How many accounting frameworks is your organisation juggling right now? An associative chart of accounts at headquarters, an OHADA framework for your entities in West Africa, different financial templates for each donor, and statutory auditors who don't all speak the same normative language. For a finance director or finance coordinator at an NGO, this fragmentation has a very real cost: endless manual reprocessing, unexplained gaps between donor reports and annual accounts, and audits that drag on for lack of a consistent audit trail between headquarters and the field.

A structural answer has just emerged: INPAS, the first international accounting standard designed specifically for non-profit organisations, published in October 2025. In this article, we break down what this standard contains, what it changes for NGOs and CSOs, how it fits with existing frameworks (ANC 2018-06, SYCEBNL, IFRS), and above all how to prepare your organisation now. At Abvius, we follow these regulatory developments closely, as they shape the future of financial reporting that our platform already helps NGOs produce.

INPAS: The International Accounting Standard for NGOs

Reading time: ~13 min

1. INPAS in brief: where the standard comes from and who is behind it
2. Why an international accounting standard for NGOs?
3. What INPAS changes: the concrete contributions
4. INPAS compared with existing frameworks
5. Harmonised donor reporting: the real revolution
6. How Abvius prepares your organisation for INPAS
7. Roadmap: 5 steps to prepare for adoption
8. Mini FAQ

INPAS in brief: where the standard comes from and who is behind it

INPAS (International Non-Profit Accounting Standard) is the first international accounting standard dedicated to non-profit organisations. It was published in October 2025, at the end of the IFR4NPO project (International Financial Reporting for Non-Profit Organisations), a six-year global consultation effort jointly led by Humentum, a network of expertise in managing solidarity organisations, and CIPFA, the UK's public finance institute. The standard is now maintained by a dedicated foundation, the International Non-Profit Reporting Foundation (INPRF), which oversees its governance and ongoing development.

During its development, the project circulated under the name INPAG (International Non-Profit Accounting Guidance): three successive exposure drafts were put out for public consultation between 2022 and 2024, gathering input from accountants, auditors, donors and NGOs from dozens of countries. This consolidated guidance became the INPAS standard upon publication. The text builds on a proven foundation, the IFRS for SMEs standard, adapted to the specifics of the non-profit sector: resources received without direct consideration, funds restricted by donors, in-kind contributions, and accountability to donors and affected populations rather than to shareholders.

One signal leaves no doubt about the pace of adoption: as early as March 2026, the first international NGO symposium dedicated to implementing INPAS was held in Kampala, under the auspices of the Ugandan institute of chartered accountants. Regulators and accounting institutes in several countries where international NGOs operate are already examining how to integrate the standard into their national frameworks. For international solidarity organisations, the question is no longer whether INPAS will matter, but when it will find its way into their funding agreements and audits.

Why an international accounting standard for NGOs?

Until now, no global accounting framework addressed the situations that make up an NGO's day-to-day financial life. IFRS standards are designed for companies and their investors; national accounting standards for the non-profit sector, where they exist, diverge sharply from one country to the next. The result is well known to every practitioner in the sector.

Costly fragmentation for headquarters and the field alike

An international NGO operating in ten countries may have to produce financial statements under ten different frameworks, then combine them for headquarters, before reprocessing everything into the formats specific to each donor. Every reprocessing step is a source of error, one more weak link in the audit trail, and time that finance teams are not spending on steering programmes. This heterogeneity also weighs on transparency: two comparable NGOs may present accounts that are difficult to reconcile, which complicates the work of donors, evaluators and accountability platforms.

A matter of trust… and of localisation

The international accounting standard for NGOs also responds to a question of fairness. National and local organisations, at the heart of the aid localisation agenda, are often judged "risky" for lack of financial statements presented under a framework recognised by international donors. A common, proportionate framework designed for them lets them demonstrate the quality of their financial management without having to master every Northern donor's own standards. It is a concrete lever for rebalancing partnerships: the same accounting rules of the game, the same basis for dialogue during due diligence and audits.

