Well we did it again – we went to Washington to recharge, regroup and visit with our nonprofit peers to convene about top of mind subjects at the AICPA not for profit annual conference!  We are lucky to work with so many focused and important organizations in an environment that is welcoming and ‘down to earth’.  Putting our collective heads together to help understand and solve issues invigorates us.  So in thinking about the upcoming year (this is our New Year at the firm) and what Mercadien can do to help clients and friends stay on top of (and hopefully get ahead of) risks, we are committed to several new and ongoing initiatives.

First – we will continue with our bi-monthly newsletters that serve to educate our readers on various topics of interest.  Risk management, application of new accounting standards and ongoing taxation pitfalls remain in the forefront of industry concern.  We will be hosting a seminar on the new accounting standard that is coming out in August that will apply to all nonprofit organizations and their financial statements.  We will also host a seminar on complex and often overlooked 990 issues and finally one that will give guidance on benchmarking, how to determine your operating measure, and how to develop meaningful information in a dashboard style for management and boards.

We will continue to work with other organizations like The Center for Nonprofits, NJAMHAA, and NJACP to deliver relevant programming to their constituents.  The Center is focused on full cost/real cost concepts and use of indirect cost rates and cost allocation.  We are creating a workshop to address this issue.  NJAMHAA is working through transitions in a fee for service environment including implications this change has on audits of provider agencies.  We will facilitate a workshop at their annual fall conference.  NJACP is also working through fee for service transition and the impact that it is having on the provider community from a collaboration perspective.  We will continue to provide information on mergers, acquisitions and affiliation transaction to their constituents.  Being proactive to address change is critical because waiting to react does not put your organization in a position of strength.  We will help you be proactive.

Finally, Mercadien will convene a new discussion group  we are calling the Mercadien Executive Roundtable where CEO’s, CFO’s and COO’s including compliance officers, can come together to talk about issues they face and use the group as a think tank to help work through challenges.  Look for a survey in your inbox in August which will flesh out topics of interest and a place for you to tell us what’s on your minds.  Coming out of the conference we think that the issues above as well as impact reporting, benchmarking, board reporting, cybersecurity and compliance requirements will be of interest.  We are open to other ideas and topics.

We look forward to a new year helping our clients and friends navigate the stormy business waters!