I served as treasurer and I can tell you that you MUST take control of this situation. Our by-laws stated that all designated monies was to be handled by the treasurer. This was NOT happening. We had three accounts and chairpeople handled two of them while I handled one. Clearly in direct violation of the by-laws. I questioned this at the end of the year when it was time for the audit because everybody and their brother was making banking transactions and one time money was put in the wrong account and I had no idea where it was. And I WAS THE TRESURER! It was absolutely ridiculous. I was told that I was ONLY treasurer of the pto and not the other two accounts---sunshine club and 5th grade account. They also said that these were SEPARATE accounts and DID NOT belong to the pto therefore, I had no right to them. This logic was outrageous. There was alot of trouble because of this. I was instructed by our president to change account numbers on all three accounts and to move one of them from the bank is was currently housed at and to put it in the bank where the other two already existed. I did this under her instructions which I also felt was the correct thing to do. I was actually thrown out of office because I dared to handle the other two accounts--accounts which were clearly NOT in our by-laws. These parents even wanted separate officers for these accounts. My head still hurts from banging my head off the wall. My advice is don't let them tell you how to do your job. Stay on top of things because ultimately YOU are treasurer and if anything happes it's your head on a platter. It's amazing how parents think they can tell you what to do even when it clearly goes in direction violation of your by-laws.
I could go on and on about financial controls (that's how I have 600+ posts!), but suffice it to say you're on the right track. No, you should not be kept out of the loop. No, you should not be satisfied with the abominable record-keeping of the past. No, you should not let your past treasurer or president "train" you. Your group needs a wake-up call on responsible financial management.
LUV gave you some great suggestions. You can get even more ideas and specific tools in the PTOToday Treasurer Toolkit manual available from this website. There are also loads of posts on this discussion forum that you could share wtih the other officers to help them see your group has been too lax in the past. Don't get discouraged - all your officers, not just you the treasurer, should be anxious to tighten up the system. You are all responsible for protecting the PTO's money. Good luck!
Do you have by-laws? Money handling and treasurer's duties should be covered in your by-laws. If that's not the case, I wouldn't point fingers I would just come to the next meeting with a set of rules for the handling of money(two people count it), deposits, bookkeeping and audits. Our treasurer handles all deposits except on the rare occasion that she has a work conflict then the Prez or Fundraising VP does it. She keeps detailed records of deposits and expenses broken down by each event. Any reimbursements require a receipt and a completed reimbursement form(it's on this site). We also do an audit every summer. We use an independent auditor who volunteers her services(we still give her a gift). The treasurer turns over the books and all bank statements,and check logs. The auditor also files our taxes for us. Not keeping a good handle on your finances just leaves you wide open for problems such as embezzlement and tax issues, plus it makes it very difficult to plan your year without seeing what worked and didn't work in the previous year.
I'm a bit miffed at our Old PTA Committee.
I took over the position of PTA Treasurer last spring and received the books in mid summer and when I asked for an audit to make sure the books were correct I was told to take the balance and start from there since the school bookeeper had no time for this stuff.
Now, I have gone thru the books with some of the board members and NOTHING jives. When I approached the old Treasurer she states she was given money and told to deposit it in the PTA account. She has no record of what it was for and some people who were not on the board were making deposits and never turning in deposit reciepts.
At our first PTA meeting the old PTA President sat there looking like ha ha this is funny and all the New Board Members looked absolutley stupid for the fact they had no clue how much was made on what last year.
I just want to point fingers at the next meeting and let everyone know this was NOT my fault.
Already, this year we have a team of moms who just did a fundraisier and I never made one deposit or saw the money. Is this how this works? What do I do? I am almost sorry I said yes to this position.
Our school has 1500 (k-8) kids in it and we do a fundraiser once every 6 weeks.
