A TREASURER’S and AUDITOR’S HANDBOOK
1 January 2003

The Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

 

PART 1: TREASURER’S RESPONSIBILITIES

FOLLOW THE MONTHLY-MEETING’S HANDBOOK’s guidelines for this job: ‘The TREASURER is a member appointed for a one-year term to 1. receive and disburse funds as the meeting and its committees authorize; 2. keep the account books of the meeting; 3. make quarterly financial reports to the monthly meeting and an annual report in January after all the transactions of the previous year are in; 4. provide reports to the budget-and-collections committee, of which the treasurer is a member.’

KEEPING RECORDS: Keep the records and checkbooks in the treasurer’s space in the meeting house. You may take copies and treasurer’s reports copies home.

You will wish to refer to previous years’ records and receipts. Keep them so that you can find the particular original bills and checks when you, the meeting, or committees need them. The quarterly-meeting administrator has said that that office keeps original records for seven years for tax and auditing purposes. Keep records and accompanying letters of legacies forever.

When there are records of historical interest, ask the yearly-meeting secretaries how and where to send them.

ASSETS AND LIABILITIES: The monthly meeting owns a 35-millimeter Kodak carousel slide projector bought in the 1980s, the refrigerator, fans, shelves, microwave oven, and other equipment bought since 1995 and housed in the night-shelter closet, and computers, cabinets, and equipment bought or given since 2000 and housed in the monthly meeting’s committee or storage rooms. Keep a list of this with as much documentation as you can get from the shelter committee and the committee-room committee, and it should go into the statement of assets and liabilities of the monthly meeting that you prepare after the end of the year (see below).

FEDERAL TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBER AND DEDUCTIBILITY: Papers for this are in their own envelope in the files.

NEW-YORK-STATE SALES-TAX EXEMPTION: Papers for this are in their own envelope in the files. There are copies for people who need them to buy big items without paying sales tax.

DEPOSITS: The budget-and-collections committee designates a depositor. [The depositor should agree to take on the job for a time and become a signatory on the accounts; FAITH AND PRACTICE and the monthly-meeting HANDBOOK insist that whoever handles monthly-meeting money be a member: ‘[Attenders] may not serve as… treasurers,… or on the Finance… Committees….’.] This Friend puts the checks and cash contributions together periodically and sends them to the checking-account’s bank.

The depositor gives you a copy of the itemized-but-anonymous deposit ticket. With this copy you may credit separately the members’ gifts, attenders’ gifts, cashbox contributions, receipts from library sales, and gifts to specific non-budget accounts. Do this at once and enter the deposit amounts in the checkbook.

Gifts to the meeting are confidential, and the monthly meeting has directed that only the depositor from the budget-and-collections committee have the records of who has given how much. Unless a person gives you a check, you are not to know.

BOUNCED DEPOSITED CHECKS: Charge the account to which you credited the deposit and add on the bank charge. Then ask the budget-and-collections committee’s depositor to tell the writer-donor and get a replacement check that includes the amount of the bank charge for bouncing. The budget-and-collections committee clerk deposits the replacement, and you record it.

LETTER AND RECEIPTS FOR GIFTS: The clerk of the budget-and-collections committee prepares all of these, including for big gifts, gifts-in-kind, and bequests.

MONTHLY CHECKING-ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION AND VERIFICATION: Each month a bank statement comes from the checking-account bank.

First, make sure that the cleared amounts match the checks you wrote.

Second, verify the checks and deposits that cleared and check them off in your ledger and the checkbook.

Third, see that the names of payees and depositors match on the fronts and backs of all checks.

Then staple checks to the statements, check that the checkbook and statement balances match, and file the statements. Difference in balance amounts? call the bank on their 1-800 telephone number.

Void outstanding checks after a year. Credit the general accounts of the meeting for the amounts of uncleared checks originally paid for budget items: anything else will change the budget and complicate it. If you have questions about other kinds of checks or know the payees, contact the payees or speak with the budget-and-collections or monthly-meeting clerk.

