Fiscal responsibility - Troop or Pack money

[hot_foot_eagle]

I would like to get a feel how other units handle Troop or Pack monies. In my opinion, my Pack has been rather relaxed about fiscal matters, and I'd like to tighten things up some to reduce the possibility or appearance of any impropriety.

 

For what its worth, I don't believe anything funny has gone on, but I'd like to have formal procedures in place for the future.

 

I'm going to start out by recruiting a scout parent (who is a CPA) as a second party on the Pack checking account. We've been operating off a single-signature check to date.

 

Are financial reports something to share with everybody (parents), whether they're interested or not, or should I reserve them for the Pack Committee and anyone interested enough to ask?

 

How detailed a budget do other Packs and Troops prepare?

 

If we just had $20 in the account, I suppose it wouldn't be such a big deal, but we sell a world of popcorn and the balance can be substantial - for a medium sized Pack, anyway. What else should I /can I do?

 

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

(This message has been edited by hot_foot_eagle)

[FScouter]

The Cub Scout Leader book has a good discussion on pack finances, developed after years of experience with what works and what doesn't.

[ScoutNut]

First of all, as Cubmaster, the fiscal responsibility of the Pack is not really your responsibility. It is the responsibility of the Pack's Committee Chair and Treasurer, as is recruiting folks to be co-signers on the Pack's checking account.

 

Typically, if a Pack requires 2 signatures on a check (a good policy), those signatures will be the Treasurer & CC (with the CM being the alternate if the check is being issued to either the Treas. or CC themselves). It is a good idea if the CC, CM & Treas. are all unrelated.

 

The unit Treasurer should be keeping accurate, up to date records. A financial statement of some kind should be presented at every Committee meeting, or at least after every big event. It is a good practice to hand out a financial statement to Pack families at least once a year. Either the first or last Pack meeting of the school year works well.

 

Every Pack differs in how detailed their budget is. Some have everything in writing down to the smallest detail. My Pack does not do a formal, written budget. We look at what we earned last year, what we spent, how much we had left, which activities worked, which didn't, how many boys we had/have, and if we want to add/remove any events. With that info we lay out our calendar for the year & decide on what our popcorn goal per Scout will be. Depending on how we actually do with our popcorn sale, we adjust extra activities as needed during the year.

[infoscouter]

I've gone so far as to draw up a chart of accounts for my pack - but people tell me I tend toward being obsessive. We don't really use it, but it does serve as a general outline of where our funds come from, and how they are allocated.

 

The BSA has a new budget form for packs:

http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/packbudget/index.html

You can download the spreadsheet from this cite and plug in your own numbers.

[John-in-KC]

First, what ScoutNut said.

 

Second: A Pack belongs to a Chartered Partner. IMO, it's a good thing, at tax time every year, to close out the books and offer them to the Chartered Partner for review. In many cases, State and local tax exemptions for Scout units come from the exemptions of the Chartered Partner.

 

Books should be in such shape a parent can ask for status of funds for Billy on any given day, and get it within a workweek. Again, that is a personal opinion, not a prescriptive.

[Tami the Mom]

I would caution against making your bank balance too openly public. Or at least do it in a controlled way. Not that you should keep it secret - never keep it secret. Just when you do disclose what your financial situation is, make sure parents know where the "extra" money will be going. We've had issues in our pack with parents who learn we have $300 in our account and wonder why we are selling pizza kits. Hmmmm.... could it be that we spent nearly $200 every time we do awards, and her den earns a lot of awards every month? Or maybe charter is due in 2 months and it will cost us $1000. Unless parents know why you have to build some bank, they see a dollar figure and decide they don't need to contribute any more.

[Lisabob]

Excellent point, Tami. If you're going to disclose your budget, disclose enough details so people understand the bigger picture. I'd also encourage you to disclose how and where their dues money is being used. A lot of people - especially at the cub level where many parents are new to scouts - wrongly assume that the basic registration fees all go to the pack. In fact, that money is going off to national and does nothing to support the pack in any direct sense.

[Gunny2862]

I's encourage making sure that my CO knew what was going on financially with a monthly report, the same report going to the committee, and a copy available for any parent that asks.

But that is an excellent idea ensuring that the parents who do ask get the whole story about rechartering fees, awards costs, any special activities, camp fees, etc.

 

Any organization that is accountable to those who donate funds is being foolish (IMHO) if they do not use a two person signature(treasurer and one other or any two others but the treasurer holds the check book) or at least one check holder who can't sign but accounts for the amounts written by others (who only get the check from the check holder for a specific purchase).

 

I'm also in favor of a petty cash amount for the Cubmaster to utilize, you should be able to look at past expenditures and set a reasonable amount, but they should also be able to account for funds spent from this budget item before getting a new draw.

 

In our troop we often spend our own money, turn in the recipt and are then reimbursed by the treasurer for legitimate troop expenses. When you front your own money and know you are going to have go give an explanation of why this is a troop purchase, then you tend to be more careful about what you buy{and ensure that another troop leader thinks the troop needs it also} just in case the ruling on reimbursement goes against you.( I don't know of anyone ever being turned down for reimbursement yet in our troop.)