Compliance Tracker
User Guide

1. About This Tool

Improve a document you already have: As well as generating documents, you can upload one you already wrote and have AI improve it. Open the AI Automations page and use the "Improve an existing document with AI" card: pick a file (Word, text, or a text-based PDF), and AI returns a cleaner version plus a summary of what changed, with your original kept.

For most nonprofits, compliance is a junk drawer: a few items everyone knows about (Form 990) and a long tail of state, federal, and governance requirements that quietly accumulate risk. Missing a state charity renewal can mean fines and loss of fundraising authority; missing your 990 for three years means automatic revocation of your 501(c)(3) status.

This tool inventories everything, federal, state-by-state, and governance, and tracks each deadline as a stand-alone task with status, owner, and due date.

2. Getting Started

The very first time you open the app, a short four-step setup wizard captures your organization profile. Your answers are what build your personalized filing calendar, so it is worth a few careful minutes. After setup, you land on the Compliance Dashboard.

The setup wizard (four steps)

• Step 1 of 4, What type of organization? Pick your organization type and type your Organization Name. This determines which federal filings apply.
• Step 2 of 4, Where are you incorporated? Choose your State of Incorporation and your Fiscal Year End. This adds your state's specific requirements and sets your due dates.
• Step 3 of 4, Annual gross revenue. Pick your revenue bracket. This determines which version of Form 990 you file.
• Step 4 of 4, Paid staff and fundraising states. Say whether you have paid staff (adds payroll filings) and optionally select the states where you fundraise (adds charitable solicitation registrations). Click Finish setup →.

You can change any of these answers later from Organization Settings in the sidebar, and your calendar rebuilds automatically.

Want to look around first? Sign in with the demo account [email protected] / demo (populated with active filings for California).

Your first session

Brand new to the app? Follow these steps in order. By the end your filing calendar will be live and your first deadlines tracked. Labels in blue match what you see on screen.

1. Open the app and sign in. Open the Compliance Tracker. If prompted, sign in with your All In One Nonprofit email, then choose Start a new organization → (or Join an existing team with a team code if a colleague already set yours up).
2. Complete the four-step setup wizard. Answer each step (organization type and name, state and fiscal year end, revenue bracket, paid staff and fundraising states) and click Continue →, then Finish setup → on the last step. Your personalized filing calendar is built from these answers.
3. When you are brand new, nothing is shouting at you. Until you mark your first filing, the dashboard shows what we found for your state calmly rather than as red overdue alarms, because we do not yet know what you have already handled. Mark anything that is filed or does not apply and the normal alerts take over, or use Show me the alerts now to switch immediately. Nothing is ever hidden: every filing is listed with its real date the whole time.
4. Review your dashboard. You land on the Compliance Dashboard. The four cards across the top show Overdue, Due in 30 days, Due in 31-90 days, and Filed this year. Below them is your list of filings, sorted by due date.
5. Clear anything already done. For each filing you have already submitted, use the status dropdown on its row and choose Filed ✓. Mark items you are working on as In progress, and anything that does not apply as N/A.
6. See the full list and details. In the sidebar, open the Compliance group and click Filings for the complete list, or Calendar for the timeline view. Click any filing row to open its detail (agency, due date, fee, frequency, notes).
7. Generate a document if you need one. Open Compliance → Documents, pick a template (for example a board resolution or conflict-of-interest form), fill the fields, click Generate Draft →, then export with ↓ Word (.docx).
8. Check back regularly. Return to the Dashboard any time; the Overdue and Due in 30 days cards tell you what needs attention now.

3. Calendar & Filings

Calendar view

All filings on one timeline. Color-coded by status (upcoming, due soon, overdue, filed).

Filings list

Detail view for each filing: jurisdiction, form name, due date, frequency (annual, biennial, one-time), filing fee, governing authority, owner, status, notes, prior filing history.

Marking a filing's status

Tracking a filing: due date, responsible person, notes

Jargon inside a filing's reference details is explained in plain English right under each label: what the URS (Unified Registration Statement) is, what a registration trigger means, what an audit threshold requires, and what FYE (your fiscal year end) and anniversary month refer to.

The filing record: proof of what you filed, and when

The proof you attach is uploaded straight into your Document Library and tagged, so you can pull up every year's evidence in one place instead of hunting through email. The record itself is kept on your organization's account rather than in the browser, so it survives a new laptop, a new phone, and a change of treasurer.

Last year is never overwritten. Each record is filed against the year it covers. When a deadline rolls forward, the previous year's record moves down into Earlier filings kept on record under the same filing, with its date, who filed it, its confirmation number and its evidence still attached. That is what turns the list into something you can hand to a board or an auditor: not just what is due, but what was actually done, by whom, with the paperwork behind it.

