The position of treasurer seems straightforward enough — manage the organization’s financials. But what does this entail? It’s not just about crunching the numbers. As treasurer, you are the gatekeeper of the organization’s finances, ensuring that money is used ethically and as prescribed by procedures.

Your creation of budgets and providing financial insight will be vital to your group’s decision-making process. You must have the ability to be a voice of reason while remaining open-minded during discussions involving the use of organizational funds.

The surface-level characteristics of a treasurer involve having basic math and organizational skills, dedicated time to give to your position, and personal satisfaction in the work.

Did you catch that last part? Well, it’s quite important!  One concern I hear over and over from treasurers is that “I wasn’t given direction from the last treasurer” or “my organization’s financial history is a wreck! The very few records we do have are in complete disarray.”

There’s nothing like starting off the semester on the wrong foot, especially since the beginning of the semester can set the mood for the rest of your term as treasurer.

No matter if your predecessor left you with an organized gold mine of information or a loose shoebox of random receipts, I’ve provided you with this guide to help you become a GREAT treasurer (or Chief Financial Officer… or whatever bougie name your group bestowed you with). Because I believe in order for you to have satisfaction in your work, you need to be good at it.

Connect With the Previous Treasurer

First and foremost, you need to meet one-on-one with the former treasurer at least twice. This will give you a chance to get a handle on the current financial state of affairs of the organization.

If you haven’t already, you’ll want to formally introduce yourself as quickly as possible. Once that’s squared away, we recommend that you shadow the Treasurer while they are still in office. That’ll give you a chance to learn from the Treasurer the normal duties that are expected, as well as give you a chance to review the past budget.

Once you’ve started to grasp the day-to-day of the position, you should work with the previous Treasurer to transfer over access to the organization’s bank account, credit/debit cards, bookkeeping software (Quickbooks, Greek Bill), etc, as well as review the timeline and process for collecting dues and how to handle the problems that arise from problem members not paying dues.

Another good tip is to keep the contact information of the past Treasurer and consider arranging a mentor-mentee relationship for the next semester, so you have extra support during your first few months.

Understanding Your Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a Treasurer stretch far beyond the basic duties prescribed in the bylaws of your organization. You’ll find in life that most things worth doing are best when they have a series of values behind them.

You’ll be the primary signatory on financial accounts, meaning that you’ll most likely be signing off on a majority of any checks, authorizing purchases, and working with the bank as needed. 

Depending on the size of your organization, you could very well be the Chairwoman of the Finance Committee! Larger organizations, that have a high volume of transactions, or that are looking to free up some of the burdens of the Treasurer position will create a Finance Committee, which acts to review budgets, expenses, etc.

Managing the Cash Flow of Your Organization 

Just like with any business, your student organization has its own cash flow. The organization makes revenue via:

• membership dues
• grants
• fundraising
• donations
• and/or university funding

which will be spent on organizational activities:

• room rentals
• food for meetings
• flights and boardings for speakers
• equipment  
• etc.

As manager of the organization’s cash flow, it’s your responsibility to ensure that money is to being made and spent wisely. If there is ever any talk about money, you should apart of the conversation.  

Collecting Membership Dues

One of the sources of revenue we mentioned before is membership dues, the fees student pay in order to join the organization. As the manager of cash flow, you should be in charge of collecting payments and maintaining the accounts of or a list of active members.

Preparing Budgets and Reports 

To ensure that your organization’s spending is realistic compared to your organization’s revenue, you need to develop a semester-based budget with your fellow officers. Each officer and committee should submit, in advance, their projected expenses to the Treasurer. While this doesn’t mean that you should be building the entire budget yourself, it’ll be your job to compile these all together for a review by the Executive Council, or with the entire organization, to decide which expenses should make it into the upcoming budget.

As the Treasurer, you’ll have to endure collecting dues from all members, and sitting down with members that are past due, and depending on your bylaws, set up payment plans, or let them know they’ll be unable to attend future events.

Throughout the year, as members and officers request funds for particular events and services, it’s up to you to ensure that each transaction is in the budget and supporting the overall goal of the organization.

Along with this, at each meeting, or at least once a month, you should generate a report on the current standing of the organization. Depending on your organization’s size, that could be a simple report of how the budget looks, and the current bank account balance. For a larger organization, that could mean compiling a Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, and other corporate-style reports. 

Typically, with larger organizations, they’ll employ accounting software such as QuickBooks to track income and expenses, which can generate reports on the fly with ease, rather than generating the reports manually.

These reports should be given to the Executive Council and depending on your organization, a summarized version for members, for transparency. At the end of the academic year, your school and/or governing body might require financial reports on how the year was spent financially.

If you’ve read our guide on Charging Dues, one of the ways that you can generate income for your organization is through SGA (Student Government Association) funding. At some schools, their student governing bodies are able to allocate funds to organizations totaling up to 30% of their annual income!

While it sounds fantastic, and it is, there are typically tight restrictions about what the funds can be used for, and deadlines on when they all have to be used by. There are also typically several forms that need to be filled out, such as Purchase Orders, Requisition Forms, etc. Usually, it’s the job of the Treasurer to fill out these forms since the purchases should be going through them in the first place.

When bills come up, it’s the Treasurer’s job to make sure that they’re valid, and that they get paid. This can mean tracking monthly/annual subscription fees, utility bills, etc.

Maintaining Records

Another role that Treasurers are expected to fulfill is keeping track of the financial records of the organization. Along with generating monthly reports of the organization’s standing, the Treasurer should be tracking the organization’s income and expenses frequently. 

At least once a month, ideally every other week, depending on how often your organization meets, you should be updating the Budget based on the income and expenditures the organization is incurring. You should also read through each transaction, making sure that no one has been using the organization’s funds inappropriately, or that a member didn’t overpay on dues.

As members are making purchases on behalf of the organization, you’ll want to keep track of all receipts, ideally in a digital format, to ensure ease of transition between officers each year, and to help prevent the wear and tear experienced by paper receipts.

Maintaining Equipment/Asset

Sometimes Treasurers are also expected to keep an inventory of all the equipment, and it’s condition, of the organization. Depending on how your organization handles this duty, it could also be expected of another officer, or a committee to handle.

Inventory checks should be done periodically to ensure that the condition of equipment hasn’t deteriorated and that it hasn’t gone missing.

What do you think?

While this is a basic outline of treasurer responsibilities, you should check with your bylaws and president what your official duties as treasurer are.

Does your organization have other duties for the Treasurer than what we outlined here? Let us know in the comments!