Accounting
Nonprofit Accounting
Nonprofit Management
Nonprofit Chart of Accounts: Structure, Funds and Functional Codes
Last updated: October 8, 2026 · Independent guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
A nonprofit chart of accounts is the numbered list of general ledger accounts your organization posts to, designed so that every transaction can be reported by nature (what it is), by function (program, management and general, or fundraising), by net asset class and by fund or grant. A good nonprofit chart of accounts keeps the natural accounts short and moves programs, funds and grants into separate segments or dimensions. It also lines each account up with a single line of IRS Form 990, so the return and the audited statements come out of the ledger without a manual reclassification spreadsheet.
How to use this template
The template below has two parts. The first is a natural account list with a four-digit numbering scheme and the Form 990 (2025) line each account rolls up to. The second is a set of dimensions you attach to each transaction: fund, restriction, function, program and grant. Copy the accounts you need, delete the ones you do not, and leave the numbering gaps in place so you can add accounts later without renumbering. If you file Form 990-EZ or 990-N, the 990 column still helps you organize your audit and board reports.
Template part 1: natural accounts mapped to Form 990
| Account | Account name | Form 990 line | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1000s Assets | |||
| 1010 | Operating checking | Part X, line 1 | Non-interest-bearing cash only |
| 1020 | Savings and money market | Part X, line 2 | Interest-bearing and temporary cash investments |
| 1210 | Pledges receivable | Part X, line 3 | Unconditional promises to give |
| 1220 | Grants receivable | Part X, line 3 | Tag each balance with its grant code |
| 1230 | Allowance for uncollectible pledges | Part X, line 3 | Line 3 is reported net |
| 1250 | Accounts receivable (fees, contracts) | Part X, line 4 | Exchange transactions, not gifts |
| 1300 | Inventory for sale or use | Part X, line 8 | Include donated goods held for sale |
| 1400 | Prepaid expenses | Part X, line 9 | Insurance, software, deposits |
| 1510 | Investments, publicly traded | Part X, line 11 | Separate endowment holdings by fund |
| 1520 | Investments, other securities | Part X, line 12 | Private funds, partnerships |
| 1610 | Land, buildings and equipment | Part X, line 10a | Supports Schedule D, Part VI |
| 1690 | Accumulated depreciation | Part X, line 10b | One contra account per asset class |
| 1900 | Other assets | Part X, line 15 | Keep small; review annually |
| 2000s Liabilities | |||
| 2010 | Accounts payable | Part X, line 17 | Combine with accruals on the return |
| 2100 | Accrued payroll and benefits | Part X, line 17 | Includes accrued vacation |
| 2200 | Grants payable | Part X, line 18 | Grants you award to others |
| 2300 | Deferred revenue | Part X, line 19 | Advance fees and refundable advances |
| 2500 | Mortgage and notes payable | Part X, line 23 or 24 | Split secured and unsecured |
| 3000s Net assets | |||
| 3100 | Net assets without donor restrictions | Part X, line 27 | Board-designated tracked by fund code |
| 3200 | Net assets with donor restrictions | Part X, line 28 | Purpose, time and perpetual detail by restriction code |
| 4000s Revenue | |||
| 4010 | Contributions, individuals | Part VIII, line 1f | Cash gifts |
| 4020 | Contributions, foundations and corporations | Part VIII, line 1f | Private grants that are gifts |
| 4030 | Federated campaigns | Part VIII, line 1a | United Way and similar |
| 4040 | Membership dues (contribution portion) | Part VIII, line 1b | Dues with no matching benefit |
| 4050 | Government grants (contributions) | Part VIII, line 1e | Awards that benefit the public |
| 4060 | In-kind contributions | Part VIII, line 1f and 1g | Line 1g shows the noncash amount |
| 4070 | Special events, contribution portion | Part VIII, line 1c | Ticket price above fair value of benefit |
| 4110 | Program service fees | Part VIII, line 2 | One sub-account per program line on 2a to 2f |
| 4120 | Government contracts (exchange) | Part VIII, line 2 | Services that directly benefit the agency |
