Washington, DC accounting support for nonprofits.

Grant and fund accounting, audit preparation, month-end close support and cleanup — handled by a CPA rather than passed to a bookkeeper. Based in Washington, DC, working with organizations here and nationwide.

Request a consultation or call (832) 800-3664

Deana Ali, CPA

A CPA does the work, not a bookkeeper with oversight

Nonprofit accounting is not ordinary bookkeeping with different labels on it. Restricted funds, grant reporting and Single Audit requirements are their own discipline, and the consequences of getting them wrong land on your auditor's desk rather than yours.

Larger firms staff engagements like yours with junior preparers and review the file later. Here the person who does the reconciliations is the person who holds the license, which is what makes a small engagement worth doing properly.

Areas of practice

I scope each engagement to a defined body of work rather than an open retainer, and agree the deliverables and the fee in writing before starting.

Nonprofit & Grant Accounting

Grant funding carries reporting obligations. Where the general ledger is not structured around donor restrictions, required reporting must be reconstructed manually each period.

  • Restricted and unrestricted net asset tracking
  • Grant budgets and burn schedules
  • Allocation of shared costs across programs
  • Schedules required by grantors and 990 preparers

Audit Preparation

Fieldwork delays frequently originate in schedules that were not tied to the trial balance in advance of the auditor's arrival.

  • Working the PBC list before fieldwork
  • Tying schedules to the trial balance
  • Documenting judgments auditors will question
  • A single point of contact during fieldwork

Month-End Close

Timely closes depend on reconciliations being completed correctly the first time. Where they are not, the delay compounds across periods and obscures the financial position management relies on.

  • Bank and balance sheet reconciliations
  • Accrual, prepaid and intercompany entries
  • Flux analysis and variance explanations
  • A tie-out binder supporting the closing balances

Catch-Up & Cleanup

Accounting records fall behind for predictable reasons, including staff turnover and growth that outpaces existing processes. The consequence generally surfaces when statements are requested by a lender, grantor or auditor.

  • Transaction categorization and bank catch-up
  • Fixed asset and depreciation schedules
  • Prior-period corrections
  • A clean trial balance to hand forward

QuickBooks

QuickBooks files commonly accumulate inconsistencies over time, particularly where transaction entry has been handled without accounting oversight.

  • Chart of accounts restructuring
  • Undeposited funds and A/R–A/P cleanup
  • Class and location setup
  • Migration from spreadsheets or another system

Technical Accounting

Revenue recognition and lease accounting questions are most efficiently resolved before a position is reflected in issued financial statements.

  • ASC 606 revenue recognition analysis
  • ASC 842 lease analysis
  • Contract review and supporting schedules
  • A technical memo documenting the position

Who I work with

The work helps most where an organization owes reporting to a funder, a board or an auditor and lacks the internal finance capacity to produce it comfortably.

Nonprofits and associations

Membership organizations, advocacy groups and foundations tracking restricted funds across multiple awards.

Federal grant recipients

Organizations administering federal awards, including those approaching a Single Audit threshold.

Organizations facing an audit

A first audit, a new auditor, or schedules never prepared to the standard fieldwork requires.

Growing businesses

Companies whose volume has outgrown a bookkeeper but does not yet justify a controller.

Organizations in transition

After a finance lead departs, during a systems migration, or before a funding round.

Accounting firms

Practices needing overflow capacity on nonprofit engagements through busy season.

Request a consultation

Tell me what you need, which system your records sit in, and when it has to be finished. I will reply with whether I can help and what it would cost.

request@dalicpa.com