Not-for-profit accounting in Australia: a starter guide for volunteer treasurers (2026)

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You said yes to the treasurer role at the AGM. Maybe no-one else put their hand up. Maybe you had a background in admin or finance and it seemed like the right thing to do. Either way, you now own the books for an Australian not-for-profit (NFP), and the organisation is counting on you.

This guide is for you, not for the chartered accountant the committee calls twice a year. It covers the Australian regulatory reality: two separate bodies (the ACNC and the ATO), a financial year that ends on 30 June, and reporting obligations that depend on how much your organisation turns over. Read it top-to-bottom on your first week in the role, then come back to individual sections as the year unfolds.

If you haven't formally registered your organisation yet, it's worth reading up on how to start a charity in Australia before going further, because the accounting obligations follow from registration.

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In this article:

• Start here if you just got handed the treasurer role

• Know which regulator you answer to

• Set up the basics: a chart of accounts, one bank account per fund

• Reconcile every month, not every quarter

• Report to the ACNC: size tiers, the Annual Information Statement, and when audit or review kicks in

• Handle GST if you're registered

• Issue tax-deductible receipts correctly (if you're DGR-endorsed)

• Plan for EOFY (30 June) as your busiest month

• Build governance into the books, not around them

• Questions to ask any platform or accounting tool before you commit

• Where to get help when it's beyond you

• Frequently asked questions

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Start here if you just got handed the treasurer role

The treasurer's job in a small-to-mid Australian NFP has three recurring deliverables: a monthly bank reconciliation, a financial report to the committee before each meeting, and an Annual Information Statement (AIS) submitted to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) each year if your organisation is a registered charity.

Everything else follows from those three. Payroll (if you have staff), GST returns (if you're registered), DGR receipts (if you're DGR-endorsed), and grant acquittals all layer on top, but they're variations of the same discipline: record what came in, record what went out, match it to the bank, and report it accurately.

Before you do anything else, locate three documents:

• Your organisation's constitution or rules of association (this sets what the treasurer must do, and what the committee must approve)

• Your most recent bank statement

• Last year's financial report or Annual Information Statement (if one exists)

If those three documents are somewhere, you have a starting point. If they aren't, finding them is the first task.

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Know which regulator you answer to

Australian NFP accounting is shaped by two separate federal bodies and at least one state body. Getting the structure right matters, because confusing them is the single most common compliance mistake.

The ACNC (Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission) registers and regulates charities under the ACNC Act 2012 and the Charities Act 2013 (Cth). If your organisation is a registered charity, you appear on the public ACNC Charity Register and must submit an Annual Information Statement each year. The ACNC also sets the size-tier thresholds that determine how much financial detail you must report (ACNC).

The ATO (Australian Taxation Office) is entirely separate. The ATO administers tax concessions for the NFP sector and, critically, endorses organisations as Deductible Gift Recipients (DGRs) under Division 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. ACNC registration does not make donations tax-deductible. That requires DGR endorsement, which the ATO grants separately and which only around 41.5% of registered charities hold (ATO, Not-for-profit organisations).

Put simply: your ACNC registration says you're a charity. Your DGR endorsement (if you have it) says your donors can claim a tax deduction. You can have one without the other, and only DGR-endorsed charities can issue tax-deductible receipts.

State and territory regulators are the third layer. Most small Australian NFPs are incorporated associations, registered under state law. NSW Fair Trading administers the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW); Consumer Affairs Victoria administers the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (VIC). Each state or territory has its own regulator, its own rules, and its own annual lodgement requirements for incorporated associations. For free guidance on which rules apply to your structure, Justice Connect / Not-for-profit Law provides clear, jurisdiction-specific resources at no cost.

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Set up the basics: a chart of accounts, one bank account per fund

A chart of accounts is a list of categories your organisation uses to record every dollar in and every dollar out. It doesn't need to be complicated. For most small-to-mid Australian NFPs, it covers:

• Income categories (donations, grants, event ticket sales, membership fees, fundraising proceeds)

• Expense categories (program delivery, staff costs, administration, event costs, compliance)

• Assets (bank accounts, equipment)

• Liabilities (anything you owe)

You can set this up in a spreadsheet or in a dedicated accounting package. What matters most is that the categories match how your committee wants to see the numbers, because the report you produce from these categories is what the committee uses to make decisions.

