Even though both for-profit and nonprofit organisations need to produce regular reports about their financial activities, the different reports bring significant changes in how these reports are formulated. These are some of the differences:
A for-profit business generates a financial statement that shows its net capital for stakeholders and investors. On the other hand, a nonprofit doesn’t have any stockholders or owners. Instead, it generates a financial position outlining its assets and debts.
In for-profit accounting, shareholders’ equity equals a firm’s assets fewer obligations, also known as net assets. Because a nonprofit has no capital, this line item is always known as net assets. Net assets are classified as either constrained or unrestrained.
Since a company is attempting to earn a profit, it generates an income statement that details its earnings, expenditure, setbacks, and profits. A nonprofit does not have a bottom line because it is motivated by a goal instead of the desire to profit. It generates a statement of activities rather than an income statement, which details the incomes and expenditures affiliated with each initiative.