This toolkit brings together Andrea Chen’s complete system for tracking restricted funds: from the net asset roll forward itself, to the bookkeeper cheat sheet that keeps your accountant coding things right from the start, to the monthly close checklist that makes all of it actually hold over time.
From the Helia Library — based on the article What Your P&L Won’t Tell You, from our Coffee Chat with Andrea Chen.
What’s Inside
Five resources, meant to be used together. Start with the START HERE guide to get oriented — then work through the rest with your accountant.
01 — START HERE Guide
An orientation to the full toolkit with Andrea’s advice built in, so you know what you’re looking at and how to use it. Use this first, before you touch any of the other tabs.
02 — Net Asset Roll Forward
The core tracker — every grant listed, with beginning balances, revenue in, expenses out, and what’s left by restriction. This is the document Andrea calls her primary financial tool, more than the P&L or the balance sheet. Use this monthly as part of your close process.
03 — Committed Grants Dashboard
A dashboard showing your committed grants by year, so you can see years out what you’ve raised and what’s coming — including multi-year grants that won’t show up on your P&L. Use this when you need to make decisions about staffing, fundraising strategy, or program investment.
04 — Bookkeeper Cheat Sheet
A one-page summary to give your accountant every time a new grant comes in: the categories, allowable expenses, and timeline. Use this at the start of each new grant so things get coded correctly from day one instead of untangled at report time.
05 — Sample Monthly Close Checklist
A starting point for building your monthly close process with your accountant. Use this to establish the rhythm that makes everything else in this toolkit actually work.
When Resources and Templates Aren’t Enough
This toolkit will give you the infrastructure and the system. What it can’t do is set up your QuickBooks by class and grant if it isn’t already structured that way, tell you whether your allocations are compliant with specific funder requirements, or help you navigate a grant reporting discrepancy that’s already gotten away from you. If you’re taking on federal funding for the first time, managing 15+ grants, or realizing your monthly close process doesn’t really exist yet — that’s usually where having someone come in makes a real difference.
If you want help with restricted revenue and financial infrastructure
Andrea Chen works directly with nonprofits and social sector organizations to get this right — from setting up the accounting infrastructure to building the monthly processes that actually hold over time. She built this system herself, taught it across hundreds of organizations through Propeller, and brings both the technical depth and the leader’s perspective to the work.
She’s a good fit if:
- You’re managing 10+ funding sources, and your current system is starting to strain
- You’re taking on federal funding or preparing for a single audit for the first time
- You have a bookkeeper or accountant, but no one’s set up a proper monthly close process
- You want help getting your whole team oriented around the net asset roll forward — not just your finance person