BUDGET:

----Preparation: The monthly meeting charges the budget-and-collections committee to prepare a budget for the following year for the monthly meeting’s examination and comment in November and approval in December. You and the committee, then, must meet in October to go over expenses, share thoughts and committees’ expressed needs for the coming year, and prepare the budget.

----Approval: When the budget-and-collections committee’s budget for the coming year has met with the monthly meeting’s approval in December, the monthly-meeting clerk will publish it in the minutes.

----Setting up accounts: Set up a separate account or column for each budget item as soon as the monthly meeting approves the coming year’s budget.

----Gifts for specific budget items: When someone contributes to a specific budget item (not the usual practice, even when the committee have overspent), add the gift amount to what the committee may spend during the year, and note the gift in your treasurer’s quarterly and yearly reports to the monthly meeting.

----Unforeseen money matters go before the monthly meeting: If something unforeseen comes up – a big expense, legacy, a committee asking for more money, a new expense need –, ask the budget-and-collections clerk about it at once, and the budget-and-collections committee will bring the matter and a recommendation to the monthly meeting for Friends to consider.

If the monthly meeting adds money to a committee budget allocation during the year, add the amount to what the committee may spend and note that the monthly meeting increased the budget.

PAYING BILLS: Pay bills at once as it is part of our testimony to be prompt in our financial dealings, BUT there will be occasions when there will not be enough money in the budget account to pay budget bills, and you will have to wait.

The monthly meeting’s budget is to pay only for those things that fit the purposes of the committees or posts as the monthly meeting has outlined in the monthly-meeting HANDBOOK. This means general committee operating expenses. It does not mean gifts to other groups under any circumstances without the monthly meeting’s express authorization, which a committee only gets after consulting the budget-and-collections committee, who make the recommendations for the monthly meeting’s approval.

COMMITTEE SPENDING OVER BUDGET: Do not pay the bill. The committee is to consult the budget-and-collections committee, who may ask the monthly meeting for more money for the committee. Your quarterly reports to the monthly meeting and frequent notes (on checks, perhaps) to the committees are to keep them posted about the amounts left in their budgets.

Each month a bill comes from the TELEPHONE COMPANY for the telephone service (currently 1-212-GR 5-0466) in the monthly-meeting committee room. Pay it at once from the budget account for it or, if the account has run out, from the non-budget account for telephone bills beyond the budget.

OTHER BILLS come from the food-and-equipment suppliers for the social hour: have the social-hour committee clerk verify them if you cannot, and pay the bills at once.

The library, religious-education, pastoral-care, and ministry-and-worship committees have books, subscriptions, and supplies sent to them from time to time. Committee clerks may give you receipts or bills or authorize payments of grants.

Have those committee clerks verify the purchases.

Verify Friends’ out-of-pocket expenses for which they give you receipts with the committee clerks (if that fits) and write checks to such people at once.

You will want regularly to ask the following for receipts for their out-of-pocket expenses: whomever buys milk and any other fresh refreshments for the after-meeting social hour; the child-care coordinator(s) for the monthly hours, transport fares, and any extras bought for child care; whomever has the newsletter printed and mails copies. Ask them during the social hours and on the last Sunday of the month and pay them at once.

WRITING CHECKS: Be sure to write on the check and in the checkbook exactly what the amount is for. If the check is a reimbursement for a receipted item or pays a bill, write what the check is for, invoice numbers, and the name of the committee and account number on the check and in the checkbook. This is for your and the auditor’s benefit. The more you write on the check the easier it is later for record-keeping and auditing.

You may combine two or more amounts owed on one check if you write on the check and in the checkbook and account what each amount is, what account it comes from, and what it is to pay for.

