It's in your best interest to have the books reviewed before you take office (to ensure you're accepting clean books and to resolve any issues before they become your problem) and after you leave office (to prove you did a good job), and heck, every year even if you stay on. It doesn't need to be a paid, legal audit, but it should be done. Basically, the review would verify that the account(s) has been reconciled regularly, that the transactions have been posted properly, and that all transactions have been approved according to your PTO's rules (ex: substantiated with receipts and two signatures). We use a volunteer parent who is not a check signer, many PTO's use a small committee. And, yes, it's a great idea to put this in your bylaws.
There's an audit guide on the Bonus Tools page here.
I am new this PTO, (with several yrs exp. in PTA) and am treasurer this year ... we do not have an auditor! Our By-laws do not mention audits at all, do we have to have one?
We've used a volunteer auditor, who does the review on her own time. Typically that means over the course of a couple of weeks during the summer. However, we don't use the treasurer to do the review. You need to get the materials from her and complete the review yourself so the new treasurer can get moving. She (past trez) may just be too busy, this is low on her priority list since she's out of office, and maybe she's embarrassed if she kept messy records. Don't get mad at her, just be persistent.
Our audit committee consists of at least three people that are not involved with handling the funds. The treasurer is not included on the committee, but is there to participate if a question arises, and of course, responsible to have all of the paperwork for the group to review. The process of checking the bank statements, reviewing receipts, confirming the balance with the bank, etc, takes 3 hours. We have a quite large budget of more than $25,000 and write a lot of checks. But, three hours does the job. When the audit committee is satisfied, they sign off on the audit and balance and the books, checkbook, etc, are immediately turned over to the new treasurer.
Is there an average time for an audit to be completed after the end of a fiscal year? Our former treasurer has stopped communicating with me on the status of the audit. Our new treasurer cannot take office until the audit is completed and approved by the board. The fiscal year ended June 30, all other officers changed over July 1. We still have no idea of the status of our books for the coming year; no idea if there's any money in the account at all. I thought it might be helpful to have an idea of how long it takes to turn around an audit so that our new board can take action (in the form of certified letter) if necessary. Thanks.
