We have co-treasurers at our school. One who writes the checks and deposits the money and one who keeps the books and reconciles the bank account. By having two, it lessens the workload on each and helps keep that checks and balance in place. We count money together from major fundraisers before it's deposited. We both are allowed to sign checks in case of emergency or if one is traveling but separating the job functions has been really good for us.

Wowzers! Those are things that I never even thought of. We have a VERY tight hold on things in our PTO and I am thankful for that! Since we are a private institution connected to the Diocease, we were only able to get a checking account through the Diocease. EVERYTHING runs through the Parish accountant EACH month. The bank statement goes directly to her, and the treasurer surrenders the checkbook register once a month to make sure that it all "adds up".

Thankfully we have never had any issues.

I think it's a better idea to not have the treasurer sign the checks. It is a good accounting practice to have the purchasing, signing and record keeping functions separate. This reduces the possiblity of inappropriate use of funds.

We don't even get check images back. We have to go online to view them. The statement is sent to the school and the president opens it, reviews, and initials before the Treasurer takes it for reconciation. Yes, it would be better for a non-signer to open it, but since all you are looking at is a vague list of check numbers and amounts (no check images), it wouldn't mean much to the outsider. I look for any really odd amounts, or a high number of checks in the month, and definately for any withdrawls against the account. It woudl be way better to see check images becuase you can look for altered amounts or forged signatures, but we chose not to pay the extra fee for that service. We have other financial controls in place that help reduce our risk such as 2-signatures, full paper trails for each check, monthly reconciation, monthly treasuers report, etc. Tim makes a great point: the more financial controls follow, the less likely anyone will be tempted to abuse your PTO's funds. My favorite Treasurer mantra: Trust is Not a Safeguard.

in our case we have a statement sent to the school Via fax, one statement to the Treasurer and then online banking. this way the President, secretary and the treasurer all the right to have them.
i hope this helps

Ah -- well, in our case, we don't get the checks back: we get photocopies, eight to a page, so it's not so easy to just take out 2 or 3. If the checks did come back singly, I'd think the person reviewing the statement would still think it odd that check #299 was missing, but the statement showed it had been debited during that month.