Bookminders provides complete outsourced accounting solutions for over 475 small to mid-size businesses and nonprofit organizations, and now they are coming to Austin.

Jessica Minkus, the CEO of Bookminders, and Pamela Falkner Hartigan, the director of business development at Bookminders, joined Studio 512 Co-Host Rosie Newberry to tell us more.

What are the challenges Bookminders sees for nonprofits?

“Limited funds for operations personnel,” Minkus said.

“Funding for programs, yes, but G&A is tougher. Typically, these organizations are not able to afford an experienced, nonprofit accountant. There’s a lot of turnover in the staff that is performing this function. You’ll also find that employees in the nonprofit world have to wear multiple hats. This means that there are different staff in the accounting system over the years and the result is inconsistent and inaccurate financials.”

“Another challenge is visibility into how funding is used,” Hartigan said.

“They are required to report back to their funders the use of the money. The effort required to track all the different funding sources is a large undertaking. Funders want to see how their money is being spent especially when restrictions are placed around that. The other issue is that nonprofits have to provide reports back to the board and the Program Manager.”

What makes us so attractive to nonprofit clients?

Minkus said there are multiple things that make Bookminders attractive to clients:

“Our degreed staff, which typically has 10-15 years of experience prior to joining Bookminders. The quality of our staff is not something nonprofits can typically afford. Having a 2nd person trained on the account improves redundancy.”

“Our staff build in a level of segregation of duties: what we do versus what they do. Nonprofits don’t have the staff to have the proper segregation of duties,” Hartigan said.

“In real time, we are tracking all of their program, administrative, and fundraising financial activities. At the same time, tracking the use of reporting on their restricted and without restricted donor funds,” Minkus said.

You’ve said before that many referrals come from a client’s accountant. Why do accountants refer Bookminders to their nonprofit clients?

“The quality of our service: consistent, accurate, and organized,” Hartigan said. “There’s no difference in the quality of service from bookminder to bookminder. You also receive a comprehensive year-end package, which makes audits easier and is less work for the CPA.”

“A lot of our referrals come from other nonprofit clients. Over a quarter of our referrals come from existing and previous clients. Bookminders has worked with nonprofits for over 30 years and 50% of clients are nonprofit entities,” Minkus said.

Where can we learn more?

Follow Bookminders on Facebook (@BookmindersAustin), Twitter (@Bookminders), and LinkedIn to keep up with new opportunities in the ATX and surrounding area. Bookminders is hiring. View openings and apply online at Bookminders.com.

This segment is paid for by Bookminders and is intended as an advertisement. Opinions expressed by the guest(s) on this program are solely those of the guest(s) and are not endorsed by this television station.