Keeping Track of Profits at a Non-Profit...

Last week, the ancient-Greek-translating Religion major from rural Ohio learned a big lesson:

How to use a spreadsheet.

No wonder I had always switched to my familiar and comfortable Word and inserted a table instead of trying to finagle my way around Excel. No one had ever explained to me all the awesome things Excel can do! No wonder people use this program for budgets! It's brilliant! You can add and subtract, multiply and divide (and i'm sure you can do a lot of other really complicated things that my liberal arts brain would rather not comprehend).

In the world of non-profit, generally (though not always) funds are tight, and keeping track of each and every penny is a necessary evil. Knowing your way around a spreadsheet makes accounting (in non-profit, you also often wear several hats--like events planner, accountant, payroll administrator and spokesperson) a lot easier.