Foundation boards and their accountants often use different formats for financial statements. In 2007, a group of experienced foundation financial officers, CPAs, and attorneys developed a uniform financial reporting system as a model for any private foundation.
This uniform system can:

• Help your foundation prepare your Form 990-PF. The statements were created with the Form 990-PF in mind, so that financial information can be transferred easily.
• Help bookeepers, accountants, and others with little or no private foundation experience quickly learn the basic financial issues specific to private foundations.
• Allow private foundations to compare their expenses more accurately to those of other foundations, since more foundations will use a standard reporting system.

The primer also includes sample financial statements, including a statement of financial position, statement of activities, statement of cash flows, and notes to financial statements to help your foundation use system as seamlessly as possible.

13 pages

Print version available here.