THE ACCOUNTING OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS IN PORTUGAL: THE CASE OF PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS OF SOCIAL SOLIDARITY (IPSS)

The nonprofit sector is made up of nonprofit organizations that, by law or custom, do not distribute any profit that may be generated by the Associates. They are institutionally separate from government, are self managed and non-binding. The IPSS, are non-profit institutions, created by private initiative, with the purpose of giving organized expression to the moral duty of solidarity and justice between individuals and they are not administered by the State or a local government body to proceed among others, their goals, through the provision of goods and services. The new accounting system of nonprofit institutions, emerges as an indispensable tool for management, because these organizations are not sufficiently different from business enterprises, public agencies, etc., Management models and practices adopted will be similar. This study deals with the system of accounting standards for non-profit sector entities (ESNL), part of the Accounting Standardisation System (SNC), through which they create their own accounting rules, application-specific entities to continue, under primary, non-profit activities and not distribute to its members or taxpayers any direct financial or economic gain.