Reading the financial reports

Administrative Services is trying to provide regular and standardized financial reports for Free Geek. The exact format of these reports will evolve over time, but there are a few reports that follow common practices in nonprofit organizations.

First, it is important to know the four basic types of accounts and what they represent:

Income (or Revenue)

This is the money that we receive.

Expenses

This is the money that we spend.

Assets

This is the value that we have.

Liabilities

This is the debt that we owe.

Each of those major types of accounts are broken down into many natural accounts, such as "Repairs:Keys, Locks, and Doors" which is fairly self-explanatory. Because we are a nonprofit, it is important to also understand that we need to track functional accounts, such as income and expenses related to a particular program (i.e. Hardware Grants), as well as all the programs vs. money spent or earned via fundraising vs. expenses related to general management.

Now, we can look at the main reports to see a clear picture of Free Geek's finances: