Closing out the month

This is a checklist of things that need to be done before the month is closed out for bookkeeping. By completing all the items on this list, we ensure a more accurate picture of actual income and expenditures -- useful when setting the budget. Sometimes transaction detailss that occur during a given month aren't known until a few weeks later, but in general many of these steps can be completed in the first week or two of the next month.

1. record all checks from checkbook in books
2. check the "Orphan" account for mistakes (this should actually be checked every time you use gnucash)
   • Imbalance-USD
   • Orphan-USD
3. pay bills, making sure to record not only the payment (which is to an a/p) but the expense as well.
   • record bills that have been paid automatically (If there have been any staffing changes involving credit card holders, make sure the online payments are still valid.)

   PGE

   NW Natural

   Slicehost (cc - caitlin)

   Waste Connections

   Comcast

   Portland Water (EFT - main checking) (quarterly - 3 6 9 12 )

   • Note: There are 4 separate water accounts and changing the credit card requires changing each of those accounts separately.

   Kaiser

   Paychex

   ...

   • Bills that need to be manually paid online

   ...

   • write and mail checks for bills that need manual payment

   Integra

   Central Electronic Alarm (quarterly)

   ...

   • • (get authorization from appropriate committee if bill is at all questionable)
4. pay rent
5. pay health care reimbursements
6. record payroll transactions
   • net pay, etc.
   • tax withholding
   • oddball deductions, such as advance paybacks, etc.
   • divide the expenses between months for pay periods that straddle two months
     • divide by the number of work days on each side (this is not exact but is close and good enough for our purposes)
     • remember that certain employees get holiday pay so if the pp includes a holiday that category will need to be split differently.
     • divide payroll tax expense as well. If the staff categories have different ratios of work days, then create a new ratio from the total payroll expense and use that.
7. retirement
   • report 403(b) deductions (plus employer matches) to VALIC (online)
     • See instructions at How to report retirement plan contributions
   • write and send check to VALIC
8. record receipts
   • credit card
   • reimbursements (from cash box)
9. record daily income reports
   • credit and debit card transactions for front desk and thrift store
   • "till total" amounts for front desk and thrift store
   • daily transfers for front desk and thrift store (from end of shift forms)
   • miscellaneous transactions (reimbursements, IOUs, money receipts)
   • corrections (overages and short tills)
   • Invoiced donations
10. record deposits
11. record online account transactions
    • eBay (download spreadsheet)
    • online paypal donations (download spreadsheet)
      • Verify whether any are for invoiced donations or sales
      • Verify that all donations are in the database.
    • Network for Good
      • Log in to website https://www.networkforgood.org/NPO/MyAccount/Login.aspx
    • WWeek Give Guide!
    • initiate a transfer to appropriate bank accounts and have michael finish it by transferring money into savings
12. check A/R accounts
    • recycling vendors (i.e. Bear, Greenwall)
      • NCER
      • Metro Metals
      • Hallmark
      • Schnitzer
      • Wireless Alliance
13. check A/P accounts
    • recycling vendors
      • Total Reclaim
14. reconcile bank accounts
    • ebay transfer
    • donations transfer
    • savings (operating reserve)
    • main checking
      • make report for Sayer
15. reconcile cash box
16. Invoiced donations
    • Make sure all donations in the database are in the books.