Cash and reimbursements
See what cash is available, what is restricted, what funders still owe, and where delayed payments are creating pressure.
The Three Certainties Quiz
Would your books survive a funder audit tomorrow?
Ten scored questions test whether grant reimbursements are current, allocations hold up, and your books are ready for an audit. See your biggest gap and what to fix first.
Free. Three minutes. Your score appears instantly.
01
The problem nobody names
Every grant you win makes your books harder to keep.
Every funder brings its own rules — billing basis, documentation, deadlines, disallowed costs. Every rule adds hours. The hours come out of the mission.
So you rebuild the same report five ways, invoice late because you're scared to bill wrong, run payroll on hope, and spend three weeks a year doing archaeology for the audit. Not because you're bad at this — because you were never supposed to be doing it.
Success is what breaks the spreadsheet. This service exists so that winning more never costs you your nights again.
02
The three certainties
Three things every ED and CEO should be certain about.
01
Cash certainty
How much cash is in the bank? What is it actually for? How much of it can I spend on anything at all?
02
Funder certainty
What kind of grant did I just win? What are its rules? How do I actually get the money?
03
Audit certainty
Could I produce the backup today — or am I rebuilding it the night before? And would it even be enough?
03
Experience behind the work
Fifteen years inside nonprofit finance.
Joshua Gonzales has worked alongside nonprofit leaders long enough to see the same pressure show up in different forms: restricted grants, reimbursement contracts, shared staff, board reporting, and audit preparation.
The system on this page comes from solving those problems in the field. Modern tools help with the reading and repetition. The financial judgment still comes from the work.
Organizations I have worked alongside
- Arts and culture nonprofits
- Economic development organizations
- Community development corporations
04
How it works
Review. Build. Then run it with your team.
Three stages, in order. First we establish what is true. Then we build the budgets and controls. Finally, we run the monthly cycle with your team until the system holds.
Where every engagement begins
Every engagement begins with a $3,500 Finance Operations Review. It takes about two weeks, and the findings letter is yours whether or not you continue. Any Build or operating support is scoped from what the review uncovers.
01The Finance Operations Review
Required first stage · about 2 weeksWe review the books, grant agreements, payroll, reimbursement invoices, and reporting deadlines. Then we show you where the pressure is building and what needs attention first.
Audit readiness
Know which grant or process would create the most work if it were reviewed tomorrow.
Priority findings
Receive a plain-English letter showing what is working, what is at risk, and what to fix first.
The findings letter is yours whether or not you go further. If you do, it doubles as the build proposal.
02The Build
Scoped after the Review · about 30 daysWe build the budgets, tools, and operating rules your team needs to manage grants without rebuilding the same information every month.
Organizational budget
One plan connecting programs, grants, staffing, administrative costs, and unrestricted funds.
Salary matrix
A clear view of how each position, including payroll taxes and benefits, is funded.
Grant Rulebooks
One page per funder showing how to bill, what to keep, what the grant will not pay for, and every deadline.
Allocation plan
Simple, written rules for splitting staff time and shared costs across grants and programs.
We also set up the accounts, deadlines, and monthly routines needed to keep these tools current.
03Operate With Them
Scoped after the Review · 60–90 daysWe run the installed system with your bookkeeper, not instead of them. Your team learns it by operating alongside us.
Reimbursement invoices
Funder invoices prepared with the backup each grant requires and tracked through payment.
Grant budgets
Budgets built from real staffing and program costs, including time-sensitive applications when capacity allows.
Monthly finance picture
Closed books, grant spending, cash outlook, and a consistent page for leadership and the board.
This stage has an end date. Your bookkeeper learns the monthly work by running it with us; if you do not have one, we can supply one. Approvals stay with your team, and we do not pay bills or chase receipts.
After the bridge, you can keep us for the monthly close, reimbursement invoices, grant budgets, and financial management, or take the system in-house. We work inside your existing accounting and payroll tools; bank access stays read-only and approvals stay with you. Your part of onboarding is simple: read access to the books, copies of your grant agreements, and one kickoff hour.
05
What we build
The work leaves something your team can use.
The budgets, Rulebooks, and monthly reports live in your accounts and belong to your organization. Your team can use them, your board can understand them, and an auditor can follow them.
The sample Rulebook shows the standard: one page, plain language, and every decision tied back to the grant agreement.
Organizational budgetOne plan for the whole organization
Salary matrixHow every position is funded
Grant RulebooksOne page per funder
Monthly finance pictureThe same decision-ready view every month
06
Free — no call, no pitch
The Free Grant Rulebook.
Send one grant agreement — the funder whose rules scare you most. Within one business day you get back its one-page rulebook, built from your actual agreement.
It's yours either way. If it's useful, imagine one for every funder you have.
Five a month, first come first served. Uploads must be redacted; the intake page explains exactly how the file is stored and deleted.
07
The Three Certainties Quiz
Ten questions. Three minutes. Your score, instantly.
Three on cash, three on funders, four on the audit — every one of them scored. Answer first; we ask where to send the written version at the end.
08
Fit
Built for a specific organization.
This is for you if
- Nonprofit, roughly $250K–$1M budget
- Three or more funding streams, and growing
- Finance is run by the ED at night, a part-time bookkeeper, or a board treasurer
- You can't say whether staff are allocated across grants the best way
- You don't know if any grant is at risk of an audit finding today
Not for
- Organizations with a full-time finance director they're happily paying $120K+
- Organizations that aren't growing — shrinking budgets or winding down
- First-grant startups — start with the free Rulebook above
The guarantee
100% satisfaction — and you can cancel anytime.
If a month of service doesn't meet the standard we agreed to — written into your engagement letter, not left to interpretation — you don't pay for it. No long contracts, no lock-in — and if you leave, everything we built goes with you. It's your infrastructure, in your accounts.
Already know you need this? Email me.
Write to josh@21lightstreet.com — a line or two about your organization and your funders is plenty. I reply personally within two business days. I take a small number of builds at a time, so the honest answer about timing comes in that first reply.