What the other members are asking is what will an audit show that we don't already know. The numbers have been examined by me and I have broken then down in different ways. We know what money went to who but since the largest % of expenses was funnelled through personal accounts and the expenses are "about right" give or take $2000. What will a audit show or do? What do CPAs give you in the end of it?
I would make some policies as part of your by-laws-- we must have 2 signatures--- all funds given out, must be after the purchase, no blank checks given out-- and original receipts must be attached to the check request-- and we keep our records for 7 years-- in case of an audit-- we also use pto manager software-- to keep track of each event, how much is spent, who is getting reimbursed and for what and how much.
Make this is be a new practice--- we also use a paper box to keep the receipts in for each year and store them after the year is done-- that way anyone can go back and check through our deposits, reimbursements and such. Good luck to you and I'm sorry for the mess you are dealing with. Foxmom
You can definitely do an audit. But allow me to make a presentation suggestion -- present it as a new annual practice, not as something that you're doing just because of worries. (And then make sure you do one next year, too, even if there are no worries.)
Not only is this actually a best practice, but it should also help a bit with the politics of this move.
I am the new treasurer for this coming year. The entire exec is board is new as well. The transition has been a little bumpy to say the least. And there are some problems with the financial side.
1) There are virtually no records. We have 8 months of bank statements and copies of posted checks (from the bank statements) and the last school years deposit slips and some not all check stubs. There is no paperwork on money coming in or going out. When I say that is all we have. THAT IS ALL WE HAVE. There are no records of any kind. We don't even know what vendors they used.
2) There are basically no receipts. Of the 12,000 in expenses related to events We have 4 receipts totaling about 1,800, the rest are checks made out to board members and in a few cases their husbands. The checks are generally for 1000 or more. The checks will generally have a note on the stub "carnival" for example. Some of the checks say nothing also have no memo.
3) There is one case of 2,000 collected for one project going somewhere else, we don't know where. It went into the account but did go to the project. (we collected 7,000 for x project and 5,000 went to it).
4) It took work to get what little paper work we did get. We had to ask several times and there were delays.
5) We were told receipts were thrown away as soon as checks were wrote because all those tiny papers are messy.
6) We were told all financial info was tossed at the end of every year.
7)The past treasurer was there for 4 years.
8) The past Pres has tried several times to get me to change banks. She told me the bank never donated anything to the school and wasn't very nice. When speaking to the bank I mentioned this saying we might be looking to move the account and the manager looked shocked! She started rattling off all the donations and gifts they'd given and couldn't understand why anyone wold say otherwise.
That's were we are now! I was wondering what to do. We have talked about getting a CPA to do an audit but is there even enough for them to see anything? I have asked for the past 4 years of bank statements from the bank. If there isn't enough information for an audit what do we do then? Please help! Everyone is trying to do the right thing. We are fixing things going forward but we want to have handled this mess properly.
