Nonprofit CPA in
Seattle, WA
Seattle nonprofits tend to be well funded and under-resourced at the same time.
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Nonprofit CPA in Seattle, WA
The region has serious philanthropic capital in it, and organizations here often land large institutional grants earlier in their life than they would elsewhere. What does not scale at the same speed is the finance function.
So you get a familiar pattern: a seven-figure organization with a part-time bookkeeper, a chart of accounts built for a much smaller operation, and restricted grants tracked in a spreadsheet because that is how it was done when there were two of them instead of fourteen.
Then a major funder asks for audited financials with a real deadline attached.
We work only with nonprofits, government agencies and districts, and small businesses — so this is the situation we spend our time in.
Nonprofit financial statement audits
In Seattle, the audit demand usually comes from a funder rather than a statute.
Institutional grantmakers ask for audited financial statements as a condition of funding, and once one major funder requires it, the others tend to expect it too. Washington also requires charities above a certain revenue level to submit audited financials with their annual charitable registration renewal.
- financial statement audits prepared to nonprofit accounting standards
- Uniform Guidance (Single) audits where federal funding is involved
- compliance audits tied to specific grants and contracts
- reviews and compilations when a full audit is not required
- internal controls review, which is usually where the findings originate
For a first audit, the preparation is normally bigger than the audit itself. If your records need work before fieldwork is possible, you will hear that at the start, not in month two.
Grant reporting & restricted fund tracking
This is the section most Seattle organizations actually need first.
Large institutional grants come with reporting obligations that are more demanding than most first-time recipients expect: spending reported by budget line rather than by account, variance explanations, period-specific reporting that does not match your fiscal year, and sometimes separate audit or agreed-upon procedures requirements.
An organization that received a transformative grant and is now reconstructing how it was spent, line by line, from a general ledger that was not built to answer the question — that is a call we get regularly.
- restricted fund tracking inside the accounting system rather than beside it
- grant budgets mapped to the chart of accounts so reporting is a report, not a rebuild
- allocation across programs, periods, and funders with documentation behind it
- funder-facing financial reporting packages
- time and effort documentation that holds up under federal testing
Uniform Guidance & Single Audits
King County and City of Seattle contracts frequently carry federal dollars, and from the nonprofit’s side they read as local funding.
That is how organizations end up subject to a Single Audit for a fiscal year that has already closed — nobody traced the money back to its source until the totals were counted.
- identifying and correctly classifying federal pass-through funding
- building the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA)
- testing compliance requirements for each major program
- findings, questioned costs, and corrective action plans
Form 990 preparation & Washington filings
The 990 matters more in this market than in most, because the funders here read it.
Program officers at institutional foundations pull the return before a conversation, not after. A 990 that is accurate but carelessly presented — thin narrative, program costs buried in management and general, governance questions answered without thought — works against an organization that deserves better.
Public support testing is worth watching here specifically. Organizations that receive a small number of very large institutional grants can drift out of public charity status without anyone tracking it.
- Form 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF preparation
- required schedules, including Schedule A public support testing
- Washington Secretary of State charitable registration and annual renewal support
- unrelated business income (UBIT) analysis for earned revenue and rentals
- Washington B&O tax questions, which surprise nonprofits that assume exempt status covers it
Fractional CFO & advisory
The gap between a bookkeeper and a CFO is where most fast-funded organizations struggle.
It shows up as budgets that do not survive contact with reality, cash flow managed by watching the bank balance, and board packets that finance understands and nobody else does.
- fractional CFO and controller services
- budget development and multi-year cash flow forecasting
- internal controls scaled to a small finance team
- grant reporting support and funder-facing financial packages
- board and finance committee reporting in language a non-accountant can act on
Where Seattle nonprofits get caught
Usually one of these.
- A large grant landing before the finance function was ready to report on it
- Federal pass-through inside county or city contracts that nobody traced
- Restricted funds tracked outside the accounting system
- Public support percentage sliding as funding concentrates in a few large grants
None of it reflects badly on the organization. It is what happens when funding arrives faster than infrastructure.
How we approach it
We start with the funding mix, because it determines what has to be tracked, tested, and reported — and to whom.
Then we assess what your records actually support today. If cleanup is required before an audit is feasible, you hear it in the first conversation with a realistic timeline, rather than discovering it during fieldwork.
The firm brings 25+ years and more than 100 audits, working exclusively with nonprofits, government entities, and small businesses.
Where to start
If you already know what you need:
Nearby work
We work with organizations throughout the Puget Sound region, including Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Tacoma, Everett, and Olympia.
If you are not sure what you need yet
Most first calls are not precise. A funder asked for audited financials and nobody knows whether a review would satisfy them. A large grant arrived and the reporting requirements turned out to be heavier than expected. The books are behind and the deadline is not.
That is a normal starting point.
Tell us your annual revenue, where the funding comes from, and what is being asked of you. We can usually tell you in one conversation what you actually need and what it will take to get there.
Call 1-888-616-8070 or schedule a consultation to get started.
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