SIGNING CHECKS OF AMOUNTS GREATER THAN $1,000: The monthly meeting asked the treasurer in 2000 to tell the monthly-meeting clerk when writing a check of an amount greater than $1,000.

CHECKS PAYABLE TO THE TREASURER: You must have the other signatory – the budget-and-collections committee depositor – sign any checks written payable to you for reimbursement for what you buy for the meeting.

QUARTERLY- AND YEARLY-MEETING PAYMENTS: The monthly meeting asked the treasurer to pay one-fourth of these amounts every three months before other bills. Write on the check and in the checkbook that the check is for one of these payments, and there is no need for a receipt.

BOUNCED CHECKS: Don’t permit them. Write checks only up to what has been on deposit for two weeks.

HANDLING RECEIPTS: Write on the receipts PAID, the date, check #___, to whom, what committee, and what budget account number.

MONTHLY-MEETING CHARGE ACCOUNTS: The meeting has and authorizes no charge accounts. Make all payments by check for bills or reimburse buyers.

PETTY CASH: This monthly meeting has and authorizes no petty cash. You make all payments and reimbursements by check. You do not keep any monthly-meeting monies at home or in your own accounts. Only the night-shelter clerk keeps an advance for bill-paying (see the section to do with non-budgetted accounts).

ONE ACCOUNT FOR BUDGET MONEY, ONE FOR NON-BUDGET MONEY: It has been useful to have budget-spending out of the checking account and non-budget spending out of the money-market account. Since you cannot draw a check for less than $250 on the money-market account, even up the accounts with a check at the end of the year.

INTEREST-DIVIDEND-BEARING ACCOUNTS: Their statements come each month or quarter. At the end of each quarter, and at the end of the year, telephone those firms’ 1-800 numbers – or do it on-line – to get the last transactions and interest-or-dividends.

ALLOCATING THE DIVIDENDS: If you keep the non-budgetted funds (listed in the last half of this piece) in the Calvert money-market fund account, use the models of previous quarterly dividend allocations that are in the Calvert-account envelope. You will need to get the dividend amount (if the statement has not got to you by the time you are to prepare a report, telephone Calvert on their 1-800 number to get the dividend from their automated information service), figure out what percentage each non-budget account is of the amount of the money-market account, get the amount of the dividend, and apply it to the appropriate account. Allocate the dividend each month, if you prefer.

List the three-months’ summary of dividends in the treasurer’s reports you give to the monthly meeting.

PAX ACCOUNT: Do not divide the Pax World Balanced Fund account dividend. In 1999(?) the monthly meeting authorized the treasurer to close the account at any time on the ground that it is small, has a fluctuating value, and is not easy to draw on. The treasurer has continued to keep it as a nest egg.

QUARTERLY REPORTS TO THE MONTHLY MEETING: Each April, July, and October report to the monthly meeting the previous three-months’ transactions and balances. Use previous reports as models. In January, report the previous year’s balances and three months of transactions. The clerk will only put the end-of-year report in the minutes.

Write as well a statement of assets and liabilities – which do not have to balance – after the end of the year. Use one in the treasurer’s reports’ file as a model.

Friends wish to understand and be confident about where the money is going: to report as clearly as you can contributes to their understanding. The current form to report seems to be the one easiest for people to understand. You may find it useful to present a pie chart of the budget every year. The quarterly-meeting administrator will prepare an outline of meeting-house-related expenses of a previous year for you to present to Friends as well so that everyone knows how much it costs for us to use the buildings.

Sign the reports to the monthly meeting.

SIGNATURE FORMS FOR THE BANKS: The monthly meeting has authorized two people to sign monthly-meeting checks. The treasurer is one, and the budget-and-collections committee depositor is the other. From time to time the monthly meeting has also authorized the monthly-meeting clerk to sign. As you will see, the banks require documents and medallion signatures for their authorized-signature files, and we have stayed with two signatures.

