Thanks so much for all of this information. I will keep all of this in mind for the next meeting.

Another one. It's not formatting quite right, but hopefully you get the idea.

• The Chairperson of each PTO event shall work with the Treasurer and other officers to plan for the handling of all funds in an approved manner.
• Chairpersons/Project Coordinators must make sure any volunteers dealing with funds understand the process.

1. Complete the form and itemize the fund sources (membership, T-Shirt sales, event sales, etc.) as well as cash vs. checks.
2. Copy the completed form and give to school secretary to file.
3. Seal the funds and the original form in an envelope.

• The Treasurer will make all deposits unless specifically planned otherwise.

• Funds should be deposited same day acquired. If not possible, funds will be secured at the school in the designated locked area.

• Cash must be deposited on day received or, at most, one business day later.
• Checks must be deposited within 5 business days.

It is not necessary to record all checks on the bank deposit slip – a spreadsheet can be attached instead.

PTO funds are intended to benefit the students through the enhancement of school programs and activities. The PTO Officers are the guardians of these funds and have an obligation to see that they are protected and used wisely. It is very important that everyone follow these policies.

• A general meeting of the organization will be held by the end of September to approve the budget for the fiscal year.
• Money raised by this organization shall be spent as specified in the approved budget. Any additional expenditure must be approved by a majority vote the Executive Board.
• This PTO shall not be liable for any non-budgeted monetary expenditure of $100 or more without submission of such expenditures to the Executive Board for approval.
• The PTO shall not be liable for any non-budgeted monetary expenditures of less than $100 without prior approval of the PTO President and two additional Executive Board Members.
• PTO Board Members have the obligation to be conservative in the use of PTO funds and to report to the Board at monthly meeting regarding to the intended use of any budgeted funds.
• In order for PTO funds to be disbursed (for a reimbursement or to initiate a payment to an external company) a “Funds Authorization” request must be completed.
• All Funds Authorization forms must be signed by at least two (2) Executive Board members and submitted with receipts or appropriate order paperwork.
• All reimbursement requests must be submitted within 60 days of the expense.
• All PTO checks must be signed by two (2) authorized Board members.
• Any commitment of funds that does not follow these policies is the personal responsibility of the initiator.

Resources - for help with what to implement.

** do a key word search on the PTO Today site. (Try cash, cash handling, deposits, handling cash) and you should get several hits on articles and tips. Some are only available to PTO Today Members, but many will be for anyone to read.

** look in the File Exchange. I'm sure some of us have posted some of our practices.

You are right to be worried. Here are possible avenues to change the mindset of your organization.

1) Disaster. I can tell you from personal experience one sure fire way to proceed to is continue to allow lax practices until an embezzlement occurs. It's a painful route, but absolutely amazing as to how everyone jumps on board for stricter policies.

2) Cite Feared Authority Figures - you can reason until your are blue in the face sometimes. Yet if a 3rd party says your group should have certain practices (and if they believe it), then - again - it's pretty easy to move forward. Are you a 501(c)(3)? The IRS expects sound accounting practices. Do you have an an audit committee? How you handle cash and deposits is something they should be reviewing. And no one wants to get dinged on an audit. What worked for me one time was explaining that being affiliated with the school, they required we have good practices. The school district's internal auditor had a 1 or 2 page checklist he provided that all groups should be following. (Hmm... I'm pretty sure I didn't tell them I called him and asked if there were any best practices/reference materials he would suggest. The fax from his office -with that "auditor" title and all those nice initials was more compelling.)

3) Leadership, Voice of Reason, Common sense. In an ideal world, this would have been #1. These are reasonable people, they should be able to understand what's at risk. However, the fact is - your folks want to focus on programs and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I've found #2 to be the best strategy (along with a more subtle use of #3). Your group does it because "it has to". There no good guy/bad guy, "obnoxious" president pushing for all these unnecessary processes. It's a requirement by some "authority figure" so you may as well do it. Then, while you are implementing - you work in #2 so they become believers.

In my opinion, our PTO is much too lax about how money is handled and it concerns me. We have a Treasurer that runs other committees and I guess I get concerned about them writing reimbursement checks to themselves or making deposits for the other committee they run. We have another executive board member that frequently makes deposits for another committee they run. It seems like we are missing some checks and balances! Can someone give me some guidance on how money should be handled?
Thanks!