How to Keep Records When Donating Business Services

Anything of value can become a donation to a worthy cause. Non-profit entities call these non-monetary gifts "in-kind" donations. They keep copious records on "in-kind" donations, just as they do cash donations. As the donor of business services, you must do the same.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Think about what business services you can donate to a charity. Think of what the charity needs and respond to it.

2. Donate services that align with the business you work at for a living. For example, if you are a website developer, you might put in 350 or more hours working on the charity's website. This can be translated into a dollar value based on what you typical salary for such work.

3. Post in your books every block of time you spend on the charity's website by date. Add a comment to signify what part of the job you worked on. This shows that you are sincere and that you consider this a job, even though you donated your time and experience.

4. Reconcile your accounts at the end of each month. At this time, be sure you place "in-kind" business service donations in a category of their own.

5. Pull the "in-kind" business services donations from their category at tax time. Present the itemized total to your accountant with the rest of your records.

Tips & Warnings

• If the business service has already been included in something else, such as a grant, you cannot count it as a separate donation.