks the amount owed to the organization for services rendered, goods provided, or other contractual obligations like invoices. Unlike contributions receivable, which refers to donations, accounts receivable typically comes from program-related activities, sales, or earned income.

When this account has a positive balance in it, that indicates that invoices have been created and are still awaiting payment.

Example: A nonprofit that runs educational workshops charges a fee for attendance. If an organization attends the workshop but hasn’t yet paid the fee, the nonprofit records the amount owed as accounts receivable. Once payment is received, the balance in accounts receivable is reduced, and cash is recorded.

Contributions Receivable 

This account is used when a donor pledges a contribution to be received at a future date. It represents a promise to give, even though the funds have not yet been collected. This account usually has a balance in it if you have entered a grant or a pledge and you are awaiting payment.

Example: A donor pledges $5,000 to a nonprofit to be paid over the next year. The nonprofit records the full amount as a contribution receivable when the pledge is made, then records the cash as it is received.

Other Current Assets

This section would include short term assets that aren’t categorized elsewhere and can be converted into cash within a year. 

Payouts Receivable

This account comes preloaded in MonkeyPod and will have a balance in it if someone has made a donation with a credit card through a connected online MonkeyPod fundraising page. It will auto record the donation and the payout from Stripe a few days later. It is used to track funds that are owed to the organization from third parties. This account reflects expected inflows of cash that the nonprofit has not yet received but anticipates will be paid. It's not technically an "accounts receivable" account because it functions more like a quasi-bank account.

When MonkeyPod is integrated with Stripe or Eventbrite, all revenue from both services is recorded in the same payouts receivable account. See this article if you'd like to have separate accounts for each service.

Fixed Assets  

These accounts track the long-term assets a nonprofit owns. This might include ownership of furniture, equipment, land, buildings, vehicles or other long-term use assets that have been purchased. You would also typically see the contra asset accounts for depreciation of those assets in this section as well.

Example: A nonprofit purchases a new computer system for $10,000. This amount is recorded as a fixed asset. Over its useful life, depreciation will be recorded as an expense, reducing the book value of the asset over time. 

Other Assets

This is for all other asset accounts that do not fall neatly into one of the other categories. Examples include intangible assets like intellectual property (Copyrights, Trademarks, Published materials, Research, Work processes, Methodologies, and Other trade secrets)  or goodwill (Goodwill is a catch-all term for assets that are valuable but can't be easily quantified, such as a company's brand, customer base, or reputation). 

Liability Accounts

Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable refers to the amounts a nonprofit owes to suppliers, vendors, or other creditors for goods and services received but not yet paid for. This account is a liability on the balance sheet, representing the organization's obligations to pay its debts. For example, if a nonprofit purchases office supplies on credit for $1,000, this amount is recorded in accounts payable. When the nonprofit pays the supplier, the accounts payable balance is reduced, and cash is decreased.

Payroll Liabilities

Payroll Liabilities are amounts a nonprofit owes to employees and government agencies related to payroll, such as salaries, wages, taxes withheld, and other deductions. This account tracks obligations that need to be paid out during the payroll cycle. For example, if a nonprofit pays its employees $20,000 in salaries for a pay period but withholds $4,000 for taxes and other deductions, the nonprofit will record $20,000 as an expense and $4,000 as payroll liabilities (for taxes owed). Once the nonprofit remits the taxes to the government, the payroll liabilities account is reduced, and cash is decreased accordingly.

Net Asset Accounts

Without Donor Restrictions

This section is for any net asset accounts that don’t have donor-imposed restrictions on them. Your unrestricted net assets (i.e. the "Without Donor Restrictions" net asset account) is calculated by adding all your assets and then subtracting your liabilities and restricted net assets. It basically reflects the organization's "bottom line" in terms of your funds that don't have any restrictions and that aren't owed to anyone else. You should almost never need to manually use that account. When you close the books for a particular fiscal year, MonkeyPod automatically sweeps the accumulated surplus (or deficit) for that year into the Without Donor Restrictions account. Your opening balance entries will also hit this account.

Accumulated Surplus / (Deficit)

This account comes preloaded into MonkeyPod and it is where your surplus or deficit value will automatically generate when you close your books for a fiscal year.

With Donor Restrictions

This section is where all of your net asset accounts that have donor-imposed restrictions on them will be. This can include restricted grants and restricted fundraising accounts.

Income Accounts

Contributed Income

This section is for any and all accounts that are associated with contributed income. This includes unrestricted donations (Contributions), unrestricted grant income, and in-kind support. 

Earned Income

The accounts listed here are for income you generate that is not considered contributed. This can include membership dues, program fees, the non-deductible portion of sponsorship income, contract payments, ticket sales, rent, etc. 

Other Income

Think of these accounts as “Non-Operating income". Income that doesn’t neatly fit in the other categories. This can include investment and interest earned income, gain/loss from the sale of assets, etc. 

Net Assets Released from Restriction

This account comes baked into a bare bones COA in MonkeyPod and will show all the restricted income that has met the threshold for release. 

Expense Accounts

Operating Expense

Most of the organization expenses will be listed here. This includes grants and direct assistance that your organization offers, payroll and related expenses, bank and merchant fees and all of the other expenses you incur regularly to keep your organization operating. 

Other Expense

This section includes costs that don’t fit neatly into the operational expense category. This can include things like bad debt expense and any other expenses not directly related to core operations

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the chart of accounts under My MonkeyPod the same as the chart of accounts under the Finance menu?

Yes! We wanted to provide a way for people to find the chart of accounts from multiple places.