Pictured (l-r) are Rotary President John Garnica and guest speaker Laura Asenas. Photo credit Martha Richardson.

The guest speaker for Fillmore Rotary last week was Laura Asenas. She grew up in Fillmore and music was important in her family. She plays the violin and later received her master’s degree in conducting. She has conducted several well-known orchestras in California. Her main program was on bookkeeping and nonprofits. As far as bookkeeping is concerned the job consists of organizing expenses, receipts, and income into proper accounts, creating financial statements and assisting in tax preparation. Records were kept in books and manually entered. Bookkeeping has changed over the years with programs such as Excel and QuickBooks and now AI. It is important for bookkeepers to be monitored.
Bookkeeping for non-profit is different. The bookkeeper must monitor cash contributions, internal controls and protect against theft. There must be a donor/member list which is frequently updated. They still have to balance the books and financial statements, but there are no owners. There is a Statement of Activities, Statement of Financial Position, Cash Flow Statement and Statement of Functional Expense which must be kept up to date. Fundraisers are important and the IRS needs to know how the money is being used. The organization must stay in compliance with the government or lose its non-profit status.