| 4210 | Special events, gross (exchange portion) | Part VIII, line 8a | Fair value of meals and benefits |
| 4220 | Special events, direct expenses | Part VIII, line 8b | Netted here, never also in Part IX |
| 4310 | Interest and dividends | Part VIII, line 3 | By fund if endowment income is restricted |
| 4320 | Realized and unrealized gains | Part VIII, line 7 (realized) | Split realized and unrealized |
| 4410 | Rental income | Part VIII, line 6a | Rental expenses go to line 6b |
| 4510 | Merchandise sales | Part VIII, line 10a | Cost of goods sold to line 10b |
| 4900 | Net assets released from restriction | None (internal) | Nets to zero across restriction classes |
| 5000s to 8000s Expenses (Part IX, by function) | |||
| 5010 | Grants to domestic organizations and governments | Part IX, line 1 | Feeds Schedule I |
| 5020 | Assistance to domestic individuals | Part IX, line 2 | Scholarships, direct aid |
| 6010 | Salaries, officers and key employees | Part IX, line 5 | Must agree with Part VII |
| 6020 | Salaries, other staff | Part IX, line 7 | Includes IT and fundraising staff |
| 6100 | Retirement plan contributions | Part IX, line 8 | 401(k) and 403(b) employer share |
| 6110 | Health and other benefits | Part IX, line 9 | Allocate with the salary it follows |
| 6200 | Payroll taxes | Part IX, line 10 | Allocate with the salary it follows |
| 7010 | Accounting and audit fees | Part IX, line 11c | Usually management and general |
| 7020 | Legal fees | Part IX, line 11b | |
| 7030 | Professional fundraising fees | Part IX, line 11e | Always the fundraising column |
| 7040 | Investment management fees | Part IX, line 11f | |
| 7050 | Other contract services | Part IX, line 11g | Not IT contractors |
| 7100 | Advertising and promotion | Part IX, line 12 | |
| 7200 | Office supplies and postage | Part IX, line 13 | |
| 7300 | Software, hosting and IT services | Part IX, line 14 | IT contractors belong here |
| 7400 | Rent and utilities | Part IX, line 16 | Allocate by square footage |
| 7500 | Travel | Part IX, line 17 | |
| 7600 | Conferences and meetings | Part IX, line 19 | |
| 7700 | Interest expense | Part IX, line 20 | |
| 7800 | Depreciation and amortization | Part IX, line 22 | Includes IT hardware depreciation |
| 7900 | Insurance | Part IX, line 23 | |
| 8000 | Program supplies | Part IX, line 24a to 24e | Name it as its own line 24 item |
| 8900 | Miscellaneous | Part IX, line 24e | Review before year-end |
Template part 2: dimensions you attach to every transaction
| Segment or dimension | Example codes | Answers the question | Required on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fund | 10 General operating, 20 Board-designated reserve, 30 Building campaign, 40 Endowment | Which self-balancing set of books? | Every line, balance sheet included |
| Restriction | WO Without donor restrictions, WP Purpose, WT Time, WE Perpetual | Which net asset class? | Revenue, releases and net assets |
| Function | PS Program services, MG Management and general, FR Fundraising | Which Part IX column? | Every expense line |
| Program | 110 Youth tutoring, 120 Food pantry, 130 Housing navigation | Which mission activity? (Part III) | Expenses coded PS; program revenue |
| Grant or award | G26-HUD-014, G26-FDN-Smith | Which funder budget does this charge to? | Charges against an award |
| Department or location (optional) | 01 Main office, 02 East site | Who manages the budget? | Only if you budget this way |
A full coding string under this design reads like 10-7400-PS-120-G26-FDN-Smith: general fund, rent, program services, food pantry, charged to a foundation grant. All codes in this example are illustrative.
Walking through each part of the template
Natural accounts: keep them few and stable
The natural account answers one question: what was bought or received. Resist the urge to create “Salaries, Youth Program” and “Salaries, Food Pantry” as separate accounts, because the program dimension already carries that information. Sage’s own nonprofit guide shows why this matters: 40 expense accounts tracked across 5 locations, 3 countries and 12 departments would produce 7,200 account combinations in a linear chart, against 40 accounts when the other attributes sit in dimensions (Sage, December 6, 2024; Sage sells nonprofit accounting software).
