Form 990 Compensation Workbook – Part VII & Schedule J (Excel & Google Sheets)

Stop guessing who goes on Part VII and who triggers Schedule J.

This Excel workbook walks you through the Form 990 compensation workpaper. You enter your people and their pay once. It sorts out who is reportable in Part VII, Section A and who flows to Schedule J, Part II.

What it does

• Identifies current officers, directors and trustees, key employees, highest compensated employees (HCEs), and former persons
• Applies the $150,000 key employee test and the Top 20 ranking automatically
• Includes the Responsibility Test inputs, with all three criteria spelled out
• Applies the $100,000 HCE and former-person thresholds, including the five-year lookback
• Builds a Part VII output sorted from highest to lowest total compensation
• Flags who triggers Schedule J and builds the Schedule J Part II output
• Checks that your Schedule J breakdowns tie back to reportable and other compensation
• Handles institutional trustees and unrelated-organization compensation arrangements

What’s included

• Blank TEMPLATE workbook, ready for your organization
• Filled-in EXAMPLE workbook with sample data, so you can see how it works first
• PDF with a link to the Google Sheets version

Inside each workbook

Start Here, Setup (editable IRS thresholds), Personnel Input (room for 100 people), Classification, Part VII Output, Schedule J Detail, Schedule J Output, and Validation tabs.

Good to know

• Built using the 2025 Form 990 instructions and the Schedule J instructions revised 12/2024. The thresholds are visible on the Setup tab.
• The Responsibility Test needs your judgment. The workbook flags who needs a Yes/No answer but doesn’t decide it for you.
• Schedule J Part I and Part III (compensation practices and narrative disclosures) are not automated.
• This is a preparation workpaper, not tax or legal advice. Review the final results against the current IRS instructions before you file.

Made by a CFO with 26+ years of nonprofit accounting experience, including Single Audits and grant compliance.