Treasurer's Role With Records

A chapter's Bylaws should require that any expenditure of chapter funds for unusual or nonessential goods or services must be approved in advance by the Treasurer or Regent. The Treasurer should file, in order, invoices, statements, receipts, and vouchers, each showing the number of the check by which it was paid. Any for which the Treasurer cannot personally account should be signed by the member approving the charge. So far as possible, all expenditures should be made by a Theta Tau Chapter bank account check requiring the signature of one or two of these three: Treasurer, Regent, and Adviser. Checks received should promptly be restrictively endorsed, e.g., "Pay X Bank for Deposit Only." Even so, these checks and, of course, any cash should be deposited frequently so as to avoid loss or inconvenience in the event of theft. The extent of a chapter's financial transactions, the complexity of its headquarters operation, and possible requirements imposed by its university may affect the desirable style of financial record keeping.

The very minimum records required would include a general two-column (debit and credit) journal in which every receipt and expenditure is listed chronologically; a personal accounts ledger in which a loose leaf sheet is assigned to each member; a signed copy of each periodic report by the Treasurer; a signed copy of each Auditing Committee's report; check and deposit records; a file of cleared checks, and a file of invoices, vouchers, etc. If there are extensive transactions, separate multi-column receipts and expenditures ledgers may be useful in order to classify each entry according to budget category in which it belongs. More extensive records, and more sophisticated record keeping, may be desirable.

The journal might be a permanently bound volume in which a sample page might look as shown in Figure 2-1. The personal accounts ledger might be kept in a post-style binder divided into a student and an alumnus section with pages arranged alphabetically in each. A sample page might look as shown in Figure 2-2. Naturally, chapters may instead track such information electronically. The inexpensive nature, easy use, and extensive capabilities of current financial software packages makes this highly desireable.