• For finance directors and finance coordinators: a single accounting language between headquarters, the field and auditors, and fewer manual reprocessing steps.
• For donors: financial statements comparable across partners, and stronger assurance on the use of funds.
• For local CSOs: an accessible framework that lends credibility to their accounts with international funders.
• For auditors: a clear normative basis for certifying NGO accounts, where they previously had to work with hybrid frameworks.

What INPAS changes: the concrete contributions

INPAS is not a simple statement of principles: the standard directly addresses the technical points that generate the most debate between NGOs, auditors and donors.

Accrual accounting and the presentation of restricted funds

INPAS adopts accrual accounting, aligned with the expectations of major donors and the practice of well-structured NGOs. Above all, it organises the presentation of resources according to their restrictions: funds subject to restrictions imposed by donors are distinguished from unrestricted resources. This topic, which French finance teams know through the "fonds dédiés" (restricted funds) of the ANC 2018-06 regulation, finds here an international translation: the reader of the accounts immediately sees what share of resources remains restricted, and what share funds the organisation's structure.

Recognition of grant revenue

When should a multi-year grant be recognised as revenue: on signature of the agreement, on receipt of cash, or in step with project implementation? This deceptively simple question produces major discrepancies between frameworks. INPAS provides an analytical framework based on the conditions attached to the funding: the standard guides the organisation in determining whether a grant agreement carries performance obligations or conditions for the return of funds, and calibrates revenue recognition accordingly. For budget monitoring, this is a clear improvement: recognised revenue reflects the actual progress of projects, which brings general accounting closer to donor reporting.

In-kind contributions and narrative reporting

The standard also addresses issues specific to the sector: valuing in-kind donations and services rendered free of charge, presenting fundraising costs, and linking financial statements to narrative information that explains the mission, the achievements and how resources were used to deliver them. This link between figures and narrative echoes what donors already ask for in their reports: INPAS anchors it directly in the accounting framework itself.

INPAS compared with existing frameworks

INPAS does not replace national frameworks overnight: it fits alongside them. The table below positions the standard relative to the frameworks most often encountered by French-speaking NGOs and CSOs.

Two takeaways from this table. First, INPAS is the only framework to cover both the entity's financial statements and reporting to donors: that is its distinctive feature. Second, NGOs already rigorous under ANC 2018-06 or SYCEBNL are not starting from scratch: the logic of restricted funds, accrual accounting and traceability is already familiar to them. INPAS extends these foundations to an international scale more than it contradicts them. We covered these frameworks in detail in our guides on SYCEBNL for NGOs in the OHADA zone and on the statement of use of resources under ANC 2018-06.

Harmonised donor reporting: the real revolution

For field teams, INPAS's most tangible contribution may not lie in the financial statements, but in the practical Harmonised Grant Reporting guide that accompanies the standard. The starting observation is shared across the whole sector: every donor imposes its own financial report template, its own budget line items, its own timetable and its own eligibility rules. An NGO funded by eight donors produces eight different reports from the same accounting entries, with all the risk of discrepancies and compliance costs that entails.

The guide proposes a common basis: a standardised grant financial report format, reconcilable with the organisation's financial statements, which donors are invited to accept in place of their proprietary formats. The ambition echoes long-standing donor commitments on harmonisation and simplification, rarely realised for lack of a shared tool. If donors play along, the gains are considerable:

• a single set of financial data feeds every report, strengthening the audit trail;
• reconciliation between general accounting and donor reports becomes systematic, rather than an end-of-project exercise;
• cascading local partners report in a single format, easing the compliance burden across the whole chain;
• donor reviews and audits focus on substance — the use of funds — rather than on format gymnastics.

This movement directly echoes what we described in our guide on harmonising partner reporting: standardising formats is the most effective lever for reducing the cost of compliance without reducing the requirement for accountability.

How Abvius prepares your organisation for INPAS

Adopting an international accounting standard is, first and foremost, a question of information systems, not doctrine. An organisation whose accounting lives in spreadsheets scattered between headquarters and field missions will be able neither to present its resources by level of restriction, nor to reconcile its donor reports with its annual accounts. This is precisely the foundation that Abvius brings to NGOs and CSOs, as a finance, operations and MEAL ERP built for the sector.

