Nonprofit CPA in Chicago, IL
Audit preparation, financial statement audits, nonprofit bookkeeping and Form 990 support for Chicago nonprofits that want their records ready before the auditor asks.
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Nonprofit CPA services for the Chicago area
An annual audit should not be the first time a nonprofit finds out its records are hard to support. Accounts reconciled only at year end, shared costs allocated with no written method, grant documents kept in someone's inbox: when the auditor's request list arrives, a routine year end becomes weeks of extra work.
RTN CPA is a certified public accounting firm that serves nonprofit organizations, government agencies and districts, and small businesses. As a nonprofit CPA for Chicago organizations, we start with what your board, your funders and the Illinois Attorney General need from the financial statements, then work back to the records behind them, so a nonprofit financial statement audit can focus on testing, not searching.
Audit work is led by Roman Richardson, CPA, who has more than 20 years of experience focused on nonprofit organizations and governmental districts in California and Washington. Tax work is led by Paul J. Stroub, CPA. We work with Chicago-area organizations from our California offices through secure file upload and scheduled phone or video meetings.
Audit readiness starts well before year end
Audit requests come from foundations, State of Illinois awards, federal pass-through funding, lenders, boards and the Illinois Attorney General, and each one names the engagement it needs.
Under the Illinois Solicitation for Charity Act (225 ILCS 460/4, as amended by Public Act 103-121, effective January 1, 2024), a charity registered with the Attorney General must attach audited financial statements to its annual AG990-IL report when its contributions for the year exceed $500,000, or exceed $25,000 if it used a paid professional fundraiser. If fundraising is done only by staff and volunteers and contributions are over $300,000 but not over $500,000, CPA-reviewed financial statements are attached instead. These thresholds apply to annual reports first due after January 1, 2024.
- financial statement audits of nonprofit organizations
- reviews where a review meets the requirement
- Single Audits under the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200, Subpart F)
- compliance audits for specific grants and contracts
- internal control findings for management and the board
Audit readiness is built month by month: close the books monthly, reconcile bank and material balance-sheet accounts, keep grant agreements and contribution support with the accounting records, document how shared costs are allocated, and record when donor restrictions are met. Before testing starts, we tell you what is still missing.
An audit is an independent engagement, and we keep it separate from bookkeeping, accounting and advisory work. If RTN CPA is also helping with your books or filling a finance role, we look at the AICPA independence rules before accepting the audit, and sometimes the right answer is for another firm to perform it.
Grant tracking under GATA & the Uniform Guidance
Grant documentation is where audit preparation most often breaks down: the award letter in one folder, the budget amendment in another, the expense support in a program manager's files. Auditors test grants award by award, so each charge must trace from the general ledger to an approved budget line and its support.
State of Illinois awards carry their own rules under the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (30 ILCS 708) and 44 Ill. Adm. Code 7000.90. For fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024, a grantee that spends less than $1,000,000 in federal awards needs a financial statement audit once its State-issued award spending reaches $500,000: under generally accepted auditing standards below $750,000, and under Government Auditing Standards at $750,000 or more. Grantees with no audit requirement submit a Consolidated Year-End Financial Report through the GATA Grantee Portal.
A federal Single Audit is required once federal award expenditures reach $1,000,000 in a fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 2024 ($750,000 for earlier fiscal years), and federal funds passed through a state or city agency count toward that total.
- sorting awards into federal, State-issued and private funding
- grant tracking by award and period inside the general ledger
- allowable-cost and budget-to-actual reviews
- Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) preparation
- grant reporting support, including GATA year-end reports
Form 990 & the AG990-IL report
Form 990 reports an organization's finances, governance and programs to the public, and the federal return (without Schedule B) is a required attachment to the Illinois AG990-IL annual report. Prepared separately, the 990, the AG990-IL and the financial statements tend to drift apart.
The AG990-IL is due within six months after the fiscal year ends. A 60-day extension requires a written request filed before the due date, and a late report carries a $100 late filing fee. We prepare Form 990 on the same basis as the financial statements so the federal and Illinois reports agree. Other Illinois filings depend on each organization's facts, and we review them case by case.
- Form 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF
- Schedule A public support testing
- Form 990-T and unrelated business income review
- tying the 990 to audited or reviewed statements
- coordination with the Illinois AG990-IL filing
Nonprofit bookkeeping & fund accounting
Boards need more than a cash balance. They need to see whether each program is running within the money available for it, and how much of that money is restricted, for what purpose and until when. A restricted gift booked as general revenue, or a restriction met but never released, tends to surface at year end as an audit adjustment.
We support fund accounting, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, grant tracking, restricted-fund reporting and budget-to-actual statements, so monthly reports show problems while there is still time to act and the year-end close is largely done before the auditor's first request.
