Free financial tools and trainings for grantee fiscal staff

Welcome to the Self-Help Financial Tool Kit! We hope that you will find these resources useful in your daily financial management responsibilities. If you have any questions or issues with content, please contact RCAC’s main office at (916) 447-2854 and request Samantha Bowley, Financial Management Specialist.

Uniform Guidance Hide & Seek
Each month we will pose a compliance question. See if you can find the answer in the eCFR200.

• SEPTEMBER – What is a cognizant agency and what do you negotiate with them?
• AUGUST – Are “pre-award” costs allowable? Click here to see the answer

Video Highlight

Upcoming trainings

There are no trainings at this time. Please check back later or view our Training Calendar.

Tools & Resources

The A-Team

The A-team is a monthly gathering of the region’s Self-Help fiscal professionals to network and to share questions and answers, struggles and solutions, and events and happenings in the world of Self-Help financial management.

Click here to access meeting notes from July 13, 2023
Click here to access meeting notes from May 24, 2023
Click here to access meeting notes from March 29, 2023
Click here to access meeting notes from Dec. 7, 2022
Click here to access meeting notes from Oct. 27, 2022

Mutual Self-Help Orientation

An overview of the Mutual Self-Help Program. What is is, how it works and the relationships between USDA RD, RCAC and you, the grantee. Live orientation sessions are offered quarterly (see Upcoming Trainings above)

1-1 – New Staff Resources | 1-2 – New Staff Orientation PowerPoint slides

Uniform Guidance

Compliance, What You Need to Know

Next UG session: Please check back later for upcoming trainings.

eCFR200 – Uniform Administration Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards

2-1 – Uniform Guidance Table of Contents Reference
2-2 – Ready, Set, Action Plan handout
2-3 – UG Day 1 PowerPoint slides (8/23/2022)
2-4 – UG Day 2 PowerPoint slides (8/25/2022)
2-5 – Action Plan answers
2-6 – Rules and Regulations (Sing Along Video)

Indirect

Indirect is a challenging component of financial grant management.

Learn all about the mysteries of applying indirect (both provisional and final), reporting requirements and monitoring your percentage rate.

Indirect Training PowerPoint slides | Indirect Cost Allocation Spreadsheet Tool

ICR Sample Documents from a DOI ICR Calculation submission:

3-1 – Sample nonprofit proposal checklist
3-2 – Sample cover letter (Part I: Narrative and certificates)
3-3 – Sample excel file (Part II: Cost schedules)
ARTICLE: Cost Allocation & Applying Indirect – Judy Monteux (2018)

Bookkeeping 101

Accounting For Success | Setting Up Your 523 & 502 Books (see Upcoming trainings above).
Set up your Chart of Accounts, generate accurate reports in both 523 technical grant management and the 502 custodial account books for family builder’s loan funds. The platform used is Quickbooks, but concepts will apply to any financial software.

7 – AFS Handbook

MSH Custodial Accounts & Supervised Bank Accounts

The guidebooks for custodial and supervised bank accounts is here!
Discover all the how-to’s of responsible financial management of the family loan funds.

Webinar: 5 Days of 502 (Day 3): Custodial Accounting | Click here to view the recording on Vimeo

8-1 – Custodial SBA Loan Account Guidebook (7/13/2022) | 8-2 – Custodial SBA Accounts PowerPoint slides (7/27/2022)
8-3 – Sample Lot 15 BTA | 8-4 – Sample Draw Request Form | 8-5 – Sample Back Up | 8-6 – Sample Reconciliation Sheet

Financial Policies & Procedures

Your financial policies and procedures are an essential component of your financial management system. Ensure that all the processes, responsible parties and clear practices are recorded, trained to and actively monitored and updated.   

P&P Format | P&P Template

National Council of Nonprofits Financial Management