The immutable ledger for nonprofit finances and the Form 990.
Connect the organization’s accounts. Revenue and expense are classified to the Form 990’s functional categories, restricted and unrestricted funds stay distinct, the return is drafted for the board, and donors get a public feed they can verify.
Why this is hard today.
A tax-exempt organization files a Form 990 every year — the full 990, the 990-EZ, or the 990-N e-Postcard, depending on size — and it is a public document. Watchdogs, the press, and major donors read it. When the books are a tangle of restricted grants and functional allocations, the 990 lands late, wrong, or both.
The 990 asks harder questions than a profit-and-loss statement: functional expense allocation across program, management, and fundraising; Schedule B donor detail; and Schedule L transactions with interested persons. Getting Schedule L wrong is how a board member’s ordinary conflict of interest quietly becomes an IRS problem.
In Hawaii there is a second layer. A charity that solicits must register and report annually with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) under HRS Chapter 467B, and the organization’s general excise tax treatment has to be preserved. Federal return, state registration, GET status — one clean bookkeeping trail feeds all three.
The obligations, in plain language.
The obligations below are set by the IRS and, in Hawaii, by the DCCA. OpenBooks classifies revenue and expense to them and drafts the return; your board reviews and approves. This is recordkeeping software, not tax or legal advice, and the framing is non-sectarian by construction.
| Requirement | Authority | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| File the annual return | IRS Form 990 / 990-EZ / 990-N | Filed annually by exempt organizations; the required form depends on gross receipts and total assets. The return is public record. |
| Allocate expenses by function | Form 990 Part IX | Expenses allocated across program services, management and general, and fundraising — the statement of functional expenses. |
| Detail large contributions | Form 990 Schedule B | Contributions above the reporting threshold are detailed on Schedule B. |
| Disclose related-party transactions | Form 990 Schedule L | Transactions with interested persons — officers, directors, trustees, and key employees — are disclosed on Schedule L. |
| Register as a Hawaii charity | HRS ch. 467B · DCCA | A charity soliciting in Hawaii registers and reports annually with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. |
| Preserve the GET exemption | HRS §237-24.3 | Maintain the general excise tax treatment applicable to qualifying exempt activity. |
Connect once. Approve. Publish.
Connect the accounts once. The agent keeps restricted funds distinct, maps spend to the 990’s functional categories, and drafts the return and its schedules for the board.
Connect accounts
Every deposit and disbursement imported and typed as it clears.
Fund accounting built in
Restricted vs unrestricted tracked per grant, with releases recognized when the restriction is met.
Functional expense allocation
Spend mapped to program / management / fundraising for Part IX — the split the 990 turns on.
Schedule L watch
Flags transactions with officers, directors, trustees, and key employees for disclosure review.
Board approval + 990 draft
The return, with Schedule B and Schedule L worklists, drafted from real activity for the board to approve.
Donor verify page
A public, hash-chained feed donors and watchdogs can recompute. Trust earned by math, not reputation.
Artifact produced: a Form 990 draft with Part IX functional allocation and a Schedule B / Schedule L worklist, plus a donor-verifiable public ledger.
What “verify” looks like here.
Give donors a URL where every grant received and every dollar spent is chained with SHA-256. A major donor or a watchdog downloads the events and recomputes the head hash. Your 990 states one thing; your ledger proves it.
Priced for nonprofits.
Per organization. Non-sectarian by construction.
- ✓Connect accounts
- ✓Functional expense allocation
- ✓990-EZ draft
- ✓Donor verify page
- ✓Everything in Starter
- ✓Full 990 draft + Part IX
- ✓Schedule B / Schedule L worklists
- ✓Board approval workflow
- ✓Everything in Growth
- ✓Per-grant restricted fund tracking
- ✓Grant reporting exports
- ✓HI DCCA registration record prep
Prices are introductory and per organization. Not legal or tax advice.
Nonprofits — questions officers ask.
Which 990 do we file?+
It depends on your gross receipts and assets — the 990-N e-Postcard, the 990-EZ, or the full 990. We draft to the one you owe.
Does it handle restricted grants?+
Yes. Restricted and unrestricted funds are tracked per grant, with releases recognized when the restriction is satisfied.
What is Schedule L and why does it matter?+
Schedule L discloses transactions with interested persons — officers, directors, and key employees. We flag those transactions so nothing that should be disclosed is missed.
Is the framing sectarian?+
No. It is non-sectarian by construction — the same categorization applies to every organization.
Do you register us with the DCCA?+
We keep the records that make HRS Chapter 467B registration and annual reporting straightforward. You or your counsel file.
Who approves the 990?+
Your board or treasurer. Draft-first, board-approved.
Is this tax or legal advice?+
No. It is recordkeeping software. Your board, accountant, and counsel remain responsible.
What happens when we correct a mistake?+
Corrections are appended as new entries referencing the original by hash. Nothing is overwritten.
Bring nonprofits into the open.
Draft-first, officer-approved, cryptographically verifiable. Non-partisan and non-sectarian by construction.