StewardBefore Steward, our audit prep took six weeks and three staff members. Last year it took four days — and our auditor asked if we'd changed firms.
Not a single finding.
Margaret Osei-Bonsu
Executive Director, Northfield Community Foundation
Minneapolis, MN · $4.2M operating budget
Order
where
chaos
lived.
Steward rebuilds the back offices of nonprofits — grant compliance, board reporting, financial controls — so the work survives an audit without flinching.
47
Engagements
0
Audit findings
last 3 years
$280M
Funds stewarded
The disorder we walk into.
The order we leave behind.
Every engagement begins with a diagnostic. What follows is the actual work — shown here without the jargon.
Recognize this in your organization?
Book a Diagnostic CallBoard Treasurer's Report — Oct 2023
"Cash position is ████████. Program expenses are running ██████vs. budget. Restricted funds are ██████████."
Source: Three separate spreadsheets, reconciled manually the morning of the board meeting.
Board Dashboard — Auto-Generated
Cash Position
$312,400
+$18k vs. last month
YTD Expenses
94% of budget
On track
Restricted Funds
$134,200
4 active grants
Runway
7.2 months
Above 6-mo. policy
Pulls live from QuickBooks · delivered to board 72 hrs before meeting · no manual prep
Recognize this in your organization?
Book a Diagnostic CallChart of accounts as inherited — actual client (redacted):
47 accounts total · 12 unused · "Misc" account used for 23% of expenses
Rebuilt chart of accounts — FASB ASC 958 compliant:
28 accounts · zero miscellaneous · maps directly to Form 990 Part IX
Recognize this in your organization?
Book a Diagnostic CallTwelve weeks.
Every phase visible.
We don't disappear into a black box and resurface with a report. Every step is documented, explained, and handed to your team before we leave.
Discovery
Week 1–2What we encounter
- QuickBooks file with 8 years of workarounds
- Three versions of the budget in three formats
- Grant agreements stored in personal email drafts
- Verbal approval processes nobody can describe
- Board minutes that reference policies nobody can find
What we document
- Complete systems inventory with risk ratings
- Org-wide financial controls gap analysis
- Restricted fund inventory with expiration dates
- Decision authority matrix (who approves what)
- Prioritized 90-day remediation roadmap
Diagnosis
Week 2–4What we find
- Expenses coded to wrong program codes
- Indirect cost rate applied inconsistently
- Payroll allocations not tied to time records
- No reconciliation between bank and GL
- Restricted fund balances that don't match reports
What we surface
- Full GL reclassification schedule with documentation
- Indirect cost rate recalculation and policy
- Payroll allocation methodology tied to activity logs
- Bank-to-GL reconciliation for prior 24 months
- Restricted fund restatement with auditor memo
Restructuring
Week 4–10Systems we replace
- Color-coded spreadsheet as general ledger
- Manual month-end close that takes 3 weeks
- Grant reports built from scratch each time
- Budget-to-actual in a format nobody reads
- Audit prep that starts in October every year
Systems we install
- FASB-compliant chart of accounts in QuickBooks
- Month-end close checklist: 5 days, one person
- Grant report templates with auto-pull from QBO
- Board dashboard: auto-generated, 48 hrs before meeting
- Audit-ready file structure, maintained year-round
Handoff
Week 10–12What we leave behind
- Staff who know the new system end-to-end
- Written procedures for every recurring process
- A board treasurer who can read the financials
- An auditor who asks fewer questions
- A program manager who trusts her grant reports
What we hand over
- 12-month financial calendar with all deadlines
- Staff training with recorded walkthroughs
- Board finance committee orientation deck
- Auditor relationship briefing document
- 90-day check-in call included in every engagement
Are you audit-ready?
Ten questions your auditor will ask before they open a single ledger. Most nonprofits fail at least three. Download the full 40-point checklist — no email required.
Download Audit-Readiness Checklist"We used the checklist in our board finance committee meeting. Identified two gaps we didn't know existed."
David Reinholt · CFO, Cascade Youth Services · Portland, OR
Preview: 10 of 40 items
Financial Statements
Year-end financial statements prepared within 90 days of fiscal year close
Statement of functional expenses prepared and tied to Form 990 Part IX
Restricted Funds
All restricted fund balances reconciled to grant agreements
Releases from restriction documented with board approval where required
Internal Controls
Dual-signature policy enforced for disbursements over $5,000
Segregation of duties in place: no single person controls cash receipt and disbursement
Payroll
Time and effort records support payroll allocations to restricted grants
Fringe benefit rates documented and consistently applied
Board Governance
Finance committee reviewed monthly financials within 30 days of close
Conflict of interest policy signed by all board members within last 12 months
+ 30 more items in the full download covering procurement, HR compliance, IT controls, and grant management.
"Our board treasurer called me after the first dashboard. She said, 'I finally understand our finances.' That's never happened in seven years."
James Okafor
Executive Director, Great Lakes Housing Coalition
Chicago, IL
"We went into our first audit after the engagement expecting the usual findings. Zero. Not a single management letter comment. Our auditor asked what changed."
Priya Mehta
Co-Executive Director, Bay Area Resilience Fund
Oakland, CA
"I stopped dreading grant reporting. That alone was worth every dollar."
Sandra Kowalczyk
Program Director, Heartland Education Partners
Kansas City, MO
45 minutes.
No obligation.
Actual answers.
You describe the situation.
Grant compliance, audit prep, board reporting — whatever is most urgent.
We diagnose on the call.
Not a sales pitch. A real assessment of what's broken and what it would take to fix it.
You leave with a plan.
Even if we never work together, you'll leave with a clear-eyed view of your options.
Typical engagement scope
$8,500–$22,000
Full back-office restructure
10–12 weeks
Discovery through handoff
Book your diagnostic call.
Select a time that works. No forms, no intake questionnaires. Just a conversation with someone who has seen this before and knows how to fix it.
Book a Diagnostic Call