Cash vs accrual accounting. Most small Australian NFPs use cash-basis accounting: you record income when money arrives in the bank, and expenses when you pay them. Accrual accounting records income when it's earned and expenses when they're incurred, regardless of when cash moves. For small organisations without complex grant conditions, cash-basis is simpler. As your organisation grows or takes on multi-year grants, you may need to move to accrual. A registered tax agent or bookkeeper can advise on which suits your size.

Restricted and unrestricted funds. When your organisation promises donors or grant bodies that a specific gift will only be used for a specific purpose, that creates a restricted fund. The promise is a real obligation: you must track that money separately and not use it for general expenses. In practice, this often means a separate bank account for the restricted money and a matching ledger account in your chart of accounts.

Many small NFP treasurers describe this as 'keeping two sets of books', which isn't quite accurate but captures the discipline: the restricted money sits in its own bucket, earns its own transactions, and gets reported on separately until the purpose is fulfilled or the restriction lapses. Open a separate bank account the day you receive a restricted grant or accept a restricted donation. It removes the temptation to dip in, and it makes the acquittal straightforward.

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Reconcile every month, not every quarter

A bank reconciliation means taking every transaction in your accounting records and matching it to a line in your bank statement. At the end of the reconciliation, your book balance and your bank balance agree, and you can explain every difference.

Do this monthly, not quarterly. Quarterly reconciliations compound errors: a duplicate entry in March is still sitting there in June, and now you're trying to find it under pressure with EOFY approaching. Monthly reconciliation takes 30 to 90 minutes for most small NFPs and surfaces problems while they're still small.

The practical routine:

• 1. Download your bank statement for the month.

• 2. In your accounting records, tick off every transaction that appears in the bank statement.

• 3. Investigate any unticked items on either side (a payment that's in your records but not yet cleared, a deposit you haven't matched to a source).

• 4. Document the result: date, opening balance, closing balance, any outstanding items and why.

Match every income source separately. Income for a small AU NFP typically comes from several places in the same month: a bank transfer donation, EFTPOS receipts from a fete stall, cash from a sausage sizzle, a direct-debit membership fee, a fundraising platform payout. Each of these arrives in the bank as a single deposit line, often days after the actual event. Record the income at the point of receipt in your accounting system, not the day it lands in the bank, and then reconcile the deposit line back to those income records. The gap between "the event happened" and "the money landed" is where reconciliation errors live.

Keep one record per gift from the moment a donation is received. If your fundraising platform sends a weekly payout that bundles 12 separate donations, your records should still show 12 individual donation entries matching back to that single payout deposit. This matters at EOFY when regular givers expect a consolidated annual receipt.

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Report to the ACNC: size tiers, the Annual Information Statement, and when audit or review kicks in

Every ACNC-registered charity must submit an Annual Information Statement (AIS) to the ACNC each year. The AIS is the AU charity reporting obligation: it covers your charity's activities, governance, and finances. It is not optional, and missing the deadline can result in the ACNC revoking your charity status.

The level of financial detail required in the AIS depends on your charity's size tier, which the ACNC sets based on annual revenue:

• Small charities (annual revenue less than $500,000): submit the AIS with basic financial information; no separate audited financial report is required, though you must keep adequate financial records.

• Medium charities (annual revenue $500,000 to $3 million): must submit a financial report with the AIS; the financial report must be reviewed by a registered company auditor or a suitably qualified accountant.

• Large charities (annual revenue more than $3 million): must submit a financial report with the AIS; the financial report must be audited by a registered company auditor.

These thresholds are set by the ACNC and have been updated in recent years. Always check the current figures on the ACNC website before preparing your annual report, because the numbers the committee remembers from a prior year may no longer be accurate.

The AIS is submitted through the ACNC's Charity Portal. The AIS window opens after 30 June and typically runs through to the deadline set in your charity's reporting period (usually six months after the financial year end, so by 31 December for a 30 June year-end). Check your specific deadline in the portal.

A note on "responsible persons". The ACNC uses the term "responsible persons" to describe the directors, committee members, or trustees who govern your charity. They have obligations under the ACNC Act, including the obligation to keep financial records that correctly record and explain transactions. As treasurer, you are most directly responsible for the mechanics of this, but the governance obligation sits with the full committee.

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Handle GST if you're registered

GST registration is compulsory for NFPs when GST turnover reaches $150,000 or more per year. Below that threshold, registration is voluntary. Many small NFPs choose to register voluntarily to claim GST credits on purchases (ATO, Not-for-profit organisations).

