Critter,
a closer reading of what Roberts says will tell you that "...organizations whose finances are more involved, a double entry set of books may be advisable or required. Such a system should be set up with the assistance of an accountant and the report would normally consist of a balance sheet showing the society's assets, liabilities, and fund balance (or members' equity) as well as an income statement....Other statements may be included as needed, such a a statement of changes in members' equity, a statement of sources and application of funds, and a cash forecast. This system may be on a cash or accrual basis and will usually require review or audit by an accountant."
Roberts' suggests that the 4 things (that you mentioned) be included in the minutes and they are: 1. beginning balance
2. income 3. expenses and 4. ending balance.
Roberts Rules of Order will show you that a treasurer's report is simply Beginning Balance for the month, followed by a list of transactions In and Out, ending with the balance at month end. I find that virtually worthless as a treasurer's report. Someone very smart once told me the job of the treasurer is to provide information to support decison making. There's no way you can use the RRO report to support decision making. All it tells you is a snap shot today.
If your PTO budgets at the category level, you can create a Performance To Budget report instead of just a transaction report. The PTB report shows the budget, the actual to date, and the variance between budget & ATD for each category in your plan (both income and expense categories). You can use this type of report to make decisions, not just look at transactions.
For example, if you see that your Staff Appreciation budget has only $55 left, and it's December, you can ask the question, "How are we going to afford the annual spring luncheon?" Or if you see that the fundraiser is over and you have a positive variance of $500, you know you made $500 more than you expected, and you can discuss how to spend the extra money. Or if your Character Counts committee got a great deal on their awards and their budget still has $76 left, you can decide to reallocate that leftover money to another cagtegory (maybe to cover the shortfall in Staff Appreciation, for example). Or even if it's November, you can see that the spring Movie Night is going to cost you $250 to put on. PTB reports give you future visibility.
A Performance to Budget Treasurer's report can be created in excel or other spreadsheet. It's also the format that's integrated into PTO Today's Finance Manager system so you don't have to create it from scratch. I think Quicken might have a similar report, but I never got it to work just how I wanted.
If your PTO doesn't budget at the category level, I urge you to strongly consider starting to this year. Your plan doesn't have to have dozens and dozens of categories to be useful. If you really don't want to budget, then the only type of monthly report you can expect from your treasurer is a Roberts Rules style transaction report.
