New Treasurer in fall says this budget is not legal(?) and cannot use last years money in present years budget. Many questions on what can be done with money.
Just as a reminder to folks new to this thread, the treasurer's interpretation here is completely off-base. It's perfectly fine to use moneys from a previous year in current year budget.
I'm still confused, but it sounds like you've had $10k wiped off the face of your earth. Were last year's books audited? If not, now would be a good time to do that. And throw in an audit for the first half of this school year while you're at it.
If an audit was done for last year, and confirmed there was an extra $10k sitting in your cash accounts, and now it's not there, something is definitely wrong. sak also raises some excellent questions that need to be answered.
Why is it illegal to use last year's funds in this year's budget? Did the treasurer explain? If there is no longer a surplus in the books, where has the money been placed? How many assets, other than cash, does your group have which would allow the treasurer to "redistribute" the funds? When you explain that not all the money is in yet from the last fundraiser, do you mean it wasn't put in the balance statement or that the PTO hasn't received it all yet? I am not a person with a financial background but I sit on a board for a not for profit organization. Your last post raised a lot of questions in my mind. Does the leadership of your parent group know exactly where this money is, if not listed in your cash account?
I'll try to be breif.
Last years fundraising exceded expectatations by around ten thousand dollars. GREAT!!!
Treasurer at that time includes this money in the next years budget proposal.
New Treasurer in fall says this budget is not legal(?) and cannot use last years money in present years budget. Many questions on what can be done with money.
The next month Treasurer presents cash balance to show surplus never really existed, but fundraisers have not all been held yet and not all funds for the fundraiser that had been held were in.
JHB is right on cash v. accrual, but, just so no one is confused, it's not like you can pick and choose from month to month or from event to event which method you would like to use (or actually even from year to year--if you're big enough to file with the IRS, you need to get their approval to change your accounting method--once you start with one method, you need to have a good reason to switch to the other).
My suggestion (beyond what has already been posted) would be to reimburse teachers for out of pocket expenses next year. Divide the money by how many teachers you have (don't forget non-teachers who also spend their own money like the school nurse) and tell them that as long as they spend it on their classrooms and provide receipts they can get up to X-amount reimbursed. This way you know you already have the money to cover the beginning of the year.
You could also spend it on an All School Event. I personally like the Arts, so I would look into having an Artist in Residence program or something like that. Maybe you could have an All School Dance and/or dinner. Gosh, the possibilities are endless.
Good Luck!
P.S. This post originated 11/10/03. I'm kind of curious... What did your group do?
