Frequently Asked Questions

If you're an organization between $500K and $2M, looking to go from confusing reports or time-consuming processes to confident systems and compliant accounting, you are in the right place.

But, working with Chickadee is more than "here are my receipts, see you next month!". We love to learn together, to solve problems together, and to build intuitive systems together. Financial and operational education and training are central to the way our services are designed, upskilling the nonprofit sector with financial confidence (fear-free finances, is that you?).

We love to work with clients whose leadership staff are curious, coachable, and willing to ask questions, and whose Boards value capacity building and people-friendly finance systems for scalibility and sustainability.

To learn more about if Chickadee is the right fit for you, take a look at our nonprofit financial management self-assessment tool and sign up for an Intro call.

Among growing nonprofits in the range of $500K to $2M, we see successful organizations investing up to 30% of their budgets in operations - the critical stabilization functions that keep your organization going. These can include office/technology costs, administrative and leadership wages, and organizational consultants like Chickadee.

Inside of that "operations" bucket, Chickadee's bookkeeping and advisory services will typically make up about 3%-5% of your total annual budget. If your internal admin and leadership team is understaffed - if your operations investment overall is low - our team may make up the "gap", and our contract will be proportionally larger.

🧮 Quick math: An average client at Chickadee has an organizational budget of $700K-$1M and pays $3,000-$4,000 in monthly fees. Larger or more complex organizations may double that investment, smaller organizations may invest half of that.

Check out our case studies to see the impact of an investment like this for nonprofits like you. For an exploration of your unique needs, and a custom proposal, get in touch via our inquiry form.

Our client relationships are about trust, and that takes time to build! Our intake process includes a few steps to get to know each other and figure out if we're a good fit. Here's what this looks like:

In our experience, from Intro Call to onboarding takes a minimum of 4-6 weeks, depending the speed of your decision-making processes.

This said, maybe your bookkeeper just left or you have a grant deadline looming. We hear you! If we're a fit and if your side moves quickly with your decisions, our team is prepared to hit the ground running. Please tell us more about your timeline needs in your inquiry form (even if they don't quite match) and we'll see what we can do.

No, at this time we do not offer one-time consultations or projects. Based on our experiences, if you're looking for:

• help solving a problem: the issue is almost always an indicator of a deeper need for a financial system update. This is our specialty and makes you a good candidate for our regular services!
• a budget build or payroll set up: setting up sustainable systems that meet your unique needs require a deep understanding of your systems and operations. We love diving deep with clients to create resources and systems that will last years and grow with you along the way.

In both scenarios, the best solution would be our flagship service: a full accounting system cleanup & rebuild. This is how we engage with all new clients. The cleanup and rebuild project typically leads into a customized monthly bookkeeping and advisory support service after the first 6-12 months. Nonprofit accounting is uniquely complex, and often we uncover the root challenges when we dig in and get started.

Yes, Chickadee offers a Payroll & Payables service in addition to regular bookkeeping. This service comes in both core and premium streams:

• Core: biweekly (every second week) payroll processing, including tracking for vacation accrual, statutory sick pay, stat holiday pay, and Mandatory Employment-Related Costs like EI & CPP.
• Premium: adds dedicated hands-on support to read, track, and implement your internal personnel documents & compensation policies.

We can also help you set up payroll systems for the first time or migrate them to more reliable platforms, depending on what you are currently using.

We sure can! Right when we begin work with you, we are going to review - and update if needed - your chart of accounts (also known as a general ledger) to make sure it is easy to use. Your chart of accounts (CoA) tells the story of your organization, and a tidy CoA makes reporting so much easier. We once helped a client go from 300 account types to 30, creating a much more usable and trackable system.

We have also developed propriety processes for detailed grant tracking. Whether you're looking to allocate grant funding to more than one project, track against salaries, or deter some funding for next year - we have processes to make this simple and still provide you important insights.

PS. If you're reading this FAQ and thinking about your BC Gaming grant, don't worry - so are we! We're experts at Gaming reporting 💪.

Great question, and you probably do! Sometimes the nonprofit sector talks about these needs but doesn't necessarily know what to call them.

• Bookkeeping is the data entry - think the day-to-day recording of financial data like invoices, ledgers, payroll, and receipts. An important part of bookkeeping is validation: each month, we reconcile all your transactions against third-party statements (like bank statements), providing "proof positive" that the records are correct. Bookkeeping also includes advanced procedures we've developed specifically for nonprofits, such as allocating wages to programs and grants to see the true cost of your initiatives.
• Controller services - sometimes called advisory support - is everything we do that improves the quality of your financial systems as a whole, streamlining your financial tasks and bringing more ease to your decisions. All our clients access controller expertise through their regular finance review calls with a Certified Professional Bookkeeper who has deep knowledge of your organization. As your controller, we can help you interpret your reports, navigate changing financial technology, coach your ED and Treasurer to report confidently at Board meetings, and provide input on budget processes.

At some firms, these are delivered as two separate services. At Chickadee, they are joined under our delivery model, so you can access our full suite of specialty support from day one. The best part is: we can easily scale up with you as you grow.

Absolutely! Check out our case studies to see the impact of an investment like this for nonprofits just like you.

Each of our clients meets monthly or quarterly with a Certified Professional Bookkeeper - we call them your Senior Bookkeeper. That person oversees your full suite of services, which are usually completed by a Technician Bookkeeper. A dedicated Payroll team, closely integrated with our bookkeeping division, delivers our payroll and payables services. You also have access to the Education team for strategy, operational best practices, financial tracking assistance, and upskilling your staff and Board. Get to know our team!

If you've only worked with a solo freelancer in the past, you may wonder what's different about working with a team. When working with us, your file receives more layers of oversight, accesses more nonprofit-specific expertise, and benefits from cross-trained team members for continuity. And trust us, we know how important that continuity is - whether we're talking about leadership transitions, personnel leaves, or general staff turnover. Our goal is for your services to feel seamless while giving you access to breadth and depth of our whole team's expertise.