Use case — public charities

Bookkeeping for 501(c)(3) charities

A charity's books carry more structure than a small business's ever will. Donors restrict gifts to specific programs, funders want to see exactly how their grant was spent, and your Form 990 asks for every dollar split across program, management, and fundraising. When that structure lives in spreadsheets on the side, it drifts — and someone reconstructs it at year-end.

Rationara puts the structure in the ledger itself. Our bookkeepers categorize every transaction with the fund, grant, and program class it belongs to, reconcile your accounts, and close your books monthly — so the reports your board, funders, and preparer need fall out of the books instead of out of a weekend.

What makes these books different

  • Restricted gifts live outside the ledger

    A donor restricts a gift to one program, and the restriction gets tracked in a spreadsheet next to the books — until the two disagree.

  • Functional expenses assembled at year-end

    The 990 wants program, management, and fundraising splits. Rebuilding them from twelve months of unclassified expenses is slow and approximate.

  • Every funder wants its own report

    Grant budgets, spend-down schedules, and deadlines multiply — and each report means re-cutting the same books a different way.

  • The books depend on one busy person

    An executive director or volunteer treasurer fits bookkeeping around a real job, so months close late — or never formally close at all.

How Rationara handles it

  • Funds and restrictions on the ledger
    Every transaction can carry a fund, a grant, and a program class. Releases from restriction are tracked by time, use, or event — not by memory.
  • Functional expenses as a byproduct
    Because expenses are classified as they post, your statement of functional expenses is a report, not a reconstruction. Your 990 preparer gets clean numbers.
  • Grant balances current as of the last close
    Each grant is tied to its fund and its spending, so what's been spent, released, and remaining is always one report away.
  • A formal monthly close
    Checklist-verified, reconciled, approved by an accountant, then locked. Your reports arrive on a date you can put in the board calendar.

The mechanics behind all of this — funds, grants, classes, the monthly close — are on What we handle and How it works.

What your board sees

Your board logs into a plain-language portal — not accounting software. Every month it holds the published package: statement of activities, balance sheet, budget vs. actual, and fund balances, all as of a locked, reconciled period. When a funder asks how their grant stands, the answer takes one login.

See the full portal walkthrough

Common questions

Do you prepare our Form 990?
No — we're your bookkeeping and accounting team, not your tax preparer. What we do is keep the books 990-ready all year: functional expense classifications, fund balances, and an audit trail on every entry. Your CPA or preparer gets clean reports instead of a cleanup project.
We have a mix of restricted and unrestricted money. How is that handled?
Fund accounting is built into the platform, not bolted on. Gifts land in the right fund when they're categorized, releases are recorded when conditions are met, and your fund balances report always distinguishes net assets with and without donor restrictions.
Our books are eight months behind. Can we still start?
Yes — catch-up comes first, quoted as a one-time project. We import the backlog from bank data, categorize it with the same review process as live work, reconcile each month in order, and close them one by one until you're current.

Other organizations we work with

Talk to us about your charity's books

Bring your current setup, restricted funds and all. A 30-minute call with an accountant — we'll tell you honestly what moving to Rationara would involve.

Book a call