Nonprofit books you don’t have to worry about.
Bookkeeping, fund accounting, and every California filing, Form 990, Form 199, RRF-1, SI-100, handled quietly and reviewed by name. So your attention goes back to the mission.
Not sure where your organization stands?
Take our California Nonprofit Check→The Saini Ledger provides bookkeeping, fund accounting, and annual filing preparation, the IRS 990 series, California Form 199, the RRF-1 with CT-TR-1, and the SI-100, for California 501(c)(3) nonprofits. The practice serves California exclusively and maintains a written compliance calendar across all four agencies for every nonprofit client.
If any of these sound familiar, you’re in the right place.
- You’re launching a 501(c)(3) and no one has explained California’s annual filings
- Your books are a mix of QuickBooks, spreadsheets, and good intentions, and the 990 is approaching
- Grants, donations, and program money have blurred together, and “restricted” has stopped meaning anything
- A treasurer left, or won’t hand over the books, and you inherited whatever this is
- A delinquency notice arrived from the Attorney General’s Registry, and you don’t know what it means
- An audit is coming, and you need a calmer hand preparing for it
California is home to more than 10% of all U.S. nonprofits. That’s also why its compliance landscape is more demanding than any other state’s. We treat that as home ground.
One nonprofit. Four agencies. We watch all of them.
Most small California nonprofits learn this the hard way: staying compliant means filing with four separate agencies, each with its own form, deadline, and penalty.
IRS
Form 990-N (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less), 990-EZ, or the full 990. Form 990-T if you have unrelated business income of $1,000 or more.
Franchise Tax Board
Form 199 or 199N, the state’s annual return.
Attorney General’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers
The RRF-1 annual renewal, with the CT-TR-1 treasurer’s report for smaller organizations. Miss it and you lose the right to raise donations in California.
Secretary of State
The SI-100, every two years.
We maintain a written compliance calendar for every nonprofit client. We remind you. We file. You stop dreading the calendar.
Three consecutive missed 990 filings means automatic loss of federal tax-exempt status. We watch the calendar so this never becomes your story.
What we do
Bookkeeping built for fund accounting
A chart of accounts that keeps restricted, unrestricted, and board-designated money separate, the way nonprofit standards and your auditor expect. Reconciled monthly.
Board reports your board can actually use
Statements your board can read without a translator, and answers ready when someone asks how much you actually have to spend.
Every annual filing, prepared and filed
Matched to your size and structure. See the four agencies above.
Audit preparation
Approaching California’s audit threshold, generally $2 million in gross revenue under the Nonprofit Integrity Act? We organize and document everything your auditor will request. We do not perform audits; that is reserved for a licensed CPA firm. We prepare you, and we work directly with your auditor.
QuickBooks for nonprofits
Set up right the first time, fund classes, donor tracking, grant projects, and reports that map to the 990 and 199. Already a mess? We clean it up.
Reinstatement, if the worst already happened
Suspended, delinquent, or revoked. All recoverable. We prepare FTB Form 3500A or 3500, catch up back RRF-1, CT-TR-1, and SI-100 filings, and support the IRS retroactive-reinstatement package. Send us the notice.
Three levels of support, organized by the filings your organization already knows.
Every tier includes your full compliance calendar, IRS, Franchise Tax Board, the Attorney General’s Registry, and the Secretary of State. Compliance is never an upsell. The numbers below are guides, not walls, every engagement is custom-quoted after we talk. And you cannot choose wrong: tell us your situation, and we will recommend the tier that fits.
Foundation
You file: Form 990-N or 990-EZ.
- A volunteer or board member keeps the books today
- You want every deadline handled, every month closed
- One or two funding sources, nothing exotic
Guides: up to 150 transactions/mo · 2 accounts · up to 2 restricted funds
See everything included
- Every month, quietlydonations and expenses recorded and categorized; accounts reconciled against bank statements; a nonprofit chart of accounts with restricted funds kept separate from operating money.