The four-digit ranges in the template follow the convention most nonprofit sources use, but no regulator mandates them. The 2001 Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA) effort, led by the California Association of Nonprofits, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Urban Institute, with field testing by the California Society of CPAs, tried to standardize nonprofit coding precisely so that Form 990 and funder reports would come from one structure (Nonprofit Quarterly, March 21, 2001). The 990 column in this template applies the same idea to the current form.
Net assets: two GAAP classes, more detail underneath
Since FASB ASU 2016-14, nonprofits present two classes of net assets, “with donor restrictions” and “without donor restrictions,” instead of the old unrestricted, temporarily restricted and permanently restricted classes (FASB ASU 2016-14, August 2016). The standard applies to fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. Form 990 Part X follows the same split on lines 27 and 28 for organizations that follow ASC 958 (IRS Instructions for Form 990 (2025), last reviewed April 30, 2026).
Use two net asset accounts and keep the purpose, time and perpetual detail in the restriction dimension, because you still need that detail for the notes to the financial statements.
Revenue: split by Form 990 line, not by campaign
Form 990 Part VIII separates federated campaigns, membership dues, fundraising events, related organizations, government grants and all other contributions on lines 1a to 1f (IRS Form 990 (2025), created April 30, 2025). Build your revenue accounts around those lines and use the fund or program dimension for campaigns and appeals.
Two splits cause most of the rework at year-end. First, government money is either a contribution (line 1e) or program service revenue (line 2) when the service directly benefits the agency rather than the public. Second, event revenue must be divided: the line 8a instructions say to report gross event income excluding the contribution portion, which goes on line 1c, and to complete Schedule G, Part II when lines 1c and 8a together exceed $15,000 (IRS, April 30, 2026). Separate accounts 4070, 4210 and 4220 make both numbers fall out of the ledger.
Function: the Part IX columns
Part IX reports every expense in column (A) total and in columns (B) program services, (C) management and general and (D) fundraising. The IRS instructions state that section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations must complete columns (A) through (D), while other organizations must complete column (A) and may complete the rest (IRS, April 30, 2026). ASU 2016-14 separately requires GAAP statements to show expenses by both nature and function in one place. A required function code on every expense line satisfies both.
Program and grant: the dimensions funders audit
If you receive federal awards, the Uniform Guidance requires your financial management system to identify each award by Assistance Listings number and title, federal award identification number, year and awarding agency, and to compare expenditures with the budget for each award (2 CFR 200.302, eCFR, up to date as of October 6, 2026). A grant dimension that holds those attributes is what lets you produce the schedule of expenditures of federal awards from the ledger. Create one grant code per award year, not one per funder, so a renewal does not mix two budgets.
Common mistakes
- One account per program or grant. This is how charts grow to several hundred accounts. Move the attribute to a dimension.
- Using funds for programs. A fund is a self-balancing set of books. Using it for programs that share cash forces constant interfund entries.
- Event costs in two places. Direct event expenses netted on Part VIII line 8b must not also appear in Part IX, which the instructions prohibit.
- IT costs on the wrong line. The instructions put IT contractors on line 14, IT employees on lines 5 to 10 and IT depreciation on line 22. Account 7300 should hold only the first.
- A large “other expenses” account. Anything you put in line 24e is less informative for donors and watchdogs reading your return. Give recurring program costs their own account and line 24 label.
- Function left optional. If the system lets staff post an expense without a function code, someone will reclassify it by hand in a spreadsheet every year.
When to move from a spreadsheet to software
A spreadsheet works for designing the chart and the 990 crosswalk. It stops working once you need to enforce required dimensions at entry, release restrictions automatically or report one grant across fiscal years.
