Sports Club Officers Training Day Programme

1
Organising Accounts and Collecting Money

• Sports Club OfficersTraining Day Programme
• Saturday 23rd October 2004

Diarmuid Cahill
2
The Treasurer should have the following materials
when starting their post.

• Last years financial statements
• Accounts book
• Calculator
• Money box
• Registration forms
• Membership cards
• Diary to schedule all the organisations
  activities.
• Details of companies that you will need to use
  during the year
• - i.e. Coach hire companies, clothing companies
  etc

3
Keeping your own Accounts Records

• The club Treasurer is responsible for keeping and
  maintaining his/her own financial records, which
  should be checked regularly with the finance
  statement, which can be got from the finance
  office.
• Keeping your own records helps you keep the
  committee and members of your club informed of
  the financial position.
• The treasurer should always ensure that the
  records are up to date and in good order. If
  he/she is run over by a truck, purged from the
  club or otherwise unable to continue as
  treasurer, someone else will have to take over.
  Your successor will need to be able to understand
  what the job involves and be aware of your
  actions up to date.
• It is also important to note that the Union
  Executive and Staff from the University have the
  right to see the clubs books. If they are not up
  to date or are in a mess then funding could
  either be frozen or withdrawn for that club.

4
Book-Keeping

• Keeping good books is not hard, it's simply a
  matter of following some basic guidelines. A
  cheap pocket calculator and some simple
  stationary is all you need to start your books.
• It is not necessary to keep mammoth books to keep
  good records. A simple multiple column ruled
  book will suffice.
• Two separate sets of entries should be maintained
  in separate sections of the book
• cash inwards or receipts
• cash outwards or payments.
• An easy way is to start cash in at the
  beginning of the book and cash out at the
  middle. You can devise headings and columns to
  suit your clubs/societies own purposes. The
  headings should be devised in such a way as to
  provide a breakdown of the main forms of income
  and expenditure.

5

• The main thing to remember is that the book
  should be an easy to read an accurate guide to
  where money has come from and gone.
• Always fill in all the relevant columns, add
  them up at the end of each page and enter them at
  the top of the next page. Also check that they
  balance with each other.

6
Guidelines for keeping your books

• The golden rule of accounting is to keep
  everything up to date. Mistakes and errors occur
  when things begin to get left behind. If any
  queries arise you, have more chance of
  remembering details if the transaction was a
  recent one.
• Bank all monies with the finance office
  immediately it is received, payment of all
  accounts (except petty cash items) is by cheque
  or order form , as this gives you an independent
  record if any payment query arises. Under NO
  circumstances should a club make a payment by
  cash in hand.
• A receipt should be issued immediately for all
  moneys received, showing exactly what the money
  was for. Use general receipt books available
  from the students union shop and use them for
  any cash received from social events, membership
  fees, subscriptions, T-shirts etc.
• Always enter the payees name and a brief
  explanation. This helps provide complete
  documentation of all expenditure. Always obtain
  a receipt.

7
Bank Reconciliation

• The make or break time for the Treasurer as a
  top-flight financial wizard comes when you get
  your monthly or three monthly statement (which
  you have to ask for). Through a simple process
  of reconciliation you can discover if your
  records are accurate, if someones got their hand
  in the till, money put into the wrong account or
  if the clubs/societies finance statements are
  incorrect. It is a simple process of working out
  your financial statement as shown in your books
  and making sure that it is the same as your
  club/society accounts statement suggests.
• Outstanding orders, cheques and credits must, of
  course, be accounted for.

8
To perform the reconciliation

• Mark off on the statement all the cheques that
  have been presented for payment, verifying that
  the amount is correct and that all the details
  have been correctly recorded on the cheque stub
  and in the payments ledger. Mark all the cheque
  stubs that have had their corresponding cheque
  presented for payment.
• Go through your cheque stubs and note all cheques
  that are not marked. These are yet to be
  presented and should have their number and amount
  entered in the unpresented column on the back of
  the bank statement.
• Perform a similar process with credits, noting
  any that have not yet been credited at the bank
  in the appropriate columns.
• By adding up these figures you should be able to
  balance your book position with your bank
  statement position.

