You tell her the same thing you've told us. It's inappropriate for anyone, president or otherwise, to overspend a budgeted expense. She doesn't have that authority, bylaws or none. The point of having a budget is to have a plan, a road-map that directs the group's financial activity. Ultimately, your bylaws should stipulate the rules for budgeting and spending (ex: who is responsible for preparing the annual budget, what procedures are necessary for reimbursement, who signs checks, what authority-if any-the exec board has to override a budget, etc.). In the meantime, good financial controls have to guide your PTO. That means no one gets reimbursed unless the expenditure has been properly approved. Checks are to be signed by TWO authorized signers and backed up wtih a complete paper trail. Deposits are counted by two people. The treasurer makes an open and complete report every month. And more.
Maybe your president is simply new to the role, or doesn't understand how important good financial controls are. Or maybe she's trying to build an empire for herself. In either case, your new PTO needs some PTO 101 to stay on track. As a new treasurer, you might want to consider buying a copy of PTOToday's Treasurer's Manual. You can reference it as the impartial 3rd party "authority" for your job that might help your fellow officers understand the financial issues better. I think there's also a guide book for PTO leaders (check the store part of this site).
I am a first time treasurer, and have some interesting questions. Mind you, I was asked by the Principal to take this position as I am a full charge bookkeeper and maintain the books for Condo Assoc's etc.
We are a small PTO with a school enrollemnt of +/- 500. We have no By-Law's in place currently. Our Pres. has wrote some for our review and I strongly disagree with almost 90% of it. They are giving him/her the ability to micro-manage every aspect of our group.
I encourged and created our first budget, which was approved at the first meeting. I felt this would take a lot of the questioning out of spending. However, it appears to be bitting us back. Our Pres. has been the only person spending the money almost. The Pres. recently requested a reimbursment check of over $1,000. Which went over the annual budgeted funds for one program and code other expenses (mostly holiday decorating) to the "School Improvement" account. During our November meeting nothing was discussed or approved spending for holiday decorating.
My questions:
1) How do I approach this topic with our Pres. Our VP and I are unhappy with the Pres. decision to spend funds alotted to School Improvements. I feel having By-Law's would help, but how do we define the spending of budgeted funds, etc.
2) The Pres. wants to have acess to the check book and be a signer, the VP and I do not feel that is wise. Currently the Principal and I are the only signers and it works well. I am at the school daily and offer reimbusement within a 2-3 day turnaround at the most.