QuickBooks Online offers classes on the Plus and Advanced plans, turned on under Settings > Account and settings > Advanced > Categories (Intuit, August 3, 2026). Class tracking gives you one tagging field, usually spent on program or fund, so grants and restrictions often end up tracked in spreadsheets outside the ledger. That limit is one of the reasons covered in our guide to QuickBooks alternatives for nonprofits.
Sage Intacct provides standard dimensions including location, department, project, class, customer, vendor and employee, plus user-defined dimensions you create; extra fees can apply to user-defined dimensions (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). Oracle NetSuite uses subsidiaries, departments, classes and locations, and allows an unlimited number of custom segments (NetSuite Help, no date shown).
MIP Fund Accounting uses segment types: one required GL segment, one optional self-balancing fund segment, balancing and non-balancing segments for grants, programs and departments, and an optional restriction segment for ASC 958 classes (MIP documentation, no date shown). Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT builds on fund and account code segments and uses projects and transaction codes for programs and designations, which keeps the account structure smaller (Blackbaud, no date shown; Blackbaud sells the product). Our nonprofit accounting software guide compares pricing and fit, and the grant management software guide covers tools that sit beside the ledger.
How we researched this
We read the current IRS Form 990 (2025) and its instructions line by line, FASB ASU 2016-14, and 2 CFR 200.302 on eCFR, and built the template from those texts. We checked how QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, MIP and Financial Edge NXT structure dimensions in each vendor’s own documentation. We also reviewed the pages that rank for this search from Sage, Wild Apricot, Aplos (all software vendors) and the CPA firm JMCO; none of them gives a line-by-line Form 990 crosswalk, and two still show the pre-2018 three-class net asset structure. All sources were checked on October 8, 2026.
Related guides
- Statement of Activities: Nonprofit Template and How-To
- Church Fund Accounting Software: Requirements and Options
- General Ledger Reconciliation: Steps, Frequency and Review
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard nonprofit chart of accounts?
No regulator prescribes one. The 1000s to 8000s numbering is a convention, and the Unified Chart of Accounts from the early 2000s was a voluntary effort. The closest thing to a required structure is the set of lines on Form 990 Parts VIII, IX and X, which is why mapping each account to one line matters.
Should restricted funds have their own bank accounts or GL accounts?
Generally neither is required. You can hold restricted gifts in the operating bank account and track them with a fund or restriction code, and release them through a release account when the restriction is met. A separate bank account is needed only if a donor or grant agreement requires one.
What is the difference between a fund and a program?
A fund is a self-balancing set of books with its own assets, liabilities and net assets, such as an endowment or a building campaign. A program is a mission activity you report on Form 990 Part III and in column (B) of Part IX. Many programs share one fund.
Do I still need temporarily and permanently restricted accounts?
Not as GAAP classes. ASU 2016-14 replaced them with net assets with and without donor restrictions. Keep purpose, time and perpetual restrictions as codes in a restriction dimension so you can still prepare the required note disclosures.
Sources
- IRS, Form 990 (2025), Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, created April 30, 2025.
- IRS, Instructions for Form 990 (2025), last reviewed or updated April 30, 2026.
- FASB, ASU 2016-14, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958): Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities, August 2016.
- eCFR, 2 CFR 200.302, Financial management, up to date as of October 6, 2026.
- Nonprofit Quarterly, Initiative for a Unified Chart of Accounts, March 21, 2001.
- Sage (vendor), Nonprofit chart of accounts 101, December 6, 2024.
- Sage Intacct Help (vendor), Dimensions overview, October 1, 2026.
- Oracle NetSuite Help (vendor), Classifications Overview, no date shown.
- Intuit (vendor), Turn on class tracking in QuickBooks Online, August 3, 2026.
- MIP (vendor), Organization Information, Segments tab, no date shown.
- Blackbaud (vendor), Fund Accounting Best Practices Guide, Chapter 2 preview, no date shown.
- Wild Apricot (vendor), Nonprofit chart of accounts, August 21, 2026.
- JMCO (CPA firm), Chart of Accounts for Nonprofit Organizations, July 1, 2026.
- Aplos (vendor), What is a chart of accounts, June 14, 2014.
Sherman Hsieh
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