For most nonprofits, fiscal year-end falls on December 31st or June 30th, which means the real preparation window is November, not the last week before the deadline. Waiting until January to think about year-end is the single biggest reason 990 season and audit season feel like emergencies instead of routine.
Here’s what belongs on your November checklist, not your January one.
Reconcile Every Account Through October: Don’t let bank and credit card reconciliations pile up. Walking into December with three unreconciled months makes every year-end adjustment harder to trace and increases the odds something gets missed or double-counted.
Review Restricted Fund Balances: Confirm which grants and restricted donations are still open, what’s been spent against them, and whether any funds need to be released from restriction before year-end under ASC 958-605. This is also the moment to flag any grant that’s at risk of not being fully spent by its period of performance.
Confirm In-Kind and Non-Cash Gifts Are Recorded: In-kind donations, donated services that meet the recognition criteria, and non-cash gifts need to be valued and recorded during the year they’re received, not reconstructed after the fact. November is the time to catch anything that slipped through.
Check Your 1099 List Early: Identify every contractor paid over $600 for the year now, while you still have time to request a missing W-9, instead of chasing it in January against a filing deadline.
Look at Depreciation and Fixed Assets: Confirm every asset purchased during the year has been capitalized correctly and that your depreciation schedule reflects reality, not last year’s assumptions.
Give Your Board a Preview, Not a Surprise: A short November update on where the organization will likely land at year-end gives your board time to ask questions before the annual meeting, not during it.
Where to Start: The Nonprofit Year-End Financial Checklist on our Free Resources page walks through these exact steps in more detail and is free to download. If your board wants a working session to turn year-end data into next year’s roadmap, that’s what the Board Alignment Session is for. And if you just need one specific item cleaned up, like fixed assets or your 1099 list, a Strategy Session gets it handled without a monthly commitment.