9
End of year financial Report

• By the end of October, each year your club has to
  present financial reports (along with the clubs
  annual report) to the students union and
  University for auditing and for working out
  your grant for this year.
• The aim of a financial report is to inform club
  members of the results of activities since the
  period of the last report as well as the Students
  union and the University. In doing this the
  Treasurer should aim to produce a logical,
  concise, informative and accurate statement.
• Most financial reports take the following format
• Statement of cash as per book (i.e. Payments and
  receipts at time of last report).
• Summary of receipts since last report, note
  amount and source of each receipt.
• Summary of all expenditure since last report -
  note amount and reason for each expenditure.
• List of accounts received but as yet unpaid (if
  any).
• The balance and receipts are totalled. From this
  total the expenditure and unpaid accounts are
  subtracted to reveal the true financial position
  (i.e. a reconciliation)

10

• Reports should not be too lengthy. There should
  be enough detail to satisfy the purpose of the
  report. It is a good practice to keep separate
  budgets for social activities and any other
  special club activities. This allows those
  planning activities at some future date to refer
  to a complete budget for guidance, rather than
  trying to dissect it from your cash journal.

11
Financial Liability

• It is of vital importance that finances are
  handled responsibly. You should carefully note
  the following points
• Any agreements made with persons or bodies
  outside the University must be taken down in
  writing.
• You should not make a verbal agreement with a
  supplier at any time. Explain that you have to
  take it back to a committee and get an order
  form. If they want your business they will
  understand.
• Any decisions to make these agreements must be
  discussed and agreed at the appropriate committee
  meeting.
• Payment will not be issued unless there is
  sufficient funds in the clubs account to cover
  them. This is another reason for keeping the
  books accurate and up to date.
• If a committee member makes a contract with a
  supplier but there is no prior approval from the
  committee, then the person who made the contract
  is personally liable.
• If, at any time, you wish to check your record
  against that on the computer, then the finance
  office should be able to give you a computer
  printout straight away, for year to date or for
  the last month.

12
Items to note for when running your accounts

• All expenditure should be agreed by the committee
  and duly minuted.
• If you draw out a float for a social event you
  will need to make sure that you remember to
  subtract it from your income at the end of the
  night. If you are purchasing goods with cash
  make sure that you get receipts, and these and
  any change left over are passed back to the
  finance office. It is important that you get
  receipts for auditing purposes.
• You are likely to receive a significant amount of
  income during the year if you are an active club
  and society. Membership fees will usually be
  paid in cash. Receipts should be issued to all
  those who take out membership and copies of these
  receipts along with the cash (and cheques)
  received should be lodged with the finance
  office.
• If you are holding a social event in the evening,
  then it will be difficult to lodge your takings
  with the finance office. If holding the event in
  the students union until the next day. Two
  committee members should count up the money and
  check against ticket sales. The totals should be
  recorded and both committee members should sign
  that this is an accurate record before the
  takings are passed over (this should also be done
  at other venues). Only in the last resort should
  money be taken of the premises to a committee
  members home.

13

• Remember you may have overhead costs for
  activities such as trips and social events.
  These will include such things as ticket sales,
  venue hire, coach hire etc. You need to plan the
  costs of these into your event. All overhead
  costs should be reported to the committee before
  the final decision is made to go ahead with the
  activity.
• When receiving cheques please make sure the
  cheque has clearly the club/societies name, dated
  and signed.
• Equipment costs are normally covered at the
  beginning of the year as part of the bids clubs.
• The amount of funds on hand at any time is
  information readily available from the finance
  office. This is useful for decision making at
  meetings and allows for maximum utilisation of
  club funds
• A record of all transactions allows the cost of
  any activity to be determined and helps in
  forward planning
• Overspending and misappropriation of club funds
  can be detected, allowing subsequent action to be
  taken by the club, and the students union and
  the University.

14
Taking care of yourself

• Record keeping is particularly important when you
  are raising money. Keep photocopies of receipts
  and invoices so you can show expenditure.
• Use the Unions banking facilities dont take
  risks keeping money at home or in a personal
  account! Special accounts can be set up on
  request and safety deposit facilities can be set
  up for evening events or collections.
• Be careful! Make sure there is more than one
  person selling tickets on the door and pair up
  people for bucket collections, counting and
  banking money.
• But most of allmake sure you take time to enjoy
  it!