- monthly bookkeeping and bank reconciliations
- net assets tracked with and without donor restrictions
- release of restrictions as purposes and time limits are met
- grant expense coding by award and period
- functional expense allocation and year-end audit schedules
Internal controls that fit the staff you have
Smaller nonprofits often cannot split every accounting duty among different people. When one person can set up a vendor, approve a payment and reconcile the bank account, the answer is compensating controls the team can sustain: documented approvals, independent review of bank statements, sign-off on journal entries, limited software permissions and regular review by the finance committee or board.
Our internal controls review and advisory work sorts out which improvements are realistic for your team. Where ongoing finance leadership is needed, a fractional CFO or controller can own the budget, cash forecast and board reporting a few days a month.
- internal controls review and design
- segregation of duties and compensating controls
- board and finance committee reporting packages
- budgeting and cash flow forecasting
- fractional CFO and controller services
What slows down Chicago nonprofit audits
Most audit delays trace back to records that were not organized during the year. These come up most often.
- Bank and balance-sheet accounts left unreconciled until year end
- Grant agreements and expense support saved outside the accounting files
- Donor restrictions tracked in a spreadsheet, not the general ledger
- State and federal awards mixed together, so audit thresholds are checked too late
- One person approving, paying and reconciling
Each is easier to fix during the year than in fieldwork, when a late correction can hold up the audit report and the filings that depend on it.
What working with RTN CPA looks like
We begin with the requirement: who is asking for an audit or review, under which rule or agreement, and by when. Then we review your records and say what must be in place before fieldwork.
Scope is agreed in writing before work begins: an audit, a review, accounting support or advisory work. Across the firm, RTN CPA has more than 25 years of experience and has completed more than 100 audits.
- a first call about your funding sources, filings and deadlines
- a written engagement letter with a defined scope
- a document request list well before fieldwork
- findings and recommendations explained in plain language for staff and the board
No CPA firm can promise a clean audit opinion. What we can do is show you where the gaps are while there is still time to close them.
Pick a starting point
If you already know the service you need:
Nonprofits we serve across Chicagoland
We serve nonprofits in Chicago, nearby Cook County communities such as Evanston, Oak Park and Skokie, and the wider metropolitan area. RTN CPA also offers its services to nonprofits in these markets:
Talk with RTN CPA about your Chicago nonprofit
If your next audit is on the calendar and the close process still feels uncertain, start with the records.
Tell us your revenue and contributions, your State, federal and private funding, and the deadlines you face. We will tell you which engagement fits and what it will take to get ready.
Audit questions from Chicago nonprofits
Do you have an office in Chicago?
No. RTN CPA is a California firm with addresses in Los Angeles and Roseville, and has no Chicago office or local staff. We work with Chicago-area nonprofits through secure file upload and scheduled phone or video meetings, and discuss any in-person needs when we set the scope. Illinois has its own rules for out-of-state CPA firms that perform audits and reviews, and we confirm an engagement meets them before accepting it.
Does the Illinois audit threshold count all of our revenue?
Not necessarily. The Attorney General's thresholds use "contributions" as the Solicitation for Charity Act defines them: cash donations plus amounts the public pays for merchandise, special events, rights or services, but not union member dues or donated services. The statute also says the 2024 threshold changes stop operating on January 1, 2029, so recheck them each year.
We receive State of Illinois grants. When is our audit due?
Under the GATA rules (44 Ill. Adm. Code 7000.90, as amended effective March 20, 2025), a financial statement audit package is due in the GATA Grantee Portal by the earlier of 30 days after you receive the auditor's reports or six months after year end. A Single Audit package goes to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse and the Grantee Portal by the earlier of 30 days after the reports or nine months after year end.
What records should be ready before a nonprofit audit?
A reconciled general ledger and trial balance, bank and investment statements, grant agreements and amendments, contribution and pledge support with any donor restriction letters, fixed-asset and payroll records, board minutes, the prior-year audit report, and a written method for allocating shared costs.
Do we need a full audit, or would a review be enough?
It depends on each requirement. The Illinois Attorney General accepts a review only from charities without a paid fundraiser whose contributions are over $300,000 but not over $500,000; funders, lenders and boards set their own terms. An audit gives reasonable assurance and includes testing of the underlying records. A review gives limited assurance and relies mainly on inquiry and analytical procedures.
Can RTN CPA keep our books and also audit them?
Not automatically. Independence rules limit the nonaudit services an auditor can provide to an audit client. If we handle your bookkeeping or act in a finance role, we assess independence before accepting an audit, and sometimes another firm should perform it.
Call (888) 616-8070 or schedule a consultation to get started.
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