What if your organization’s real New Year arrived in two weeks: and you were still planning around January? As of mid-September, October 1 is approaching fast. For HUD-funded organizations and public housing authorities, the federal fiscal year is about to turn over, bringing new funding assumptions, Annual Contributions Contract activity, capital planning decisions, reporting expectations, and compliance priorities. Meanwhile, your team may still be squinting at last year’s numbers, chasing...

“We’re not big enough for a CFO.” You may have said it during a budget meeting, a board conversation, or while staring at a bank balance that looked healthy until the next round of payroll, vendor bills, and grant expenses came due. We have a bookkeeper. We use accounting software. We can figure this out. That thinking is common among mission-driven organizations with annual revenue between $750,000 and $5 million. It is also where financial problems often begin. At this stage, your...

September is the most expensive month to do nothing. If your public housing authority reaches September 30 with unreconciled accounts, missing invoices, and unanswered questions, October will not magically solve the problem. It will simply bring a rush job, late adjustments, audit stress, and possibly re-filings. “We’ll let the auditor handle it” sounds practical: until the auditor finds that the books were never truly closed. A clean year-end starts before the fiscal year ends. A proper...