The Treasurer’s Role
A treasurer should be honest, competent and confident in handling money and keeping simple accounts.
Recording income and expenditure in the bookkeeping system of the group/organisation is very important. It should be done regularly and given sufficient time. The rest of the trustees will need to be confident that proper records are being kept, so that any mistrust or misunderstanding is avoided.
The actual day to day work may be delegated to a bookkeeper, especially in larger organisations. However, the treasurer will still have overall responsibility for supervising this work and ensuring that financial procedures are being followed, as well as presenting financial reports to the trustees.
The treasurer will have a number of responsibilities and will need to receive support from the other committee members, so that they don’t feel isolated in their work. Other committee members may need to receive training on financial matters and the systems that are used. This will not only help them in providing support to the treasurer, but will also provide some security in case the treasurer becomes ill or leaves suddenly.
Larger groups/organisations will often have a finance sub-committee to share the responsibilities of the treasurer.
Responsibilities
The treasurer has a number of responsibilities in overseeing the finances of the organisation and needs to ensure that:
• finances are properly handled in accordance with the organisation’s objectives
• there are written financial procedures and that they are actually followed
• there is an adequate financial recording and control system in use
• up-to-date records of the finances are kept
• everyone who handles money records all their transactions
• written reports are made to the management committee/trustees, at least once a quarter
• information needed for the year end accounts is prepared
• the accounts have an audit or independent examination, as required by the Charities Act 1993
• a financial report is presented at the AGM
• a budget is produced and monitored throughout the year against actual income and expenditure
The role is a serious one and can be complicated in terms of keeping track of all the money of the organisation, not to mention time-consuming. However, if the job is done well it can be very satisfying.
Responsibility for financial management
Although the treasurer is the person delegated to take responsibility for the finances, ultimately it is the whole committee/board of trustees who have responsibility for the financial matters of the organisation, not just the treasurer; so the treasurer’s role is to act as the go-between, between what is happening financially in the organisation and the committee. If a bad financial decision is made by the organisation, and debts are run up, it is the committee that is ultimately liable for those debts.
It follows from this that it is crucial that the treasurer:-
• has a good grasp of the organisation’s finances,
• makes sure that all financial tasks that should be done are done, and
• keeps the committee up-to-date with financial information.
Size of the organisation
The actual tasks that the treasurer undertakes will vary from organisation to organisation according to the size of the organisation, and whether there are any paid staff with specific financial responsibilities.
In many small organisations the treasurer may undertake all the financial tasks, from working out the salaries each month, to paying income into the bank, to producing reports for the committee.
In medium sized organisations the manager or a paid bookkeeper may be employed to do some of the day to day work of entering transactions into the books, whilst the treasurer takes responsibility for reporting to the committee, dealing with the auditor etc.
In the biggest organisations with perhaps a full-time paid finance manager or even a finance department, the treasurer’s tasks will be different again; he or she will do none of the day to day financial tasks and may not even present the financial report to the committee; but he or she should have an excellent overview of the financial planning and management of the organisation and should be in regular contact with the paid officer to discuss major financial decisions, and regularly review all financial information.
So it follows from this that no one treasurer’s job will be the same; the important thing is to have a complete list of all the financial tasks that need doing in your organisation, and to be absolutely clear about who does what, so that no task falls between two stools. The following is a list of all the tasks that may need doing, broken down into areas. It’s a good idea to work through this, and to put initials against each task that is applicable to your organisation, so that everyone knows who is responsible for that particular task.
Choosing /Finding a Treasurer
It is often difficult to find anyone willing to be treasurer; one of the reasons for this may be because the person does not know quite what they are letting themselves in for; however if you have been through the checklist above, and allocated tasks that paid workers will do, and crossed out any tasks that are not applicable to your organisation, you should be able to produce a reasonable ‘job description’ for the treasurer. If someone is willing to do the job but needs some training, find some resources to provide training. If the current treasurer is planning on standing down, then try to appoint someone to shadow them until they leave.
Mafaz Ansari is the Community Accountancy Adviser for Kingston, Richmond and Hounslow. She can provide expert advice to groups including one-to-one support, management accounts, project accounting and financial health checks.
Contact Mafaz on 07879 335390 or communityaccountant@richmondcvs.org.uk
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