Get the forms from the banks when there is a change of monthly-meeting budget-and-collections depositor or treasurer. The previous officer(s) replaced and the newly-appointed officer(s) sign them, and you send them to the banks with proper covering letters and copies of monthly-meeting minutes from the newsletter as evidence for the banks.

SENDING FOR NEW BLANK CHECKS: Ask for more than a year’s worth at a time and debit the treasurer’s account when the amount for the printing of the checks appears on the bank statement. Use the checkbook form or the bank’s 1-800 telephone number.

PREPARING PAPERS FOR THE AUDITOR: In January, after preparing the previous year’s report, gather all the accounts, receipts, bank statements-and-checks for whomever the monthly meeting appoints to audit the accounts. Do not give the checkbook or the Pax or Calvert account statements to the auditor as you need these papers to transact business.

WHEN YOU HAVE QUESTIONS: Consult the monthly-meeting clerk, the members of the budget-and-collections committee, the quarterly-meeting administrator or others in that office, and-or the yearly-meeting secretary, all of whom have given guidance about bill-paying and record-keeping as well as general gossip about the people involved in the work you are doing.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

MONEY THAT THE MEETING HOLDS FOR PURPOSES NOT IN THE BUDGET:

****Membership literature for non-members: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $800.

The pastoral-care committee may buy handbills and pamphlets on membership and give them to enquirers.

Pay the bills from this account. They may come straight to the treasurer: verify them with the pastoral-care clerk.

The committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Quakerism adult-class materials: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $1,000.

The committee on ministry and worship buy the books and pamphlets, and they may give back some money to the account – through the budget-and-collections committee – as sales of the literature to class participants.

Pay the bills from this account. They may come straight to the treasurer: verify them with the ministry and worship clerk.

The committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****The Franklin Keller legacy to buy handbills and pamphlets for newcomers: When the monthly meeting took on a legacy – the monthly meeting’s first – sometime between 1980 and 1984 from Franklin Keller’s estate for this purpose, the meeting was to use the income and keep the principal, and the principal was about $2,200. It has shrunk and needs to be topped up.

The committee on ministry and worship may buy pamphlets and handbills to put in a display rack in the meeting-house lobby or otherwise give to newcomers.

Pay the bills from the income of this account. They may come straight to the treasurer: verify them with the clerk of ministry and worship.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Child-care over budget: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying John Menaker legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $1,000.

The monthly meeting’s child-care coordinator(s) may ask for checks from the monthly meeting to pay child-minders or for refreshments and materials when the child-care budget account for a year is spent. Get a count of care-giver(s)’s hours and outlays from the child-care coordinator. You may give a check to the coordinator or to the care-giver, as they wish.

Pay the bills from this account.

The child-care coordinator(s) may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Grants for religious-education people (parents, teachers, children, committee appointees) to attend the yearly meeting: Religious-education committee people raise this money in rummage sales or other functions and give [much, most, all of] the money to the budget-and-collections committee’s depositor.

The pastoral-care committee allocates the proceeds, on the religious-education committee’s recommendation, to anyone who attends this meeting and is involved in the children’s classes to pay for room and board at the yearly meeting. You need to have this information from the pastoral-care committee two weeks before the yearly meeting so that you can send the check for this.

Two weeks before the yearly meeting, send a check to the Silver Bay Association; 87 Silver Bay road; Silver Bay, New York 12874 (Telephone: 1-518-543-8833), listing on the check, in the checkbook, and in a separate note to Silver Bay which amounts are for whom (individuals or families) attending the yearly meeting.

****Meeting notices and advertisements the religious-education committee places: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $500.

The religious-education committee may place notices of our meetings for worship and children’s classes in publications that parents of young children read.

Pay any bills for these notices from this account. Get the bills from the clerk of the religious-education committee or the publications and have the committee clerk verify them.

The religious-education committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Library sales and gifts: Keep this account apart from the library’s budget account, which is for the library’s collection, its upkeep, and any supplies the library needs.