Adding a deadline of your own

The built-in rules cover federal and all 50 states plus DC, but they cannot know about a grant report due to a particular funder, a lease renewal, an insurance certificate, or a local permit. Anything you add here behaves like every other filing: it appears in your list and on the Dashboard, it counts toward your compliance picture, it flows into your calendar feed, and it gets the same filing record panel, so your own deadlines build the same history as the required ones.

See your deadlines in your own calendar

Your filing deadlines now flow into your organization's calendar feed, so they appear alongside your own events. Open the shared Calendar page, copy the subscribe link, and add it in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook (Add calendar, then From URL). You can also turn on the weekly email summary of what is overdue and due this week. Open this app once so your deadlines are captured, then they show up in the feed and the weekly email.

4. What's Covered

Federal

• Form 990 / 990-EZ / 990-N (Postcard)
• Form 990-T (UBIT)
• Form 1099 series (contractors)
• Form W-9 collection
• Form 5500 (retirement plans)

State (all 50 states and DC covered)

• Charitable solicitation registration & renewal
• State corporate annual reports / statements of information
• State sales tax exemption renewal (where applicable)
• State employment tax filings

Governance

• Annual conflict-of-interest disclosure collection
• Board officer elections / annual meeting
• Whistleblower & document-retention policy review
• Audit / 990 preparation cycle

Independent audit & financial review

The tracker now carries an Independent Audit or Financial Review item for every organization. It reads your home state's audit threshold against your revenue bracket and tells you whether an audit is likely required, possibly required, or not required by state law, while also flagging the federal Single Audit (required when you spend $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a year) and the funder or bylaw triggers that can require one regardless of size. It is tracked like any other filing, with an annual due date and a status you can update.

Two companions help you act on it: a plain-language "Getting ready for your audit" article in the Learn tab (the prepared-by-client document checklist and what to reconcile before fieldwork), and an Audit Readiness Plan AI automation that drafts a tailored prep plan and timeline from your profile. This is general education, not legal or accounting advice; confirm your specific obligation with your state and a CPA.

Your organization type and what you actually owe

Two questions on the My Organization page decide which filings this tracker shows you: what kind of organization you are (church or faith based, booster club, PTA or PTO, homeowners association, sports league, alumni association, trade association, or a standard nonprofit) and how the IRS classifies you. The tracker reads both, so you do not answer the same question twice inside the app.

IRS classifications

• 501(c)(3) public charity: files Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N each year based on gross receipts.
• 501(c)(3) private foundation: files Form 990-PF every year regardless of size.
• 501(c)(4) social welfare and 501(c)(6) trade or business league: file the 990 series.
• 501(c)(7) social or recreation club: files the 990 series. Income from non-members is limited and can be taxable.
• Homeowners association filing Form 1120-H: an association that elects section 528 treatment files a corporate return, not a Form 990.
• Not tax exempt yet: ordinary corporate income tax filings apply, and gifts to you are not deductible, until exemption is granted.

Churches file no annual return

If you tell us you are a church, the tracker removes the entire 990 series. Churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches are exempt from the annual information return under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(a)(3)(A)(i), so no Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N is listed, and a green notice on the Filings page explains why. The three-year automatic revocation rule does not reach you either, because it only applies to organizations that are required to file. You are still responsible for payroll filings if you have employees, Form 990-T if you have unrelated business income of $1,000 or more, and your state corporate and charitable registrations.

Because the church answer changes so much, get it right before you tick the box: the IRS weighs fourteen characteristics, and a religious organization that is not a church in the IRS sense must apply for recognition and file the 990 series every year. If you are unsure which you are, take the guided 14-factor church check first; it records your answers and produces a written rationale you can keep.

⛪ The housing allowance deadline (churches)

Churches also get a tracked annual governance item: Housing Allowance Designation for Next Year, due before January 1. A minister’s housing allowance must be designated by official board action in advance of payment (Treasury Regulation 1.107-1(b)) and can never be backdated, so a board that forgets in December costs its pastor the exclusion for every paycheck until it finally acts. Put it on the November agenda every year: run the least-of-three worksheet in the Employment & HR app’s Clergy Compensation section, then use the Board Management Resolutions page, which shows churches a band that prefills the formal designation resolution and routes it for e-signature. The tracker keeps the deadline in front of you so the renewal is never missed.

Booster clubs, PTAs and sports leagues: how fundraising is credited

If you are a booster club, a PTA or PTO, or a sports league and you are a 501(c)(3), the Filings page shows an amber caution and the tracker adds an annual Fundraising Allocation Review item. Both exist because this is the most common way these groups lose their exemption. If money a family raises is credited toward that same family's dues, fees, or trip costs, the IRS treats the benefit as going to the family rather than to your charitable purpose. In Capital Gymnastics Booster Club v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2013-193, the Tax Court upheld revocation of a booster club's 501(c)(3) status for exactly that practice.

• Put fundraising proceeds into the general fund and spend them on the group as a whole.
• Base any individual assistance on documented financial need, decided by the board and recorded in the minutes.
• Do not keep per-family balances that offset that family's own fees.
• You may require every family to help with fundraising. What you cannot do is size their benefit to the amount they bring in.