- Your filings, handled, all four agenciesIRS Form 990-N or 990-EZ; FTB Form 199N or 199; AG Registry RRF-1 with CT-TR-1 where required; SOS SI-100 monitoring.
- What lands in your inboxa quarterly summary your board can read, and a year-end package that makes filing season quiet.
Outgrowing it? Your first sizable grant, or a board asking for monthly numbers, points toward Framework.
Start a ConversationFramework
You file: the full Form 990.
- Multiple grants or restricted funds to track
- Funders and board expect real reports, on schedule
- The stakes are higher now, and you feel it
Guides: up to 300 transactions/mo · 4 accounts · up to 6 funds or grants
See everything included
- Everything in Foundation, plus grant and restricted-fund tracking inside your books, never a side spreadsheet, each fund followed from arrival to fully spent.
- Full Form 990 and CA Form 199 preparation. Donor receipt support. 1099 filings for your contractors.
- What lands in your inboxmonthly statements showing restricted vs. unrestricted money, a quarterly board-ready package, and a quarterly call to walk through it.
Outgrowing it? Multiple programs, grant-by-grant funder reporting, or an audit ahead points toward Fortress.
Start a ConversationFortress
You file: the full Form 990 with schedules, and your funders want detail.
- Multiple programs, each needing its own numbers
- Grant-level reporting to funders
- An independent audit, coming or recurring
Guides: up to 600 transactions/mo · 8 accounts · unlimited funds, grant-level reporting
See everything included
- Everything in Framework, plus program-level depthevery program tracked with its own numbers, budget-versus-actual per grant, the report funders ask for by name.
- Audit readiness all yearbooks kept audit-ready every month, documentation organized before your auditor asks, and we work alongside your audit firm. Full Form 990 with all required schedules, plus Form 990-T if unrelated business income reaches $1,000.
- What lands in your inboxa monthly board-ready package (Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Activities, and expenses split by program, fundraising, and administration), and a monthly call, with us joining your board or finance-committee meeting each quarter if you want us there.
- What we are notan independent audit is performed by an outside CPA firm. We prepare your books for audit; we do not perform audits. When you need an audit firm, we help you choose one and work alongside them.
Not a clean fit? If none of these quite matches your organization, start a conversation and we’ll shape the right scope around what you actually need.
Start a Conversation| Included | Foundation | Framework | Fortress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping + reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nonprofit chart of accounts, restricted funds separated | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full CA compliance calendar (IRS · FTB · AG · SOS) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Grant & restricted-fund tracking in the books | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1099 filings for contractors | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Budget-vs-actual per grant/program | — | — | ✓ |
| Audit preparation & auditor support | — | — | ✓ |
| Financial reports | Quarterly summary | Monthly statements | Monthly board package |
| Calls | — | Quarterly | Monthly + quarterly board meeting |
Every tier includes the same support standard: a response within 12 hours.
Questions we hear most
Do we need to file a 990 if we made under $50,000?
Yes. Even the smallest 501(c)(3) must file at least the Form 990-N each year. Three consecutive missed filings means automatic loss of tax-exempt status.
What is the RRF-1, and why does it matter?
It’s California’s annual charity registration renewal, filed with the Attorney General’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, separate from your IRS and FTB filings. Not filing it costs you the right to solicit donations in California.
A donor gave $20,000 for one specific program. How do we track it?
That’s a restricted fund. It has to stay separate from operating money, in your books and on your statements. We set that up and reconcile it monthly.
We got a delinquent or suspended notice. What now?
Both are common, and both are recoverable. The steps depend on which agency sent it. Send us the notice. We’ve walked clients through every version of this.
Reviewed by name, fluent in California.
Your books stay inside our practice, never offshored, never handed to whoever happens to be free. Every engagement is reviewed by name. And because California is the only state we serve, its nonprofit rulebook gets read here line by line, every single year. Our limited client list isn’t a constraint. We built it that way on purpose.
Also from The Saini Ledger
Tell us about your organization.
We’ll tell you the truth about what your books and your filings actually need.
Start a Conversation