As orders come in we have two people go through them. Each envelope is opened and money counted. Since there is always some type of "contest" we need to track by individual orders and by home room. So we just add a bit more information. Childs name, phone, total amount of order (This way phone calls can be made before we even put in the order if there is an error) and if all the money is there. On the order form itself we mark next to each $ amount if it was cash (C) or check (CK). We have always had a copy of the order form for ourselves, so that makes this possible. Mind you we do not get that many orders so this is feasible for us.
We accept and envelope of assorted checks and cash from each child. (We think it would be unfair to put the students' family in the role of banker. We have many low-income families, some don't even have checking account.) Unfortunately, bounced checks are part of the cost of doing business. We do send the check writer letters and add service fees. We don't get too many, and I guess we haven't had a big problem matching it with a name on an order form. But you make a good point. Perhaps our checkers should verify that the check name matches the (individual) order name and make a notation if it doesn't.
I have a ? When you do your fund raisers and the orders come back, do you ask for one check for the total order or do you accept checks from Great Aunt Tilly and Aunt Jane and total them all under the kids name. We had a problem last year when a check bounced and we couldn't figure out which student's order it belonged to? Any comments would be appreciated.
i am definitely with you on the decision to take tracking and accountability very seriously. right now, i'm actually trying to convince my fundraising chairman that there is value in tracking and double
accountability. i have received mixed responses to my new spreadsheets and pivot tables.
i believe that people's time is valuable. i feel that way about mine, so i want to be able to assure them that their time will be, and has been spent in a profitable and worthwhile manner for our children. my hope is that recorded data will also help the pto better determine the true value of any future endeavor.
Our big fundraiser is a Fall catalog sale. Last year the revenues were $41,000. The sale comes with its own order forms, so we haven't had to create any additional forms.
However, since there is closing date, we do get hit with all of it at once (except for the late stuff that trickles in.)
The sealed envelopes (one per student) are kept under lock and key the day of closing. Then we have a crew of volunteers set up with calculators that afternoon. The total on each order form is verified, as is the cash/checks that came with it. The batch is subtotalled per class. Each of these steps is performed twice, once each by two different people.
We list all the checks on a spreadsheet and prepare the deposit that night.
We don't actually verify the accuracy of the item prices (to the catalog)as that would take impossibly long and the catalog company will notify us of those discrepancies.
We could tell cash versus checks from the deposit slips, and we can get data about the orders from the company if we wanted. But we haven't found any need to keep detailed statistics beyond the usual stuff.
No your not crazy...I also have tons of paperwork when we are doing a fundraiser. The way I choose to do things is I as the President collect all the order forms and cash, I then check each form to make sure the money sent matches the order. For each package I receive I make a running list of the students name and the amount of $ sent and if it was cash or check and check #. I then give the treasurer the cash and a copy of my tally list so she can count everything and make sure I didn't screw up. During the fundraiser I collect the money everyday so we aren't bombarded to bad at the end...
