I am the treasurer of our PTO and we have forms to fill out with receipts attached. Our Bylaws also require that two Executive Board members co-sign all checks. I have forms (Thank You to another member of this forum, Critter, for sending them on to me-they have been a great help!) and a finance information sheet that are handed out to Committee Chairs at a meeting in October. Please contact me if you would like me to e-mail the forms in an attachment in Word.

Our Bylaws require that receipts accompany all reimbursements or check requests. In addition, you must turn in a reimbursement request within 45 days of the purchase, or the request is denied. I know that doesn't exactly address your specific problem (ughhhh!!), but it might be a policy worth considering next school year.

If your president can't produce receipts for thousands of dollars of purchases, maybe the committee chairpeople could vouch for what was purchased. I'd hate to assume she was doing something dishonest, but while you investigate, you'll probably want to institute some controls that ensure this "confusion" won't happen again. In fact, your auditor may have recommended proper controls that your PTO should adopt.

Receipts are a must! It is our policy that we have to have them. If we give let's say $400.00 dollars to the guy in charge of buying gym equipment then he has to bring us all the receipts showing that he what he bought. If someone were not to give them then I would say pay up! All the board memebers could be held responsible.

One of my duties last year was treasurer. First rule You keep all receipts, I adopted a moto from a friend that was in banking CYB (cover your Butt). I kept everything, have just now thrown away the envelopes where people had sent mony into us lol. I think if it was us and this happened, this person would be told to either come up with receipts proving that the money was spent on the items she stated they were, or she replaces the money. I defiantly would fight her being president, and the "friend that signed the blanks would also be held responsible for replacing the money.
As for someone signing my name to a check, especially without my permission, that is forgery and would be a great big problem for me. Our bank doesn't send our canceled checks back anymore but they do send a copy of them with each statement. So the new treasurer that is doing an audit should see the signatures. If pushed all three of these people could be in very hot water.

That sounds scary! Do you think the money was really spent on the PTO??? I think there might be a rule about keeping reciepts!I am the new president I was the secretary last year. The last years president often admitted to signing my name on checks. She never asked, but just signed it. I always felt wierd about it. Our old treasurer was really flaky so the president ended up also running the money. I know she is a honest person though. Who is doing the audit? I know our incoming treasurer is going to do an internal audit! But I don't know if she will see the signitures on the checks, and I feel wierd about bringing it up!!

[ 07-20-2002: Message edited by: chic*mom ]</p>

After our PTO Treasurer was audited, it came to light that she had a board member co-signer (best friend) sign blank checks for her. These checks were used by the treasurer at local retail stores. She has no receipts to prove what she bought is related to PTO expenses, except a few of the checks have a note on the memo line such as Carnival, etc.(we are talking in the thousands). She claims those were School related expenses. By the way she is the new President, since this and other stuff was not known at election time what can we do if anything?