This account pays for books for sale at the library or library-sales table and accepts receipts from such sales.

The budget-and-collections committee’s depositor deposits such receipts: the library committee and the depositor must be specific about the amounts deposited for sales: this has been one of the most active accounts and needs on-going attention and balance-checking.

The library committee – not just its clerk – must agree on purchases, and you pay back the book-buyers (or pay bills, say, from the Friends’ General Conference’s QuakerBooks) straight from this account.

****Rebinding worn monthly-meeting-library books: When the monthly meeting set up this account in 11-2001 from part of the non-specifying gifts people made to the meeting in memory of our late former member, Martha B Weyl, who was an accomplished amateur book-binder and had rebound some of the library’s books, the account began with $831.81

The library committee must agree which books need rebinding and have the work done.

Pay the bills straight from this account to the binder or pay whomever laid out the money for the work.

The library committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Social-hour gift for major equipment: When our member, Stanley A Rutz, died in 1996, he left $500 to the monthly meeting and had his executor direct it to the use of the social-hour committee. At the time, the treasurer decided, since the social-hour committee budget provides for food and light supplies, to set the money aside for coffee urns and the like that might send the committee over its budget.

The account has paid for one such pot, as of the middle of 2002.

The social-hour committee clerk or coordinator will tell you when there is such an item, or you might occasionally bring the existence and purpose of this account to the social-hour folks’ attention.

Pay the supplier directly or pay back the purchaser.

The committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Committee-room computer equipment: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $5,000.

The monthly-meeting committee-room committee are to meet to agree to buy items and to manage the use, repair, and replacement of the machinery. Money for these things comes from this account.

Pay suppliers or pay back purchasers from this account after the clerk of the committee-room committee tells you what is to be paid to whom for what.

The committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Internet access: In 11-2002, the monthly meeting authorized the ad hoc committee-room committee to sell and-or give away some computer equipment they would not be using in the committee room. The proceeds are to pay for eventual Internet access for the computers that are in the committee room. This account, then, is money that came from the committee-room computer-equipment account and that the treasurer separated into a separate account at the end of 2002.

Pay bills directly from this account.

The committee may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****HANDBOOK-printing seed money: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $200.

The monthly meeting decides to prepare and print a HANDBOOK of committees, appointments, and business matters.

The bills for payment and-or reimbursement will come straight to you to pay.

The monthly meeting may decide on a sale price for HANDBOOK copies. In 2001 the treasurer asked the library to give away the 60-75 copies printed because, with a price, he thought no-one would buy any.

The 2003 budget includes an amount for this purpose, copies will be available free, and recipients may contribute for them.

****Monthly-meeting committee-room telephone service beyond the budget: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $500.

The money is to pay for any expenses for the use of the monthly-meeting telephone over what the budget pays for.

The telephone bills come straight to you. Pay them at once.

In the 1970s, the quarterly meeting agreed not to pay the federal tax on telephone service as the US congress had levied it to pay for warfare. The quarterly-meeting office stopped the protest years ago; many Friends have personally given up the protest because Bell Atlantic and then Verizon made it almost impossible not to pay (chiefly by charging a monthly penalty on unpaid balances of the bill, including the tax, no matter how many notes and telephone calls went to the telephone-company office); this monthly meeting has not talked about the matter since the telephone service began in 2001.

****Night shelter: For some years the night shelter kept their own bank accounts and may still keep one.

Use this account to advance Sylvia Friedman, the committee clerk, for her outlay for shelter telephone bills, mail, and any extras the committee are paying for. She will let you know when she needs $500 or $1,000.

She will bag shelter receipts 2 or 3 times a year. Put these in the receipts’ envelope for the auditor.

