JS Morlu, LLC

Payroll is Friday. The P&L says you're profitable. The bank account says otherwise.

This isn't a collections problem.

It's a reporting problem.

Most 8(a) contractors don't run out of money — they run out of visibility. WIP sitting unbilled. Retainage aging past 90 days. Receivables nobody's chasing. The books look fine until they don't.

Clean reporting doesn't just satisfy your auditor. It's what keeps your bonding agent and lender in your corner when you need them most.

Have you ever had a cash crunch that your financials never saw coming?

https://www.jsmorlu.com/government-contracting/cash-flow-mirage/

You open the balance sheet at the year-end meeting.

Everyone nods. No one asks a question.

It gets filed. Decisions get made on gut feel anyway.

That's not a finance problem. That's a leadership problem.

Your balance sheet is already telling you when to hire, when to hold, and when to move — most leaders just never learned to listen to it.

When did your balance sheet last actually change a decision you made?

https://www.jsmorlu.com/financial-business-guides/balance-sheet-decision/

The outgoing treasurer said "I'll walk you through everything."

Then she moved away in July.

Now it's October and you still don't know where half the receipts went.

Or why the bank balance doesn't match the spreadsheet.

Or whether last year's Form 990 was even filed.

This isn't a trust issue. It's a process issue — and most PTOs don't have one.

A handover without documentation isn't a handover. It's a gamble.

What's the messiest thing you inherited when you took over as treasurer?

https://www.jsmorlu.com/parent-teacher-organization/pto-financial-handover/

They'd been a 501(c)(3) for eleven years.

Every fundraising letter said it. Every donor receipt confirmed it. Every grant application started with it: "We are a tax-exempt nonprofit organization..."

Except they weren't. Not anymore.

Three years of missed Form 990 filings. The IRS sends notices. The notices went to an old address. Nobody followed up. After the third consecutive missed filing, the IRS did what the law requires them to do.

They automatically revoked the exemption.

The organization kept operating. Kept accepting donations. Kept telling donors their gifts were tax-deductible.

They weren't.

When a major donor asked for written confirmation of their exempt status for a year-end gift — the gift that would have been the largest in the organization's history — someone finally checked.

The reinstatement process took eight months. The donor gave elsewhere.

Here's what keeps nonprofit leaders up at night once they learn this: the IRS doesn't call to warn you. They don't send a certified letter when you're about to lose status. They post the revocation on a public database and move on. The organization is the last to know.

So ask your finance team this week —

Is your Form 990 filing current? And does someone — a real person, not just a calendar reminder — own that deadline?

Because tax exemption isn't permanent. It's a privilege that requires annual maintenance.

👉 jsmorlu.com/blog