Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Accrual or Cash Basis accounting in cohousing?

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

I'm bookkeeper for Mosaic Commons in central Mass. we also use quickbooks
online, though I kind of hate it and I'm looking for an alternative.

Roger, all the features you list below -- reports, invoice aging, payment
tracking, etc. -- are features of Quickbooks or any other decent accounting
software, not an aspect of accrual vs. cash based accounting.

We use cash based accounting at the recommendation of an accountant we
hired for a consultation when we started up. I'm not an accountant, but it
is my impression that cash based accounting is more intuitive for lay-folks
like myself which is why it's the preferred method for small organizations.

Quickbooks lets you run accrual or cash based reports at any time, so the
choice of cash or accrual is really just about how you file your taxes.

Diana


On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 5:31 PM roger cunningham via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

>  I’ve found accrual accounting is best. Not only
> does it give the most accurate picture of your finances at any given time
> it also keeps track of who has paid their dues, automatically sends
> reminders, automatically assesses a late fee, generates monthly, quarterly,
> and annual reports, synchs with our bank records etc and at the end of the
> year I just give our tax accountant access and that’s all that’s needed.
>
>