The Partnership or the Coalition for the Homeless sends a check payable to the meeting once a year or so. This check does NOT go through this account. If you get the check – perhaps $2,000 – give it to the quarterly-meeting office administrator. This is not a monthly-meeting expense or gift to the quarterly meeting. It is to pay the quarterly meeting for fuel used to heat the building because the night shelter is open.

****Peace and peace-vigil handbills and banners: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying John Menaker legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $1,000.

Peace-vigil participants copy the peace-vigil handbill master as needed to distribute to passers-by at the vigils.

Pay the person who has the handbills printed.

Peace-vigil participants may use as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Florence Trullinger’s legacy to benefit the poor in New York City: This legacy of about $17,000 came to the monthly meeting on 16-11-2000, and the treasurer asked the meeting to ask several Friends to recommend allocations. They did so, and the meeting accepted the suggestions. After one approved allocation for a program could not be spent, the meeting gave more to a group to which money had already been sent. In addition, in 2001 the residue of the estate was split, and the monthly meeting got another $3,148 for this account.

By January 2003, all the allocations had been spent but $617.25 of the amount allocated to the St John’s Recreation Center after-school center in Brooklyn. Helen G Toppins, a Morningside Monthly Meeting member, New York Yearly Meeting secretary, and volunteer at the after-school center, approves bills to pay for books and materials, classes for center volunteers, and National Association of Teachers of Mathematics’ memberships for center volunteers, so keep her apprised of this account’s balance.

Close the account when you have spent the last of it and tell the estate (papers are in a bequests file envelope) of the final allocations.

****Powell-House weekend and retreat seed money: When the monthly meeting split the non-specifying Heidi Johnson legacy in 11-2001, this account began with $2,000.

The account may pay for deposits and fees, for example, child-care and a square-dance caller.

Laid-out amounts return to this account after you and the retreat committee have settled a weekend’s bills and accounts. The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

Keep the registration fees apart from this account. Have the budget-and-collections committee’s depositor use separate deposit slips for the checks and cash that come for registration, listing each registrant with the check.

****Grants for attenders at this monthly meeting’s Powell-House weekends: The monthly meeting set up this account years ago, and people have given to it, and dividends have come to it.

The pastoral-care committee decide to which weekend attenders to allocate this money. They tell you, and you send the amounts from this account to Powell House with the rest of the amount to pay the weekend’s bills.

The pastoral-care committee may allocate as much of this account as quickly as they like.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account. In 11-2002, the monthly meeting gave the surplus from the most recent weekend’s income and outlay to this account.

****ArtQuake: Friends set this account up in the 1980s to sponsor programs of Friends for the Arts. The meeting renamed it ArtQuake when that program of exhibition and performance began in the 1990s.

It pays outlays for equipment, supplies, and travel expenses’ to ArtQuake workers who submit bills or receipts.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Witness and advancement: When the monthly meeting split the last unallocated amounts of the non-specifying Heidi Johnson ($1,972.93) and John Menaker ($652.07) legacies, this account began with $2,625.

The monthly meeting did not specify – save the account’s title – what the account is for or who may ask for money from it. Later on, the meeting directed the treasurer to pay $50 to the Friends’ General Conference’s endowment fund from this account.

Use it to pay for meeting notices in any Friends’ publications whose bills come in.

The monthly meeting and individuals may add to this account.

****Non-specified legacies or big gifts: Someone may leave a legacy, or someone who does not come to meeting may make a big gift, without specifying a purpose for it. The monthly meeting does not apply such amounts towards the budget but rather has held that the budget is the responsibility of regular members’ regular contributions.

Ask the budget-and-collections committee to meet you to talk about uses of the legacy or gift and then to recommend to the monthly meeting some uses for the amount.

In the past, the monthly meeting has approved uses that mostly benefit the meeting itself and are beyond the budget.

When the monthly meeting decides what to do with the amount, be sure that the minute about it states the purpose, who is to draw on it, time limit (if any), non-spending of principal (if so), and how much is to be in which account.