In practice, several of the platform's capabilities align with the requirements INPAS puts forward. Real-time budget monitoring ties every entry to a project, a donor and a budget line: the distinction between restricted and unrestricted resources is no longer a closing-time reprocessing exercise, it is carried by the analytical structure itself. The audit trail is native: every expense keeps its supporting document, its approval workflow and the history of its changes, from the field up to headquarters, meeting the traceability requirement that underpins the whole standard. Approval workflows and electronic signature secure commitments and payments according to your delegation scheme. Finally, headquarters-field centralisation and automatic donor reporting make it possible to produce, from a single set of data, the organisation's financial statements and its grant reports, reconcilable with each other, in the spirit of the harmonised reporting promoted by INPAS.

Our conviction is simple: organisations that invest today in structuring their financial data will approach the transition to INPAS as a configuration exercise, not an overhaul.

Roadmap: 5 steps to prepare for adoption

There is no need to wait for a regulatory obligation to benefit from the standard. Here is a pragmatic roadmap, scaled to the size of your organisation.

1. Map your current frameworks

List the accounting frameworks your organisation applies (the national standard at headquarters, frameworks in your countries of operation, donor-specific requirements) and identify the friction points: recurring reprocessing, discrepancies in revenue recognition, double entry. This mapping is the starting point for any gap analysis against INPAS.

2. Carry out a targeted gap analysis

Focus the analysis on the three areas where INPAS has the most impact: recognition of grant revenue, presentation of funds according to their restrictions, and valuation of in-kind contributions. Involve your statutory auditor in this reflection from the outset.

3. Structure your analytical chart and your data

Make sure every transaction carries the necessary dimensions: project, donor, budget line, level of restriction. A well-built analytical chart of accounts is the technical prerequisite for any presentation by fund, as we detail in our guide to the analytical chart of accounts for NGOs.

4. Test harmonised reporting on a pilot project

Choose one grant and produce, alongside the contractual report, a report in the harmonised format reconciled with your accounting. This is the best way to measure the real effort involved and to open a dialogue with the donor concerned, some of whom are already encouraging such experiments.

5. Train your teams and equip the transition

Train finance teams at headquarters and in the field on the standard's key concepts, and check that your information system can support the required data structure. If your tooling still relies on spreadsheets, the INPAS transition is an opportunity to modernise the whole chain, from field data entry to closing, as described in our guide to NGO year-end close.

Mini FAQ

Is INPAS mandatory for NGOs?

No. INPAS is a voluntary standard: it becomes binding when a national regulator incorporates it into its accounting framework or when a donor requires it contractually. Several countries are studying its integration, and the first references in funding agreements are expected in the coming years.

Does INPAS replace the ANC 2018-06 regulation or SYCEBNL?

No. The annual accounts of a French association remain governed by ANC 2018-06, and those of OHADA entities by SYCEBNL. INPAS can instead serve as a complementary presentation framework for an international readership, and its harmonised reporting guide can apply to donor reports independently of the framework used for the annual accounts.

Is the standard suited to small CSOs?

That is one of its ambitions. Built on the IFRS for SMEs standard, INPAS was designed to remain proportionate, and the IFR4NPO project involved numerous national and local organisations in drafting it. For a local CSO, presenting its accounts under a recognised international framework is an asset in donor due diligence.

What can be done now, without waiting for an obligation?

Three no-regret actions: structure your analytical tracking by project, donor and level of restriction; strengthen your audit trail from supporting document to report; and test a donor report reconciled with your general accounting. These three efforts create value immediately, whatever the pace of adoption of the standard.

Summary

With INPAS, the sector has, for the first time, an international accounting standard designed for NGOs: accrual accounting, presentation of resources according to their restrictions, grant revenue recognition aligned with project implementation, and harmonised donor reporting. Its adoption will be gradual, but the direction is clear: comparable accounts, stronger accountability and a reduced compliance burden for headquarters and the field alike. Organisations that structure their financial data, budget monitoring and audit trail today will turn this regulatory shift into an advantage. To go further, see our guides on restricted funds and donor reporting, or contact our team to assess your organisation's readiness.