July and August offer a rare opportunity for Canadian nonprofits. Programming slows down, funder deadlines ease up, and internal calendars finally open a bit. It’s the best time all year to pause, reset your financial systems, and prevent year-end chaos before it starts.
If your books are behind, your reports feel unreliable, or audit season always becomes a scramble, this is your moment to clean things up without pressure, and without shame.
In this guide, we’ll walks you through four key focus areas:
- Financial clarity
- Compliance readiness
- Operational clean-up
- Year-end preparation
Each section includes clear actions, time estimates, and tips on who should handle what, whether you’re managing everything solo or working with a small team.
Start with what you can. Fix the biggest friction points. And if your systems feel too far gone, we can help you course-correct before fall hits.
1. Tighten Financial Visibility and Reporting Accuracy
This block helps ensure you’re making decisions based on real, accurate data, not outdated assumptions or rough guesses.
Review Budget vs. Actuals
Time required: 1–2 hours
Who to involve: Bookkeeper, ED, or Treasurer
- Pull reports by program or department from your accounting system (QuickBooks, Xero, Sage)
- Flag any major over- or underspending and document explanations
- Adjust your year-end forecast to reflect reality
Pro tip: If you’re consistently off in the same categories, it’s likely a coding or chart of accounts issuem, not just a budget miss.
Check Cash Flow and Spot Future Gaps
Time required: 1–3 hours
Who to involve: ED and whoever owns payroll or payments
- Build or update your 3–6 month cash flow forecast
- Identify any upcoming cash crunches tied to events, grants, or payroll
- Include grant payment delays and multi-year funding timelines in your projections
What good looks like: Your forecast should show runway through year-end and be updated monthly.
Clean Up Your Chart of Accounts
Time required: 1–2 hours (or outsource it)
Who to involve: Controller or bookkeeping lead
- Archive unused, unclear, or duplicate accounts
- Align naming conventions with funder and program reporting needs
- Ensure account structure supports CRA’s T3010 and board-level reporting
Common issue: Many nonprofits inherit messy ledgers from past staff or consultants. If your accounts don’t map cleanly to programs or grants, clean them now, not in October.
15 Must-Track Metrics & KPIs for Nonprofit Success
2. Lock Down Grant Tracking and Compliance
These steps help you avoid last-minute panic when funders ask for breakdowns, or auditors dig into restricted fund use.
Prepare for Grant Reporting
Time required: 1–2 hours
Who to involve: ED, grant manager, or finance lead
- List all funder reports due before December
- Match expenses against budgeted categories in each grant
- Confirm restrictions are being tracked correctly in your books
Best practice: Build a shared calendar or spreadsheet with all reporting deadlines, deliverables, and assigned owners.
Confirm Restricted Fund Tracking
Time required: 30–60 minutes
Who to involve: Bookkeeper or controller
- Ensure restricted and unrestricted revenue is properly separated in your general ledger
- Confirm that grant-specific expenses are categorized accurately
- Check that carry-forwards and unused restricted funds are clearly documented
What to flag: If fund balances are “parked” in your bank account with no sub-ledger, you’re likely underreporting or at risk of compliance issues.
3. Clear the Backlog and Rebuild Confidence in the Numbers
These steps tackle the operational debt that piles up during busy seasons and silently undermines your reporting.
Reconcile and Catch Up
Time required: 1–3 hours, depending on backlog
Who to involve: Bookkeeper
- Reconcile all bank and credit card accounts through June
- Clean up outstanding invoices, payables, and reimbursements
- Organize missing receipts and supporting documentation
Tip: If it’s been more than 60 days since your last reconciliation, prioritize this step before running any reports.
Strengthen Financial Controls
Time required: 1–2 hours for review
Who to involve: ED or ops lead + bookkeeper
- Review and document approval workflows for expenses and reimbursements
- Ensure separate people handle payment initiation, approval, and reconciliation
- Write (or revisit) simple policies for credit card use, reimbursements, and petty cash
What to watch for: If the same person enters, approves, and reconciles transactions — your internal controls are weak.
Refresh Monthly Reports
Time required: 2–4 hours to rebuild, less to review
Who to involve: Controller, finance lead, or board treasurer
- Include a funder-by-funder breakdown of income and spend
- Add a short narrative summary explaining key variances or surprises
- Make sure reports are sent regularly to the ED and board
What good looks like: Your monthly reporting package should be board-ready and drive real decisions, not just satisfy a requirement.
4. Prepare for Year-End and Strengthen Strategy
Use this time to reduce audit stress and get your strategic plans aligned with financial reality.
Get a Head Start on Audit Season
Time required: 1–3 hours upfront
Who to involve: Whoever owns audit prep or external communication
- Organize capital expenses, internal transfers, and restricted fund summaries
- Review your chart of accounts for audit-readiness
- Start building your year-end folder (digitally or in your accounting software)
If you dread audits: That’s usually a controller problem. Consider bringing one in now to clean up before things get urgent.
Update Forecast and Fundraising Targets
Time required: 1–2 hours
Who to involve: ED, development lead, CFO (if fractional)
- Adjust projections based on actuals
- Align finance and development goals for Q4
- Confirm any revenue assumptions are grounded in secured or expected funding
Reality check: If your plan assumes unrestricted donations that haven’t materialized, it’s time to reforecast.
Final Thoughts: Clean Books. Clear Mind. Better Fall.
Even one or two of these actions can significantly improve your financial visibility, reduce compliance risk, and save your team hours in October and November.
Don’t wait until audit prep or board meetings force you to address the gaps. Tidy up now, while you still have time to think clearly.
If your systems are behind, your reports are unreliable, or your finance team is stretched too thin, this is your window to course-correct.
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