Several of us veterans have been thru a PTO embezzlement. Not fun.

Having two signatures required on checks is one of the most basic anti-theft practices. It makes it harder for a person to embezzle by writing bogus checks from the PTO account.

Be aware that many banks will not ENFORCE this policy(but you don't need to let every know this). Getting two signatures is often a standard practice. And then in the year-end-audit, it's one of the things the auditor or audit committee look for. So any check that only had one signature would get closer scrutiny and the failure to follow the policy (if it is your policy) would get included in the report.

The bank our PTO recently transferred to won't allow two signatures. (I forgot the reason, but they were still the best choice in our situation.) Anyway, the Board felt very strongly about this measure, so we have that one set up where the treasurer keeps the books and writes all the checks but doesn't have signing authority. He gives them to one of the co-presidents to sign. So it keeps the same principal of two authorized officers involved in the cutting of any checks.

Note - while safegarding the checkbook is certainly important, cash is still the easiest way to steal from the PTO. It's critical to have good policies there like two people counting all cash, only specified people handling cash, reconciling records for what should have been deposited with what actually got to the bank, etc.

[ 08-18-2005, 07:01 PM: Message edited by: JHB ]

I think I am going to have to investigate why it has been done like this in the past. Can you elaborate on what happened with your group?

Critter, thanks for the reply. How long have you been doing this? Anyway, lucky for me, I will have the last treasurer helping me along this year.
Our checkbook is like a personal checkbook that requires only one signature. But there are 2 authorized signers (in our case the VP and myself). We have a large fundraiser at the beginning of the school year that kind of provides our "budget" for most of the year. We have a couple of small fundraisers as well. As far as I know, at this point, only one or two requests have been turned down (for things that just weren't reasonable or needed). The other thing about our school is that we are a charter and don't always get the support from the school district that we need. So we try to budget for big ticket items as we can. Last year we were able to complete funds for a gym curtain so more than one thing could go on in that large space. The other thing we wanted to do was pave a parking lot that was a mud pit. We were hoping for the school district to pay for part and in the end that didn't happen so we had to settle for gravel (which was a huge improvement).

You're right, Rocky, you don't want to be put into the business of shopping for the teachers. Your PTO is providing the $, not the leg work (in my opinion). The teacher should only come to you with a check request (so she can mail the order form or pay a completed invoice), or with a reimbursement request (to pay her back). There may be extenuating circumstances when you take a more active role, but I certainly wouldn't start the year that way.

Just curious, how does your PTO plan for future purchases if you can be hit with a $ request right before a meeting? Do you have a limit per request, or a certain amount of slush money you use for this sort of request? Does is ever get sticky or political? I'm a big advocate of budgeting but I know other PTO's (like yours) operate differently. Just wondering how it works.

One more thing...it's extremely important to have two signers on EVERY PTO check. This way, no one person controls the $ and at least two officers are approving every disbursement. That said, it's best to have three authorized signers so you can always track down another signer. We use the Prez, Trez, and VP. If you are writing a check to yourself, for a reimbursement for example, the Prez and VP will sign that check, not you.

If you're new to the job and don't have good support from last year's treasurer, I encourage you to order the Treasurer's Toolkit from this website. It's $40 for tons of advice, instructions, samples, etc. Not biased or anything, but I know the manual well.

[ 08-17-2005, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: Critter ]

Our bank also had forms on hand. At least two people need to be on the account. Two members from our PTO steering committee volunteered-- the treasurer and the vice president. I will ask those who served in the past if there was anything different.

Our bank had forms that anyone on the account had to fill out. The information they asked of the members was Name, Address, Occupation, Home & Work #, previous address, SSN-just the normal stuff. We have to all fill it out again when there are changes.