Thank you so much Critter. For my personal checking account, I do use Quicken and I have set up the PTC account on Quicken but I also found the reports did not work for what I needed. Digging through the boxes, I did find a sheet that has Treasurer duties on it, and I have pretty much figured out what was on it. It was the organizing and what do you keep questions that concerned me. I do mean Boxes of stuff and mostly looks like things were just thrown in it. No rhyme nor reason to anything. I like the idea of different color sheets and also from the posts here I got several forms. No forms of any kind have been used before, just pretty much.."here is a bill" and envelopes with cash. On a recent fundraiser, I was at the school picking up my son on a Friday and the Intermediate principal handed me a sealed envelope and asked me to deposit it...earlier in the week (same fundraiser) I was given a sealed envelope and was told the money had been counted...there was a sheet with the amount in checks and cash and signatures of the two people who counted, I assumed the same had been done with this envelope, boy did I learn quick. I was handed a sealed envelope with over $10,000 in checks and cash that no one had counted. By the time I had realized this, no one was at the school and I could get a hold of no one on the PTC board. This was so uncomfortable with me, that I took the forms that I got off here and on Monday went to the President of the PTC (she is a teacher) saying we need some kind of system in place for people giving me money and requesting bills to be paid or to be refunded.

Anyway...I am learning through trial and error. I really appreciate all the help I am getting here. Melissa

[ 06-03-2005, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Rockne ]

Hi RH - I served 4 years as a PTO treasurer and through that I wrote a manual for our group. Specifics might not apply for your group, but the basics should.

We use Quicken for all our transaction control and checkbook reconciliation. It's very easy to use once you've set up the list of categories you want to post activity against. Even though Quicken has reporting capabilities, I always created my monthly report in Excel. We report Actual-To-Date against Budget, and I couldnt' do it in Quicken (old version, new version might have this feature, thus eliminating the need for Excel).

My very most favorite, indespensible tool that I used as treasurer were color-coded transaction control forms. For example, we use yellow paper for our Reimbursement Request forms, pink for our Check Request forms, green for our Deposit forms, etc. Every financial transaction is backed up by a copy of the appropriate form. If you took all my computer systems away, I would still insist on using these forms, that's how valuable I think they are to managing the PTO money. Tim has made these forms available on the Useful Resources section of this website (to the left).

As far as being a PTO vs. PTC etc: The only "official" parent group designation is PTA (and the related PTSA) because that is the legal identity of a national organization. A group can't called themselves a PTA unless they pay dues to the central organization. A parent group that is not affiliated with PTA can call itself anything they want. There are no legal implications to any other acronym or name. I don't see a legal reason to change from "organization" to "club", but I'm sure the officers had good reason when the change was made. No matter, any name will do fine.

As far as zeroing out all the accounts at the start of the year, I agree (assuming you're talking about budget accounts like how much money was "left" in the staff appreciation budget). It sounds like your PTC creates an annual budget, which should be rebuilt fresh each year based on:

1. Your cash on hand
2. Your goal for fundraising (income)
3. Your group's specific plans (expenses)

Once you've approved a budget, you can record financial transactions against the budget categories and always know if your group has more or less money than it needs to meet its goals for the year.

Obviously this is a hot button area for me. I'll stop here, but post more questions if you have them.

[ 06-03-2005, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: Rockne ]

Thank you so much for the info. I am still a little confused on the differences between PTA, PTO, & PTC. I believe that we were PTO years ago, but changed to PTC, Parent Teacher Club. Someone stated that we have more control with it this way and we are an extremely small school.

I would love a sample of the form you use on excel...my email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

From the last report that the former treasurer done, I could tell it was used on excel but apparently she used no formulas because there were many errors. My husband, who is more proficient in excel, helped me redo the form from what we could gather needed to be on it and set up formulas, and I actually had a long time PTC member tell me that for the first time, she understood it.

The last report did not balance what so ever and I spent hours trying to balance it to be told by the ex-president that at the beginning of a new school year, you 0 all accounts out and start a new year. Does this make sense?

Thanks you again.

RH: I am the Co-Treasurer of our PTO (along with my husband). We are starting our 4th school year in Treasurer position. I do not know what a PTC is, but can try to help the best I can.

As far as monthly reports, any spreadsheet program would do. I prefer Excel because it is what I am fluent in. I would be happy to e-mail you a sample to help you out, but has to be Excel format.

For organizing things, we have duplicate checks for our checking account. When we pay for anything, we staple the duplicate to a copy of whatever we are paying. We send the original (receipt, bill, whatever) along with the check. When I make a deposit, I make a copy of the deposit slip (front and back) and staple the deposit receipt to the copy.

My husband is responsible for the filing cabinet, but I know his system fairly well. For our PTO, we hold funds for other areas in the school that the Principal does not want in their account. We have separate folders for those items. The rest of the items are filed by month, then year in filing folders.

When I receive our checking account statement, I balance the statement, then add the current statement to the year's statements. I keep each year separately. Our Bank has imaged checks and deposit slips so I keep the imaged pages at the end of the statements.

I believe that the statement retention is 5 years, but hopefully someone else will know for sure.

If you file with the IRS, the forms must be kept for at least three calendar years.

As far as keeping the deposit slips, that is up to you. We tend to have a lot of deposits; so much so that I have had to order deposit slips separately just to have enough. I always run out of deposit slips before checks (definitely a good thing). If you have an insane amount, I would shred them, not throw them away. Too much identity theft going on.

Hopefully this helps. If you have any questions you want to ask me personally you can e-mail me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hi...I have read and read many posts trying to find answers. I am a new treasurer for our PTC group this year, actually we are all new officers. My problem is, I have pretty much been handed boxes of "stuff". No assistance from the previous teasurer what so ever, and the attitude she has given our new president, I don't know that I want to ask for any help.

Anyway, If anyone could post here or even email me any help, such as what do you use to do monthly reports, how do you organized things, and a biggy...how long do you need to hold onto things such as statements and receipts. You know when you run out of checks and you have the remainder with deposits..personally I throw those away, she has saved all of them. I am at a lost with a boxes stacked in my home.

Thank you so much.