PTO Today Q&A

Question: PTO Bank Account and Money generated by individual departments in school combined?

We have a PTO Bank Account. The school has clubs such as music, drama, PE that do their own fundraising. Monies from these clubs are put in the PTO Bank account, but each is club is considered a 'sub-account' in the spreadsheet and given a specific sub-account number. Is this legal for monies raised by PTO fundraising to be mixed in with monies generated by these clubs? We are experiencing problems with who should be check signers, becoz bylaws state that only PTO board officers are signers, but previous year, school secretary is a signer. So, my question is, legal or illegal, to have money raised by PTO to be mixed in with monies from these school clubs in the same bank account, even though these clubs have a designated number/account name on the spreadsheet, but not bank account. Thanks in advance.


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Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
If the money goes into your bank accounts, it has to be reported on your tax returns. And then whatever gets recorded in your tax returns has to fit in with the mission of your organization. So--if all these clubs' activities fit in with your mission and you are reporting income on your tax return, not really an issue. But if these are just separate school clubs doing their own thing without any oversight from the PTO and just using you as their bank, that's a problem. In our area, schools have "student activity funds" that the school manages for some of these types of things. Might be time for you to sit down with school administration and have them take over the bookkeeping.


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