If your NFP is GST-registered, you must:

• Charge GST (10%) on taxable supplies (most goods and services your NFP sells, including most event tickets)

• Issue a valid tax invoice for any taxable sale of $82.50 or more (including GST), showing the price and the GST component separately

• Lodge a Business Activity Statement (BAS) either monthly or quarterly, reporting GST collected and GST credits claimed

• Keep records to support every BAS

For event ticketing specifically, this has a practical consequence. If your NFP is GST-registered and you sell tickets to a gala dinner or a trivia night, those ticket sales are typically taxable supplies. The ticket price must be quoted inclusive of GST, the tax invoice (or receipt) must show the GST component separately, and your accounting records must separate the GST from your income. This is the area where small NFPs most frequently make errors, particularly when using fundraising platforms that don't automatically generate a compliant GST tax invoice.

One important point on deductibility. Ticket purchases are not tax-deductible as donations, even if the event is run by a DGR-endorsed charity, because the purchaser is receiving a benefit (the ticket). If your donors ask about this, the honest answer is that the ticket is not deductible. Any "donation component" above the fair value of the ticket may be deductible if it's properly documented and receipted separately.

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Issue tax-deductible receipts correctly (if you're DGR-endorsed)

If your charity holds DGR endorsement from the ATO, donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible for the donor. The canonical AU line, which appears on every major Australian charity's donation page, is: "Donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible."

To support the donor's deduction claim, a receipt must include:

• Your charity's full legal name

• Your ABN

• A statement that your organisation is a DGR (for example, "This organisation is endorsed as a deductible gift recipient")

• The donation amount

• The date of the donation

The minimum deductible gift is $2 (ATO, DGR endorsement eligibility). There is no maximum, and there is no threshold below which you are exempt from issuing a receipt if the donor asks for one.

Donors can verify your DGR status at any time using ABN Lookup, the federal government's free public tool. If your DGR status isn't showing there, contact the ATO before issuing any receipts.

What is not deductible. The following are never tax-deductible, even when paid to a DGR-endorsed charity:

• Raffle tickets

• Gala dinner tickets or event admission (where a benefit is received)

• Silent auction purchases

• The value of volunteer time or services

This matters for your bookkeeping because DGR-receipted donations must be tracked separately from ticket sales, auction proceeds, and other income. Mixing them creates compliance risk for your donors and for the organisation.

For a full breakdown of what a compliant $2 tax-deductible receipt must contain, the ACNC DGR fact sheet is the primary reference (ACNC, DGR and ACNC fact sheet).

The ATO administers 52 DGR categories under Division 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ATO, DGR categories). Not every ACNC-registered charity fits into a DGR category. If you're unsure whether your organisation qualifies, the ATO's eligibility guidance and the ACNC's DGR fact sheet are the right starting points.

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Plan for EOFY (30 June) as your busiest month

The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The financial year end on 30 June is not just a compliance deadline; it's the single most important date in the AU NFP calendar, and it drives several things at once (ATO, Not-for-profit organisations):

Consolidated donor statements. Regular givers who make monthly donations throughout the year will often ask for a consolidated annual receipt covering all their donations before they lodge their personal tax return. If your records are clean and you've kept one record per gift, generating this statement is straightforward. If you haven't, EOFY is when you discover the gaps.

Grant acquittals. Most AU grant bodies require an acquittal report at the end of the funding period. If your grant runs on the financial year, 30 June is the acquittal deadline. Restricted-fund records that are reconciled monthly make acquittals a documentation exercise rather than a reconstruction exercise.

The AIS run-up. The ACNC's AIS window opens after 30 June. The accounts you've been reconciling all year become the financial report you submit. If the books are clean, the AIS is administrative. If they're not, EOFY is a very bad time to find out.

Practical advice: start in April, not June. By April, you should know whether your records are in order, whether you need an auditor or reviewer (based on your size tier), and whether any restricted funds need to be acquitted. Leaving it to June creates unnecessary pressure, particularly for volunteer committees that have day jobs.

If your organisation is planning an EOFY giving campaign, the campaign itself typically runs through May and June, with a push in the final week before 30 June. Your donor records need to be clean enough to issue receipts promptly, because donors claiming EOFY deductions often need the receipt within days of donating, before they lodge their return.

