Seattle Nonprofit Accountant: 5 Questions to Ask First

Seattle Nonprofit Accountant: 5 Questions to Ask First

A Seattle nonprofit accountant is the person or firm that keeps your books, prepares the financial statements your board relies on and gets your annual filings done on time. Hiring the wrong one is rarely dramatic. It shows up as a late Form 990, a restricted gift spent by accident or a board that cannot read the report.

The five questions below are the ones to settle before you sign, in the order that tends to matter. The numbering is a sequence, not a ranking.

On our partner roster, one Sam's List partner lists a Seattle base: System Six, a bookkeeping and fractional CFO firm whose live profile lists Non-Profit Organizations among its specialties. As of the roster's last update on September 14, 2026, that is the whole Seattle roster, and System Six is written up below. System Six is a vetted Sam's List member and a paying member of our featured program; payment does not buy the language we use or its reviews. You can read how we picked this firm at the end.

1. Does Your Seattle Nonprofit Accountant Handle Form 990 Preparation?

Most tax-exempt organizations file an annual information return with the IRS. Depending on size, that is Form 990, 990-EZ or the 990-N e-Postcard for very small organizations. For a calendar-year organization, the return is generally due on the 15th day of the fifth month after year-end, with an extension available on request.

Ask who prepares it. Some accountants keep the books and hand the 990 to a separate preparer, and that works only if someone owns the handoff. Ask what they need from you and by when, and who gets the draft before it is signed, since the return is public and board members are usually asked to review it.

In Washington, charities generally also have state registration and annual reporting duties with the Secretary of State. Ask whether the accountant tracks those dates or leaves them to you.

The limitation: a firm that prepares your return does not own your compliance. The organization signs the return, so someone on your side has to read it before it is filed.

2. How Will You Handle Restricted Funds Tracking?

Nonprofits generally separate net assets without donor restrictions from net assets with donor restrictions. A gift given for a specific program or period must be tracked, so it is spent as the donor intended and released when the condition is met.

Ask how the accountant records a restricted gift when it arrives, how it is released and what the board sees. Ask whether they use classes or funds in the accounting system, and how they would show that a restricted balance is still there at the end of the month.

The practical test is simple: can they tell you, today, how much of your cash is committed to something? If the answer takes a week, the system is not tracking restrictions well. A cash balance on its own can look healthy while most of it is promised elsewhere.

The limitation: tracking shows what is committed but does not enforce it. Spending discipline still belongs to staff and the board, and a restriction can be complicated by the terms of the gift itself.

3. What Nonprofit Financial Statements Will the Board Receive?

A board needs readable reports on a schedule, not a data dump. The standard set includes a statement of financial position, a statement of activities, a statement of cash flows and a statement or note showing functional expenses, which splits costs among programs, management and fundraising.

Ask for a sample, with names removed, from a similar organization. Check whether it compares to budget, whether restricted and unrestricted funds are shown separately and whether the numbers arrive soon enough to matter. A report that lands six weeks after the month closes helps with a history lesson and little else.

Ask who explains the statements. A treasurer who does not read accounting every day needs a summary in plain words, not only a spreadsheet.

The limitation: well-formatted statements only show that the accounts are organized. They do not show that every gift and expense was recorded correctly, so ask how the books are reviewed.

4. What Happens Before a Grant Reporting Deadline?

Grants come with reporting duties, and some come with rules on which costs are allowed. Ask how the accountant tracks spending against each grant, how they separate allowable from unallowable costs and what they prepare when a funder asks for a financial report.

For organizations that spend a larger amount of federal awards in a year, a single audit may be required. The current threshold under federal rules is $1,000,000 of federal award spending in a fiscal year, up from $750,000 for years beginning before October 1, 2024. If you are near it, ask the accountant how they would flag it early, since an audit takes months to arrange.

Ask also what they do when a report is due and the books are behind. A reliable answer includes a calendar, a named person and a backup.

The limitation: preparing grant reports is not the same as managing the grant. Program staff still need to document the work the money paid for.

5. Who Owns the Close at Your Seattle Nonprofit Accountant, and What Is the Backup?

The monthly close is the routine that makes everything else possible: reconcile the accounts, post the accruals, review the results, release the report. Ask who does each step and by what day of the month it is finished.

Then ask what happens when that person is out. A firm with several staff members has a built-in answer. A sole practitioner may still have one, such as a named colleague, but you should hear it before you need it.

Finally, ask how the work is separated. The person who records the transactions should not also be the only person who reviews them, since that is how errors and worse stay hidden. Small nonprofits often cannot fully separate duties, so ask what the accountant does to compensate.

The limitation: a clear close calendar promises a process, not a result. The first two monthly closes will show you whether it is real.

Where System Six Fits

System Six is a bookkeeping and fractional CFO firm based in Seattle. It was founded in 2009, has about 41 employees and serves clients nationwide. Its live profile lists Non-Profit Organizations, Professional Service Firms and Real Estate Investors as specialties, and says it serves small businesses generating between $1 million and $10 million of revenue.

System Six does not yet have enough reviews on Sam's List for us to cite a count, so we describe the firm by what its profile says instead.

The limitation, plainly: the profile lists a $1 million revenue minimum, so a smaller nonprofit may fall outside what System Six takes on. It also does not describe Form 990 preparation, restricted funds tracking or grant reporting by name, so ask what is included and who signs what.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a nonprofit accountant do?

A nonprofit accountant keeps the books, tracks restricted funds, prepares financial statements for the board and funders, and supports annual filings such as Form 990. Scope varies by firm, so ask for it in writing. Some prepare the return and some hand it to a separate preparer.

When is Form 990 due?

For an organization on a calendar year, generally the 15th day of the fifth month after year-end, with an extension available on request. Fiscal-year organizations have a matching date. Confirm your due date and form type with the IRS or your preparer.

How do nonprofits track restricted funds?

They generally record gifts with donor restrictions separately from unrestricted ones, using classes or funds in the accounting system, and release them when the condition is met. Ask your accountant to show you how a restricted balance appears on the monthly report.

Do I need a Seattle nonprofit accountant, or can any accountant do it?

Any competent accountant can try, but nonprofit work has its own rules on restrictions, functional expenses and grant reporting. Ask how many nonprofits the firm serves and for a reference from one your size. Location matters less than experience.

Before you interview anyone, write down your fiscal year-end, the date of your last filed Form 990 and the restricted gifts you hold today. You can browse fractional CFOs on Sam's List, including System Six, and ask each one how it handles those three.

How We Picked This Firm

You should be able to check our work, so here is how this post was built.

The pool. The pool is the Sam's List partner roster for Seattle. As of that roster's last update on September 14, 2026, one partner lists a Seattle base, System Six, so the write-up covers the whole roster. This is not a survey of every accountant who serves Seattle nonprofits, and many firms not on the roster could fit.

How it is organized. The five questions are a sequence to work through, not a ranking. System Six is the only firm written up, so there is no order of firms.

What review counts mean here. System Six has too few reviews on Sam's List for a count to mean much, so we do not cite one. A count shows how many clients wrote something down, not technical quality.

What payment does and does not buy. Listing on Sam's List is free, and so is being named in this article. The firm written up here is a paying member of our featured program, which is why it gets a write-up. What payment does not buy is the language we use about a firm, its review count, or a promise that it fits you.

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About the author: Kimberly Green is the cofounder of Sam's List, where business owners and high earners find vetted CPAs, financial advisors, and fractional CFOs. She's met one-on-one with 400+ financial professionals and writes from the real data behind thousands of client-advisor matches. Ask her anything about finding an accountant - she's heard it all, including the questions people are afraid to ask.