This section is general information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA before you change or keep a fundraising credit policy.

5. Documents & Templates

Built-in document templates for the most-asked items, board resolution to file the annual report, conflict-of-interest disclosure form, document retention policy, whistleblower policy, board meeting minutes template. Generate to .docx, edit, file.

6. Education

Short, plain-language explainers on the requirements most likely to bite you: how 990 reasonable compensation works, when state registration triggers, what "substantiation" means in IRS Pub 1771, when to file 1099-NEC, and more.

7. Analytics & History

The History page logs every action (filing marked complete, deadline rescheduled) for audit-trail purposes. The Analytics page shows on-time rate, days-to-deadline distribution, and filing-by-jurisdiction breakdown.

8. Predictions

The Predictions page sits in the sidebar directly under Dashboard, next to AI Automations. It scores the deadline-miss risk for each of your upcoming compliance filings, so you can see at a glance which deadlines are most likely to slip and act before they do. The page and its scores are free for everyone.

How the score is calculated

Each risk score is built only from your own data, with no hidden machine-learning model, so every score shows the factors behind it. For each upcoming filing the score combines two things:

• How close the deadline is. The nearer a due date, the higher the urgency.
• The status you have recorded. Items marked overdue or not started, especially those near a deadline, rank highest. Items you have marked filed or N/A are excluded, since there is nothing left to miss.

Because the math is transparent, each row spells out why it ranked where it did. Nothing is invented: the scores reflect the filing list the app built from your profile and the statuses you keep up to date.

The action brief

One button on the page, the Compliance Risk Brief, turns the scored data into a short, prescriptive action brief: what is most at risk, why, and the next steps to protect your filings. The scores themselves are free for everyone; the AI-written brief is included with the All-Access subscription.

Your compliance score and upcoming or overdue filings also feed the organization-wide Compliance Copilot (/copilot/), a free dashboard that rolls up a single Organization Health Score (0 to 100) across Compliance, Governance, Documents, and Operations. This app drives the Compliance domain automatically from the data you already keep here, so the more you track, the more complete your organization-wide picture is.

Administrator Access

The sign-in screen has an Administrator Access link below the Sign In button. Use it to sign in as Administrator with just a password, no email needed. This is a per-browser admin role; the password is stored only on the current computer.

• First time: Click Administrator Access. You'll see a "First-time setup" prompt with two password fields, enter a password (6+ characters) and confirm it. Click Create Admin Password.
• Subsequent times: Click Administrator Access, enter that same password, and click Enter Admin Panel.
• Once signed in as Administrator, you'll land on the dashboard with full admin privileges, including the Admin page in the sidebar (visibility into all teams, users, and activity stored in this browser).
• Click  Back to regular sign-in at the bottom of the admin panel to return to the normal sign-in screen.

Note: the admin password is unique to each browser. If you set it up at home and then visit the app on a work computer, you'll see the first-time-setup prompt again. To grant admin access on a new machine, register a regular user account or set up a fresh admin password there.

AI Automations

The sidebar's AI Automations page (directly under Dashboard) holds seven drafting tools that work from your actual filing list and statuses: an Annual Compliance Plan (month-by-month schedule built from your real deadlines), a Board Compliance Report, a Compliance Gap Assessment, a Board Resolution Drafter, a Missed Deadline Action Plan, a Filing Explainer & Prep Checklist (pick any filing on your list), and a Compliance Handoff Brief for leadership transitions.

Every draft opens in an editable preview with Copy, Text, Print, Word (with your document branding), and Email. Everything is general compliance education, never legal or tax advice, and drafts never invent deadlines or requirements. See the AI Automations Guide for details.

Contact & Support

For questions, feedback, or feature requests, contact the All In One Nonprofit team at [email protected]. We update these tools regularly, check back for new features.

Looking for help beyond the platform? See our Helpful Resources page for vetted external resources on legal and tax filing, funder research, governance training, insurance, technology discounts, and more.

From our Learn library: your first 30 days as a 501(c)(3).

A note on legal advice

All In One Nonprofit provides plain-language educational tools and document drafts, not legal advice. For decisions with legal consequences, consult a qualified attorney who works with nonprofits.

Document branding, signatures & snippets

Your organization identity, branding (letterhead, footer, and signature), language, and connections are all set once on the My Organization page and carry across every app. You can even customize your organization's language there, renaming platform terms like donation or donor to the words your organization uses. Here is what these cover:

• Letterhead and footer: add your organization's letterhead image and a footer (address, contact details, EIN) that appear on your Word and PDF exports.
• Signature: save a default closing (for example, "Sincerely,"), your name, your title, and an optional signature image, added at the sign-off on letters.
• Stats & Snippets: save reusable blocks of text you use often (your mission statement, boilerplate, a standard call to action) and copy any of them into a document you are drafting.

Set these up once and apply them to your exports.