I feel bad you had to start your new term with such a mess on your hands, and sorting through all of the financial paper, receipts, etc. is a huge task for one person to take on. If I were you, I would form an audit committee of 3-5 board members to help you sort things out. At this time, you can develop a financial system that suits your group's needs.
We have a treasurer and a financial secretary on board. (I'm the latter). I take care of all of the paperwork and receipts, record approved spending at the board meetings and keep a written deposit ledger. The treasurer writes checks and keeps her own records. Both the treasurer and I reconcile the bank account each month. This may seem redundant, but this type of back-up system gives the rest of the board peace of mind!
Mary, I was right where you are today. I felt the level of detail was important, so I too posted the Quicken #'s into excel where they were netted. After two years under that approach, not a single person cared except me. That's when I decided to post both credits and debits to the same Fundraising category in Quicken. I'm not a trained accountant, so my opinion is based on experience, not GAAP, but I found it easier to manage one category for each fundraiser instead two. The only time the info might be needed is on our Form 990 (currently spread out on my dining room table), but it's easy to separate the income from the cogs for that one time use by looking at the individual transactions for that category. My 2 cents.
Thanks Critter. I will probably keep it the way it is for now. I am just having trouble posting everything to the income account. I am afraid I am the one who wants detail. I like a good paper trail. So I guess the way I have it set is fine I will just do a modified income statement on an Excell worksheet. More work, but oh well. Thanks again.
Mary- we had a similar situation a few years ago. We finally had to threaten legal action if she didn't hand over the stuff. Coincidentally, that was our last year as a PTO. I wish I knew why certain people did things like this. Do they forget that this is all in the best interests of the children???? It drives me bonkers! :eek:
Mary - I used Quicken, not Quickbooks, so maybe this advice doesn't apply, but it took a very simplistic approach to the situation you described. I set up our fundraisers as Income accounts. The deposits are posted against the fundraiser's account as a +. Later, when the bill from the fundraising company is paid, I enter that as a - against the same Income account. Therefore, the account's balance is net income. Under this approach, you may have to pull the cogs out manually, but I don't think too many people will ask for that level of detail. If they do, recruit them to be the next treasurer!
I tried one year to keep the expense portion of the fundraiser separate from the income portion, but I was always netting the two numbers by hand. By posting the debit to the income account, all the activity for the fundraiser is reflected in one category. Granted, for a couple of weeks, before you actually pay the fundraising company, it will look like you made TONS on your fundraiser. You just have to explain the meaning of that number to the other officers, so they don't make plans to spend the extra money!!
