


2) Administrative ExpensesĪdministrative expenses consist of different day-to-day expenses for a nonprofit organization. On the other hand, for nonprofit organizations that provide books for children to study, the majority portion of its expenses will be book printing or buying expenses. In established nonprofit organizations, program expenses make up the major portion of the total expenses of the organization.įor example, for a nonprofit organization that works to teach women in remote areas of developing countries, the teaching service expenses will be the majority portion of its total expenses. These expenses are generally an indicator of the nonprofit organization’s performance for the period. The goals are defined in the nonprofit organizations mission. Program expenses are any expenses borne by a nonprofit organization to achieve its goals. Operating expenses are then further classified into administrative expenses and fundraising expenses. There are two main categories that a nonprofit organization may classify their expenses, these are either program expenses or operating expenses. This type of accounting is known as functional accounting. Under the standards for recognition of expenses for nonprofit organizations, the nonprofit organizations must report their expenses under categories according to the purpose or function of the expense. Related article Financial Indicators for Nonprofits: 7 Importance Indicators The categories of these expenses are decided by the purpose of expenses and by the management of the nonprofit organization. There are no standard requirements for expenses to be classified in one category or another. To recognize an expense, a nonprofit organization must first identify the type of the expense and categorize them. When a donor provides funds to the organization, they specify the purpose of the funds and make the funds restricted or they may choose to make the funds unrestricted. If the funds are restricted, nonprofit organizations cannot use those funds for expenses that are not approved by the donating party. Moreover, some funds provided by donors might be restricted to a particular use or purpose. The budgets specify the limits of expenses for all types of expenses that a business can occur. Nonprofit organizations sometimes operate under strict budgets. These expenses are then further reported alongside the revenues of the organization in the Statement of Activities. This is mainly due to fact that nonprofit organization activities are different than the activities of other for-profit businesses.Įxpenses of a nonprofit organization must be identified and reported separately in the Statement of Functional Expenses of a nonprofit organization. In nonprofit organizations, the types of expenses differ from the expenses in other typical for-profit businesses. However, when it comes to recognition and reporting of expenses, there are differences between nonprofit organizations and other types of businesses. Nonprofit organizations are like any other business as they must occur expenses to achieve their goals and purposes. These make nonprofit organizations different from profit-making organizations. Overview Nonprofit organizations are institutions that exist for the welfare of people or communities.