****Specific big gifts or legacies: Set aside an account for each, ask the budget-and-collections committee to ask the monthly meeting if it wishes to accept the gift or legacy under its terms, and, if it does, run that account as the others and add a statement about it to this book. In any case, write to the giver to tell about the monthly meeting’s decision.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

PART TWO: AUDITOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES

The annual audit is to see and show the monthly meeting that the accounts are in good order: understandable and logical, that they convey information that is correct, and that everything is explained or obvious.

The audit looks to see that the accounts’ balances at the beginning of the year plus receipts plus dividends minus expenditures equal the accounts’ balances at the end of the year. To do this the audit examines these matters:

1. That the treasurer keeps the books efficiently, avoiding double work.

2. That the treasurer makes entries when the transactions occur.

3. That the treasurer’s arithmetic is accurate. Sub-totals are to add to the totals.

4. That the treasurer reports often (every three months in this monthly meeting) so as to catch and do something about any abnormalities.

5. That the treasurer’s files of the monthly meeting’s minutes include budget approvals and changes, general policies, the opening and shutting of bank accounts, and records to do with earmarked gifts or legacies. In this case, the file is mostly in this handbook’s first part and in records held in the treasurer’s cabinet.

6. The safekeeping of the treasurer’s and the budget-and-collections committee’s records over the years necessary for any tax purposes, their destruction after seven years when not needed for the meeting’s work, and their deposit in the records’ archives when necessary.

7. The treasurer’s listing of monthly-meeting property, its listed value, and how and for what the meeting got the property.

8. That the budget-and-collections committee promptly records, lists confidentially and in detail, and deposits contributions and most receipts.

9. That the treasurer records and deposits any other receipts promptly.

10. That the budget-and-collections committee or the treasurer acknowledges gifts.

11. The budget-and-collections committee’s and the treasurer’s handling of earmarked gifts and legacies: that the meeting keeps and spends them in the ways the givers or the monthly meeting directed.

12. Monthly-meeting minutes accepting gifts that go to other organizations.

13. Monthly-meeting minutes for non-budgetted expenditures.

14. That all outlays by check have written vouchers or receipts listing the dates of the checks, their numbers, what the payments are for, from which budget accounts and numbers, and to whom the checks are written.

15. The separation of budget and non-budget funds.

16. That no funds remain in any person’s private account.

17. That the treasurer records matters in the ledger, on the receipt-vouchers, in the checkbook, and on the checks at the time of issuing the checks.

18. The safekeeping of unused checks and all account books and records.

19. The voiding and-or destruction of damaged checks.

20. That the treasurer reconciles the balance of each account when the bank statements come in.

21. What the treasurer does with outstanding checks.

22. That the cancelled checks are for the same amounts as the cashed amounts and have the same payees and depositors.

23. That the bank signature forms are in good order and that there are at least two signers for the accounts.

24. That two monthly-meeting officers have a list of monthly-meeting accounts in their possession including the names and addresses of the signers the monthly meeting has authorized.

25. That the monthly meeting has minutes for the bank accounts and the signatures needed.

26. That the banks have only the monthly meeting’s federal taxpayer-identification number for all the accounts.

You will receive most necessary documents from the treasurer. The treasurer must keep some to transact business, and you may ask the treasurer to see these in the meeting house. Many of the budget-and-collections committee records are confidential and not open to your detailed inspection, so speak with that committee’s clerk about the committee’s record-keeping.

After you finish the audit and speak with the treasurer and-or the clerk of the budget-and-collections committee about any questions and-or recommendations, you

- prepare a written report for the monthly meeting – feel free to use these guidelines or past reports as a guide -,

- give the draft of the report to the monthly meeting treasurer for examination, and

- give your report to the monthly meeting’s clerk for reading at the next monthly meeting.

 

Your job is done.

 


If you landed here without going through the Home Page, please visit the "Frames version" or the "non-Frames version" of it, as desired.