The goal of any accounting system is to provide useful information to those who make financial decisions. The nonprofit accounting system can be complicated- the organization must be able to have a system which will provide internal users with information to make decisions while conforming the general accounting principles for outside agencies such as the IRS. What complicates things is the reality that leadership and board members have varying levels of accounting/financial knowledge. One way to simplify information is to develop a chart of accounts. The chart of accounts is the foundation of the nonprofit accounting system. It is a set of categories to organize the description of assets, liabilities, net assets, income, and expenses
