When our PTVO committed $30K to a new computer lab, it was divided up by 3 years, 10K a year. We did not have a separate bank account for this. It simply wasn't necessary as we had voted it in and we knew that the proper funds would go there.
Your Minutes reflect your group vote to the items already planned. This should be enough to satisfy the old board. Let them know that you know where the money is supposed to go, that you intend to honor those committments and that it is insulting to the new board for them to think otherwise.
Start up monies are important. $25 carried over for an established group is not enough. You might remind them that you helped raise those funds, that you voted on where they should be spent and that you will honor the committment but for them to separate the funds is tantamount to trust or distrust as the case might be.
You might have the group vote on which way to go with this. Be sure your argument is in order before going in with it.
Not having enough to start a new year is one of our concerns - flyers to parents for membership, etc. Also the paperwork that we have so far is only an accounting that the current treasurer did in MS Word - like a balance sheet. There is only the one account and the money to be divided is only shown on these sheets. We have not seen any bank statements, receipts for expenses, etc. Also will we have to reapply for 501c3 if we open a new account?
That seems reasonable, but a little cumbersome. Why do you need to open a new bank account? Couldn't the money be managed so there is only $25 left in the existing account? But be careful...you will probably be charged a service fee at your bank when your balance drops that low. I'd also be very careful of the risk of overdrawing the account if you currently have several thousand dollars and several people are trying to spend it down to virtually zero in a hurry.
I'd also arrange right now for a volunteer to audit the financial records this summer before you take over. There is advice on conducting a audit for a PTO in the Feb 04 issue of PTOToday magazine (look for the Treasurer's Column).
And $25 really isn't anything at all when you're talking about getting a new year started. I've heard of many PTO's starting with $2-5,000 and up so they don't have to hit the parents up for fundraising as the first PTO activity of the year. But I digress...
As far as managing one PTO account for 4 schools, it's more work than managing one entity, but I'm sure it can be done. I've used Quicken on my home computer for PTO, and MS Money and Quickbooks are other systems some PTOs use. The biggest headache I foresee is deciding how much money each school gets, but if your groups already have a policy in place, your job is fairly straightforward.
Look over the procedures and financial controls your past treasurer used. His/her experience should prove very valuable. I'm a big fan of paper trails for every financial transaction. Especially in your unique situation, I would encourage you to use control forms for every reimubursement request, deposit, check request, and miscellaneous charge. You can see an example of control forms in the Useful Resources section of this website.
I am the new treasurer for the 2004-2005 school year and I have a couple concerns. The outgoing board has decided that instead of closing the books for the old school year (last day of school is tomorrow) they want to give us 25.00 to open a new account and they will finish using the money in the old account that hasn't been spent yet. There reason was they want to make sure that the money goes where it was designated to go. One of the unique things about our PTO is we have 1 PTO for all four schools in the district. K-2, 3-5, 6-8, & 9-12. Out of the fundraisers the money is beening split 4 ways with each school getting about 3900.00. Any suggestions?