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Build governance into the books, not around them

Governance isn't separate from accounting. In an Australian incorporated association, the association's rules (its constitution) typically set out:

• Which transactions require dual signatures or committee approval

• What expenditure limit the treasurer can authorise independently

• When the committee must see and approve the financial accounts

• What happens if funds are spent without authorisation

These rules aren't bureaucratic overhead. They are the accounting control system. If the rules say two committee members must sign every payment above $500, that requirement belongs in your payment process, not in a side note. If it isn't built in, it won't happen, and one unauthorised payment is all it takes to create a governance problem the committee will spend months unwinding.

The incorporated association rules in each state or territory will also specify your association's annual reporting obligations to the state regulator, which are separate from your ACNC AIS. NSW incorporated associations lodge with NSW Fair Trading; Victorian incorporated associations lodge with Consumer Affairs Victoria. Check your association's rules and your state regulator's requirements each year, because thresholds and forms can change.

For free, jurisdiction-specific guidance on association governance and treasurer responsibilities, Justice Connect / Not-for-profit Law is the AU sector's primary free resource.

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Questions to ask any platform or accounting tool before you commit

Whether you're evaluating a fundraising platform, an EFTPOS terminal, or an accounting package, the questions that matter most for a small AU NFP treasurer are not about features. They are about reconciliation.

Ask these before you commit to any tool:

• When does money actually land in my bank account? A platform payout that arrives weekly on a Thursday is a different bookkeeping problem from one that settles daily. Know the timing before you set up your reconciliation routine.

• Does the payout bundle multiple transactions into one deposit? If yes, what export format does the platform use? Can you get a CSV or PDF that shows the individual transactions behind each payout? This is what you need to reconcile individual donations back to a bank line.

• Does it generate a compliant Australian tax receipt automatically? If your organisation is DGR-endorsed, the receipt must include your charity name, ABN, DGR statement, amount, and date. Ask whether the platform issues that receipt automatically or whether you have to do it manually.

• Does it generate GST-compliant tax invoices for event tickets? If you're GST-registered, event ticket sales require a tax invoice showing the GST component separately. Not all platforms generate this automatically.

• What's the export format for my accounting software? Ask whether the platform exports a CSV or connects to your accounting package. Manual data entry from a PDF is fine for small volumes, but it's worth knowing upfront.

• What support do you offer Australian NFPs? Response time, AU business-hours coverage, and whether there's a dedicated NFP onboarding path are all worth asking about before you're mid-campaign and stuck.

No platform (including Zeffy) is accounting software. A fundraising platform gives you one clean record of transactions received. The accounting and the reporting are still yours to do.

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Where to get help when it's beyond you

Every volunteer treasurer reaches a point where the question is bigger than they can answer alone. That's normal, and knowing where to go matters.

Justice Connect / Not-for-profit Law is the first call for legal questions about your organisation's structure, obligations, and governance. They provide free resources for Australian NFPs and run the Fix Fundraising campaign on cross-state fundraising compliance. Their guides are plain-English and jurisdiction-specific.

The ACNC website is the authoritative source for charity reporting obligations. Their guidance on the AIS, size tiers, and financial reporting requirements is the place to check before making any compliance decision. The ACNC also provides a free advice line.

A bookkeeper handles day-to-day transaction recording, bank reconciliations, and BAS preparation. A bookkeeper is typically the right call for an NFP that has outgrown spreadsheets but doesn't need a full audit. Bookkeepers registered with the Tax Practitioners Board can prepare and lodge BAS on your behalf.

A registered tax agent handles ATO lodgements, DGR compliance questions, and tax concession issues. If you're unsure whether your income streams are taxable or whether your organisation qualifies for the NFP tax concessions, a registered tax agent is the right adviser. Not an accountant generically, specifically a registered tax agent (as defined by the Tax Practitioners Board).

An auditor is required once your charity hits the large-charity threshold (annual revenue above $3 million) or if your association's rules or grant conditions require one below that threshold. A registered company auditor is distinct from a bookkeeper and from a standard accountant. If you're at the size where an audit is required, your ACNC reporting obligations will make this clear.

Zeffy is not an accounting tool and does not provide accounting, bookkeeping, audit, or tax advice. What Zeffy does is give your organisation a free fundraising platform that produces one clean transaction record instead of five separate spreadsheets, so that when the monthly reconciliation comes around, the fundraising side of the books is already tidy.

Zeffy is 100% free: no platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever.

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Frequently asked questions

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