Explain how the analysis of nonprofit and governmental financial statements differs from analysis of traditional financial statements

Answer with Explanation:

The analysis includes the assessment of Non profit organization's efficiency both in fundraising and spending, economy of operations and the effectiveness of the operations. This can be explained with an example. For example if the non profit organization has an objective to increase the book reading habit because it believes that the people who read more are not violent personalities and in this way they can reduce the crime rate. So it has established number of libraries in different communities. Now we will look at at what cost it has acquired these libraries (Economy), how much people have visited these libraries (Efficiency) and whether the crime rate in the community has sufficiently fallen or not (Effectiveness). So this helps in understanding whether the objective was met or not.

However when we analyze the financial statement of profit making organizations then we use many profit and efficiency ratios to assess the performance of the organization. These ratios can also be helpful if the NGO is in business as well. But most of the NGOs rely on grants and these grants are subjective to their previous performance.

The NGOs are also required to publish reports according to the grant provider's enforced accounting principles, rules and guidelines. Just take the example of US-AID program that requires the Non profit organization to publish financial reports in specific format and enforces different Generally Acceptable Principles to be used in preparing these financial reports. So yes it is much more different in analyzing the financial statements of Non profit organization and profit making organization.

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