Car Invoice Sample for NPOs that Simplifies Your Documentation

Car invoice sample for NPOs

hey hey welcome I am Jill Moore Smith also known as The Savvy servant also known as a non-profit expert so if you are trying to start a non-profit or grow your existing non-profit this is definitely what you want to hang out make sure you subscribe share the videos replay the videos um turn on your notifications um because I am dropping all the information you need especially if you are founder and you are building a non-profit that has existed five years or less um if you're trying to get funding that big grant funding this is where you want to hang out because my mission is to help Founders uh position their non-profits so that they can can compete with that big six figure grant funding um so welcome welcome welcome um just so you know uh I am going to this topic um it's a Hot Topic and so I'm going to put some links at the bottom if you need additional assistance one I'm gonna put the link down there um that you can contact me um so that we can do a one-on-one one one one-on-one session um uh and I can help you get some things uh squared away very reasonable I'll give you one whole hour and in that hour I give you a strategy you know and you you know you work your your strategy and I guarantee you that your uh non-profit will be um in a better position to go after that big grant funding um and uh yeah the other thing I'll put the link down there um for my activate toolkit because what I'm going to talk to you about today um there are uh there's there's some tools in there that you would definitely need so I'll put the I'll put a discount code on there as well so just for YouTube just for my YouTube people um I'll give you a good discount on um the activate toolkit so I got to remind myself to um create a discount code hold on okay um so uh today today today we're talking about uh how to purchase a vehicle under your non-profit how to purchase a vehicle under your non-profit before I tell you how um let me just say this the reason why I am in North Carolina is because um a um very lucrative non-profit at that time I think it was like uh 20 million non-profit the new executive director called me um in Maryland she had known of my work and my expertise especially working with the federal government and um being in the nonprofit industry I'm doing internal external relations now this was back in 2013 2013 and 2014. she contacted me she was taking a position um down here in North Carolina as the new executive director of a 20 million non-profit and the reason why she was hired is because the former executive director was ousted by the board yes he was ousted and get and guess what he was also the founder of that non-profit he had founded that non-profit um maybe 20 years prior um and uh the board the the the the legal allegations started coming out um allegedly um so many different allegations were coming out allegedly he was um uh he had purchased a vehicle under the non-profit and was using it um for personal use and allegedly allegedly I've got to say allegedly um and one of the allegations one of the one of the um stories from the public or the or yeah Mr Men from the public um said that they saw him um uh use his he had he purchased an SUV under the nonprofit and they saw him um uh hauling his boat he had a boat and he was hauling he would haul his boat um on the SUV and so uh so it was a big Scandal I mean a huge Scandal I'm not going to say names I'm not even going to tell you the name of the non-profit you can Google it but it was down here in North Carolina um but he was ousted a new executive director came in the person who contacted me um I was approved by the board the board did um oust him from his own non-profit that he founded um and they were about to lose a lot of their grant funding um there they were it was a it was when I said it was a huge Scandal it was huge and it was so ugly um it was a national Scandal um because he got federal funds uh most uh well the non-profit got federal funds most of their funding came from the federal government uh big grants and so um and so yeah it was all over the the media all over the news and so I came down had to do a lot of cleanup we had to put some policies in place enforce some policies redo some things and so this is what I want to talk to you about um because I know that [Music] um you hear um that you should you know purchase a vehicle under your business so I'm gonna tell you uh and this is your nonprofit and you can purchase and I mean the short answer is this yes you can you can purchase a vehicle under your non-profit but I'm gonna tell you some things to get around to some things that as I said um I had to um help that non-profit put in place and I want to share this here if you uh indeed want to purchase a vehicle under the non-profit at the end I'm going to tell you my personal my personal um suggestion for you um if you want to purchase a vehicle um under the non-profit but let me tell you some of the things that um that I've worked with clients over the years um when they are um getting to the stage where they need a vehicle now I am assuming that um you have a charitable public charitable non-profit not a private Foundation because there's some differences like you can get away with a lot of stuff for private foundation so I'm going to assume that this is a public charity um a 501c3 public charity that you want to um purchase this vehicle under so um there are three things or well four things really but three main things that you need to do um if you want to purchase a vehicle under your non-profit and these things I'm telling you to