I agree the FY should end in June or even July.
Ours is August 31st and school opens Sept. 1st. Doesn't leave much time for a new exec. board to get the correct information and process it. I am changing the bylaws on that one. I am doing all this planning as new Pres. and yet feel out of control with no access to money or info.

Originally posted by Melissa Constantine:

Being the anal, detail-oriented person that I am

Isn't that the only way to be a good treasurer?

Our fiscal year runs July1-June 31. It is spelled out very clearly in our bylaws. I still have a very hard time explaining that to people. You are probably right to close it out on an appropriate date, then ammend the bylaws so that it is done the same way each year.

As far as I can tell, we have never done an audit. And I know for sure that we don't file any returns. One of my goals this year is to find out what our status with the IRS is and start filing returns. Truly...I am not even sure where to begin. *UGH*

Our fiscal year runs Aug 1-July 31. We elect our new officers in May, but they don't officially take over until Aug 1. The summer is supposed to be spent in transition, but most officers with the exception of treasurer transition soon after elections.

Our audit is usually done in late July/early August becuase all of our financial activity is finished, even though the FY hasn't ended yet. If the auditor already has the rest of the files, we'll send her the July bank statement as soon as it arrives. Our former treasurer is supposed to be the liaison for the audit since she is the one being audited. She should also assist with the Form 990EZ, since it covers her year, and technically she can start working on the form on August 1. However, in reality the new treasurer does it (based on our FY, it's due to the IRS by Dec 15).

Is it practical to make your FY coincide with the date your officers take over? It's probably best to have it end after school is out: June 30 or July 31, so you can get the financial activity closed before you do your audit. We rarely have any bills outstanding at FYend - we manage our activity so it's all paid by then. We just feel it's cleaner that way.

I just had this discussion with our treasurer. We are doing our year-end audit, but our actual IRS fiscal year is September 1 - August 31. We elect our new board in June, so the new treasurer inherits the books in June, has to close them out, and then has to file the taxes for the previous year. Makes no sense to me but that's the way it has always been done even though it's not in our by-laws that way. Most years the old treasurer actually closes the books and helps file the taxes, but if they decided to just walk away they can.

OK...this may seem strange, but how do your fiscal years run? I just inherited the Treasurer's job, and I have the records for the previous 3 years. Here is my problem.

Our fiscal year is NOT spelled out in our by-laws, and it seems that none of the previous year's records end at the same time. One year has some June entries at "year end", and one year has May entries at "year end", and one year has July entries at "year end". Now...I fully understand that sometimes bills for one year don't come in until the next year begins, but these aren't marked as previous year entries. *SIGH*

I am the third treasurer in the past 3 years, and I am thinking that the new f/y began when the books were handed over. Being the anal, detail-oriented person that I am, I cannot accept that. I guess what we need to do is just set a cut-off date this year and keep it that from here on out. And amend the by-laws to spell it out, of course.

Anyway, I am curious as to when your year ends and when it begins.