Financial Procedures

Reasons for distribution of financial responsibility:

1) There are enough transactions and work that I would like to have someone help. I do get behind sometimes and it gets messy.

2) We are handling enough money that I am concerned about cash handling. Standard cash handling procedure requires that at least three people to independently verify cash amounts, enter information, and make deposits.

3) I am concerned about conflict of interest. Although I am completely prepared for any level of scrutiny, the appearance that I and Ladyfish have complete control of the money is unavoidable. I would like to be more transparent, and have others able to answer questions about Sagacity's books.

4) Backup in case of hardware/software/human failure or fire flood or earthquake.

5) It will be great to have someone else with accounting experience. I may sound like I know what I'm doing, but I am really good at faking it.

My take on the division of labour is this:

Cashier:

Claudia will continue to be the cashier, with the help of Liana and Cris. Claudia will complete the daily ledger with transactions she is aware of from her dealings with meetings, sales, and tickets. All receipts for reimbursement will go through Claudia and be entered in the blue book.

Bookkeeper:

Precious will handle bookkeeping, which involves making all entries in the financial system, including weekly entries from the blue ledger completed by Claudia, entries from the bank statements and online banking (interest, bank charges and debit card expenses she does not have receipts for), and any other revenue or expenses that we submit. She will also generate reports as required and reconcile the bank statement every month.

This position requires a significant amount of discretion, and the person must be aware the all of the information is highly confidential.

Treasurer:

I will verify the cash count of the cashier at meetings, make bank deposits, keep and use the bank card for purchases, verify statements and reconiliation. As treasurer I will report on the statements to the core, and answer questions about them. Ladyfish and I receive and approve cheques from donors. I will prepare the budget and ensure that we stay on track. I will approve changes to the General Ledger. I and Ladyfish sign cheques. It is my job and ultimate responsibility to make sure that financial matters are correct.

It may be necessary at some point to hire an outside bookkeeper who is not involved in Sagacity in any way and who does this for a living. Our budgeted intention this year is to do $45,000 worth of business, and that's getting pretty big. There are some places (GST issues, for example) where I would like help.

Fisherman