do these things to protect you all right these things you need to do so that it can protect you it can keep you out of jail it can keep you out of a scandal it can keep you out of losing your funds it can keep you out of losing your grantors and your donors and so I'm telling you these things I'm suggesting that you do these things um so that um you can cover yourself all right um so the first thing you need to know is you need to first know if you have the money to purchase a vehicle under the nonprofit does the nonprofit have the revenue now it's one thing to have Grant funds um but Grant funds are usually um limited they're restricted so you want to make sure that you have um the funds the revenue to purchase a vehicle whether it's for a down payment or whether it's to make monthly payments however you're going to purchase however you're going to use the funds or need the funds you got to make sure that you have the funding the revenue and you you I would suggest that you take it from your general fund um your your unrestricted funds and so a general fund usually is your find that comes from Individual donors and that's why I stress um building your individual donor database um so that you can have your funds you know to make purchases you know especially big purchases when needed and so that's the very first thing you cannot use say you got these grants coming in I don't kept their foundational government grants you see all this money coming in and you say okay well we can go ahead and buy our vehicle right now for whatever reason um you want to um make sure you got the funds and you want to make sure that the funds are coming from the right funding source so more I would suggest that the funds come from um come from the general funds now I'm assuming let me just go back I'm assuming that you want to purchase a vehicle because you are the founder slash executive director and maybe you need a vehicle to get back and forth to work or whatever back to the center or what have you now if you need a vehicle for one of the programs say if you have a um after school program in or summer program from use and you want to purchase a utility vehicle or some type of minivan or um what have you then then that could be under a grant per se and it's probably because you have proposed two um uh in that you have proposed in your Grant proposal that you were going to purchase a van under that Grant but just to wake up and say I want to you know get a vehicle um under the non-profit let me see if I can guess because you know it's it's probably the you know I hear people say it's a good thing to put their vehicles under your business um but again cover yourself um I would make sure that those funds are coming from a general fund an unrestricted fund second thing is that you want to present um the need for a vehicle to the board you want to present the need for a vehicle to the board why because you want the board secretary to put it in writing in the meeting minutes that you went to the board about this vehicle you want to make sure that you put it in the board and you get there um vote on paper in the meeting minutes yay or nay that they approve this vehicle and now let's just say that they say yes you know I see you living all the way out in the suburbs and the center is in their inner city and it's doing a lot of wear and tear on your personal vehicle then yes we're going to approve that you get this vehicle so that you can you know get back and forth to the office and so um have all of that in writing have all of that whatever your need is why you need this vehicle the purpose you're going to use for this vehicle make sure you present all of that at your board meeting at the board meeting um the third thing you need to do is you need to make sure that there are policies in place make sure that their policies in place you need policies anyway so as a uh a business um especially if you're going to be hiring staff or even taking on volunteers um you need to make sure that there's order and how you are operating and so that everybody's on the same page because this is where it's going to save you from lawsuits um and so you want to have a policy in place you definitely want to have a purchasing policy in place how do you purchase things through your nonprofit does it require two signatures um if the purchase is over a certain amount you know does it need a third signature or can you sign check X and all of that great stuff you need to have a policy in place more than likely for uh anything that has to do with purchases or money finances it needs to have the signature of your um Financial person your CFO um your accountant whoever um not your border sometimes in some cases the board Treasurer as well but as far as far as the day-to-day operations and making purchases and things um do you need board you know policy for big purchases is like you know you may say that you know we need to have or the board may say that you need to have the treasurer's signature as well as the CFO or the financial manager in the operations part of the nonprofit but the point is is that you need to have one a purchasing policy in place you need to also have a vehicle use intended use policy in place so that you know we're everyone's very clear on how to use the vehicle that belongs to um the non-profit now on a person let me tell you there's something on it I was just thinking about um churches that that's a whole nother subject but churches who purchase planes like these Jets like you purchasing this money with the dies and offerings from the people but they can't get on it they can't use it you want to have a policy in place about that