Nonprofit Expense Tracking Built for 990 Reporting
Scan receipts. Tag them at the source. Export a 990-ready report.
The shoebox is over. Staff, volunteers, and program leads capture expenses the moment they happen — mapped to the right 990 functional category, the right program, and the right grant fund. Your bookkeeper gets a clean export, not a mystery.
By the time receipts reach your bookkeeper, the context is gone.
Small nonprofits lose hours every month reconstructing who bought what, for which program, out of which grant. Weeks before Form 990 season, that missing context turns into missed compliance.
Who was that receipt for?
A staff member paid for pizza. Was it a board meeting, a program event, or a volunteer thank-you? Two weeks later, nobody remembers.
Which grant fund?
Restricted grant dollars have to be spent on the exact purposes the funder approved. Untagged expenses trigger clawbacks and audit findings.
What 990 category?
The IRS wants every expense split into Program Services, Management, or Fundraising. Guessing at year-end is the #1 way that 65% Program Services ratio slips.
Built for the way small nonprofits actually spend money.
Every feature exists because a real nonprofit finance director asked for it. No generic business-expense checkboxes — nonprofit-specific fields where they matter.
AI Receipt Scanner
Snap the receipt. On-device AI extracts vendor, date, amount, and line items in under two seconds — no manual entry, no waiting on the cloud.
990 Functional Categories
Every expense tags to Program Services, Management & General, or Fundraising — the same three columns the IRS wants on Form 990 Part IX.
Multi-Program & Fund Tagging
One receipt can hit a program, a grant fund, and a general operations bucket — with split percentages. Restricted-fund audits get boring, in a good way.
Mileage Tracking
GPS-verified trips at the current IRS charitable rate. Volunteers log miles from their phone — Form 990 Schedule I gets clean numbers, not guesswork.
Meals & Travel
Per-diem tracking with attendee names, business purpose, and the venue geocoded. Board dinners, conference travel, and program events — all documented.
Admin Approval Queue
Submitted expenses land in an approval queue for the Executive Director or Treasurer. Approve, reject, or request more info without leaving the phone.
Bookkeeper Export
Push clean CSVs into QuickBooks Online, Aplos, or Xero. Or send your treasurer a PDF report with every receipt image attached, sorted by category.
990 Prep Report
See your Program Services ratio live. If it drops below the 65% healthy threshold or the 75% best-practice line, the app flags it in red — before the auditor does.
From swiped card to 990-ready report in four steps.
No training deck. No 30-page manual. If your team can text a photo, they can submit an expense.
Snap the receipt
Open the app, tap Capture, and photograph the receipt right at the register. Works for handwritten receipts too.
Tag at the source
AI fills in the vendor, date, and amount. Submitter picks the program, grant fund, and 990 functional category from a short list.
Admin approves
The Executive Director or Treasurer reviews the queue on their phone. Approve, reject, or request a fix in seconds.
Export or file
Push to QuickBooks / Aplos / Xero, email your bookkeeper a PDF pack, or open the 990 Prep report anytime you want a live check.
Why nonprofits leave Expensify for Giving Toolbox.
Expensify was built for corporate travel departments. Giving Toolbox was built for the finance director who is also the ED, the grant writer, and the person picking up snacks for the board meeting.
$0
Grant reporting mode
Yes
Single grant
Admin only
Both rates
Grant PDF only
Not included
Grant reports, impact metrics
Questions nonprofit finance leaders ask.
Straight answers on how expense capture works, what it costs, and how it maps to Form 990.
What is 990 functional expense tracking?
Form 990 Part IX asks nonprofits to split every expense into three columns: Program Services (money spent directly on mission), Management & General (overhead, admin, HR), and Fundraising (donor solicitation, event costs). Functional expense tracking means tagging every receipt with its column at purchase time, not reverse-engineering it in April. Giving Toolbox forces this at the source, so the export lands on the 990 already sorted.
How do you tag expenses for restricted grant funds?
Every expense in the app has a Grant Fund dropdown alongside the 990 category. Finance admins set up the fund list once — for example: NEA Big Read 2026, Community Foundation Youth Grant, General Operations. A single receipt can even split across multiple funds by percentage, so a $200 supply run can hit 60% NEA and 40% Ops. When you export or open the grant-tracking dashboard, every dollar reconciles to its funder.
Can volunteers submit expenses without their own paid account?
Yes. The $34.99 monthly subscription is per organization, not per user. Unlimited staff, board members, and volunteers can be added as submitters at no extra cost. Volunteers download the app free, sign in with the organization invite, and start capturing. Only Admin roles need to be assigned — everyone else is a Submitter by default.
Does Giving Toolbox replace Expensify for nonprofits?
For most small and mid-sized nonprofits, yes — and for less. Expensify runs $5–$18 per user per month, which punishes organizations with many volunteer submitters. Giving Toolbox is a flat $34.99 for unlimited users, with nonprofit-specific fields (990 categories, grant funds, IRS charitable mileage rate) that Expensify doesn't offer. Larger nonprofits with global corporate travel programs may still prefer Expensify.
How does the app calculate the 65% Program Services ratio?
The 990 Prep Report divides your year-to-date Program Services expenses by total expenses. Watchdog groups like Charity Navigator and BBB Wise Giving Alliance flag organizations where that ratio falls below 65% (concerning) and reward organizations above 75% (best practice). Giving Toolbox shows the number live on the dashboard so you know where you stand before the fiscal year closes — while there's still time to reallocate or document differently.
Can I export expenses to QuickBooks Online or Aplos?
Yes to both, plus Xero. From the Admin dashboard, choose a date range and platform, then download a CSV formatted for direct import. Each row includes the vendor, amount, chart-of-accounts code, class or location, and — if you're on QuickBooks Online — the memo field pre-populated with the 990 category. Receipt images ride along as attachments in the ZIP.
Is Giving Toolbox available on Android?
The app is currently iOS-native — iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 and later. A web dashboard at givingtoolbox.app lets Admins approve expenses and run reports from any device. Android support is on the roadmap; join the waitlist from the app or contact page for launch notification.
Your next 990 doesn't have to be a scramble.
Start capturing expenses the moment they happen. Watch your Program Services ratio in real time. Hand your bookkeeper a clean file, not a mystery.
Free: unlimited submissions, 100 AI receipt scans/month, single grant reporting. Pro ($34.99/mo) adds unlimited users, multi-grant tracking, fundraisers, and full 990 prep.
How this fits together
One app for the whole organization
This is one part of a mobile-first nonprofit operations app that also handles expenses, grants, events, volunteers and donors, and keeps working offline.
See the nonprofit mobile app →Running a gala or benefit?
See how ticketing, check-in, auction, paddle raise, raffle and donations work as one evening, with the expenses captured for a real event profit and loss.
See nonprofit gala software →