vehicle you know is the vehicle will the vehicle be available for other staff if they're going to meetings like what is the use for this vehicle again covering you recovering you as a Founder executive director we're covering you um so you want to have a policy in place as far as vehicle use maybe the keys are with the treasurer and you got to sign out the keys um whatever it is you need to have a policy person let me just do a plug down in the activate toolkit there's a policy template so you need to have all kinds of policies if you need to know more about policies and setting up because that's a board role in the beginning that's one of the board's responsibilities is to help you put some policies in place to get your non-profit up and running we definitely need to talk um click the link in the bottom um to schedule your uh um one-on-one uh consultation with me but um you definitely need to put some policies in place um and definitely a purchasing policy a vehicle use policy again I can't stress this enough these are Paper Trails that are going to cover you these are Paper Trails that are going to cover you and four the fourth point I want to make is that try to avoid using the vehicle for personal use now um this topic came up in one of the Facebook groups that I'm a part of and it's a pretty hot topic um um because people want to know you know can I purchase a vehicle under my business can I should I purchase a vehicle under my business and your nonprofit is a business however the difference is is that you don't own this non-profit so you got to be very careful so in a grand scheme of things you know um it looks you know good to have a vehicle that you're not personal liable for as far as um as far as uh um the purchasing part of it um because let's be clear you know you don't have to pay taxes and all that great stuff because you purchase it under the non-profit but you've got to be careful about the use of it so if at all costs that you can avoid personal use to say that the vehicle is um they approved that you need a vehicle because you live you know 50 miles out and it's a lot of wear and tearing your personal car you know you stay at you know at the center late saying and you don't want your Mercedes-Benz to be in the inner city you know late at night and so you rather have this you know this little compact affordable car or This SUV or what have you where it doesn't draw a lot of attention and so you feel safer in another vehicle yes all of that put all of that in writing put all of that in writing um and so um but once you bring that vehicle home you know try to avoid as much as possible of using that vehicle for personal use uh because it takes one person let me just tell you it takes one person who don't like you and they will run their mouth they will run their mouth and let me just remind you a non-profit is a public public entity so uh yeah there's a lot of everything got to be disclosed to the I mean everything can be disclosed to the public and so you don't want to take any um chances of any of that you want to make sure that you cover yourself now my personal opinion my personal suggestion to you if you are the founder of your of a non-profit that is great I applaud you but I tell my clients all the time make sure that you as the founder establish an LLC on the side and I is a whole bunch of reasons why um and I'm not going to tell you why here but one of the things that you can do is you can purchase a vehicle under your business LLC um that you own that is your you own it and you um now you won't get the tax breaks um for the vehicle but it will be a business you it will be you can it's more um liberal for you to use your vehicle um under your business for whatever use you need to use it for let me just say that um so uh it's a little bit it's very much more liberal um than having it under a non-profit so I hope this help helps please drop your comments if you have questions please drop them out try my best to um go back to the comments and read and answer as much as possible um and so uh so yeah um be careful with purchasing a vehicle under your nonprofit make sure you cover yourself put a paper trail out there put policies in place um follow those policies that you put in place uh follow those policies and make sure you cover yourself um because the worst thing that can happen um one of the you know like in the case with the guy that I you know the nonprofit that I was Consulting with you know he was you know their Grant funds you know that I think they lost a lot of donors but their grand funds was on the line uh they're Federal they had big federal grants that were on the line that was about to be revoked um but that's not the worst thing that can happen the worst thing is of course going to jail um for misuse of funds but the um you know the you know seeing yourself all over you know the news you know um you know just for mishandling or just for something innocent you know for using a vehicle you know you people know your heart but then again when you put your when you get out in the media for quote unquote mixed using you know the non-profits property you know that ruins your reputation and so you definitely don't want to risk that so I hope this helps um again if you want to speak further click the link in the uh in my uh profile in my description so that um we can chat further all right um I'll come back with some more Rihanna has some other topics y'all want me to talk about make sure you uh let me know you can email me Jill at the savvyserver.com and um yeah we can go from there all right you all be blessed and I'm gonna finish drinking my coffee all right bye-bye