At the AGM, the bowls club had three versions of the year. The deposit account showed the green renovation fund growing. The current account showed subs coming in and the spending on mowers and insurance going out. The tea float, kept in a biscuit tin behind the bar, had a total written on the back of an envelope that matched neither. Nobody could say why the figures disagreed by a few hundred pounds, and the treasurer, who had inherited the job in March, spent the meeting apologising for numbers she had not yet worked out.
If your club runs two bank accounts and a float, you will recognise that meeting. This piece is about keeping one cash book that holds all of it together, so the committee sees one picture rather than three.
Why one cash book per account, with a single set of funds across them
It is tempting to keep a separate spreadsheet for each account. That works until the committee asks how much of the total is restricted to the renovation fund and how much is general. Then you are adding figures from three places and hoping they agree.
A better structure is one cash book with a line for each bank account and a single list of funds. Every receipt and payment is recorded once, against an account and against a fund. The deposit account holds the renovation money, and the current account holds subs and day-to-day spending. The float is treated as a holding place with its own balance. Because every line belongs to both an account and a fund, the committee can see balance per account and balance per fund side by side, and the two totals should agree.
This matters most when a fund spans accounts. If subs raised for the renovation are paid into the current account, they belong to the renovation fund even though they sit in a different bank. One cash book keeps that link visible.
Walking through the monthly routine
Build a fixed routine and run it on the same evening each month. For most volunteer treasurers, that is one evening after the statements arrive.
First, tick each bank statement line against the cash book, account by account. Start with the current account, because it usually has the most lines. Any line on the statement that is not in the cash book needs an entry. Any line in the cash book that is not on the statement needs checking, because it may be a cheque not yet cleared or a typing error.
Second, count the float. Count it at the same time each month, ideally when the cash is banked, and write down the figure before anything else happens to it. The count should match the float balance in the cash book. If it does not, record the difference as a float variance with a short note, rather than quietly changing a figure.
Third, record transfers between accounts. When £500 moves from the current account to the deposit account, it is not income for the club and it is not spending. It is a transfer. Record it as money leaving one account and arriving in the other, with the same description and date on both sides. Do the same for money moved into the float to make change, and for cash banked from the float into the current account.
Finish by checking the closing balance of each account against its bank statement. If the figures agree, put a date and your initials against the reconciliation so the next person can see it was done.
The common slip: a transfer counted twice
The most common error with two accounts is a transfer entered as income in one account and never as spending in the other. It usually happens when someone sees money arrive in the deposit account on a statement and records it as a receipt, without checking where it came from.
Suppose £1,000 moves from the current account to the deposit account. If it is recorded as income in the deposit account, but the matching outflow is never entered in the current account, the report has two problems. Income is overstated by £1,000, because the club did not receive that money from anyone outside. The current account balance in the cash book is also out by £1,000, because the bank has gone down and the book has not. Both sides of the report are now wrong, and the difference is easy to miss because each account looks reasonable on its own.
The fix is to treat every movement between accounts as a transfer with two lines, one out and one in. If you find an old entry that looks like this, correct both accounts and note the correction. Do not simply delete the income line, because the committee may already have seen the figure in a previous report.
Keeping the float honest
A float is cash held for a purpose, usually tea, raffle change or bar change. It is not spending until it is spent, and it is not income until it is banked. Keeping it accurate needs three simple rules.
Decide who holds it. One named person should hold the float at any time, and the name should be written in the handover list. If the float passes between people, record each handover with the count at that moment.
Count it the same way every time. Count it in front of a second person where you can, and write the total on the same sheet or record every month. Keep the count separate from the sales takings, so that the float balance is not confused with cash received on the day.
Record top-ups and banking as transfers. Money taken from the current account to put in the float is a transfer from the current account to the float. Cash taken from the float to bank is a transfer back. Sales received in cash on a Saturday are a receipt against the relevant fund. That way the float balance is always a figure you can check against the tin.
What the committee report should show
The committee does not need every line of the cash book. It needs a short statement that proves the books are whole. For each bank account, show the balance per the cash book and the balance per the bank statement at the same date. For each fund, show the balance. Then show the reconciling difference, which should be nil.
If the difference is not nil, say so and say what it is. A cheque not yet cleared is a normal reason for a small difference, and the report should list it. A figure that cannot be explained should be flagged to the committee rather than hidden. A report that shows a nil difference and a clear list of any timing items is far more useful than a glossy summary that nobody can check.
Where your club has a constitution or grant conditions that require particular reporting, check those first. For the general reporting duties of your organisation, look at Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI guidance as appropriate. This is general information for volunteer treasurers, not accounting advice.
How Vasker handles it
Vasker is bookkeeping for unpaid treasurers of clubs, charities, PTAs and similar groups. The cash book needs an internet connection, so this is not offline bookkeeping. On the Free plan you get a starter cash book with one fund, which is enough to try the routine on a single account. Standard, at £59 a year, gives full books and reports, which is what a club with several funds and two accounts usually needs for balance per account and balance per fund side by side. Plus, at £119 a year, adds the Gift Aid and GASDS claim tools and examiner access if your club also claims relief or has an independent examination.
Vasker is listed by HMRC as commercial software for filing Gift Aid and charity repayment claims online through Charities Online. HMRC does not endorse or approve any software supplier. Check the HMRC list page for the current position.
Handover note
When your term ends, the next treasurer should not discover a forgotten account in month three. Write a one-page handover that lists:
- every bank account, with the bank, the account name and the last four digits of the account number
- every fund and what it is for
- the float, who holds it, and where the tin is kept
- who holds the bank logins and who signs
- the date of the last reconciliation and the balance at that date
- any timing items still open, such as uncleared cheques
Keep a copy with the cash book and tell the chair where it is. A handover that takes an hour to write saves a weekend of detective work later.
A three-evening check
You can test all of this on your own books this month. Give yourself three evenings.
On the first evening, list every bank account and float your club has, including any account nobody uses any more. Pull the statements for the last three months and tick every line against the cash book for the current account. Note anything unexplained.
On the second evening, count the float and compare it with the cash book. Find every transfer between accounts over the same period and check that it appears twice, once out and once in. Look for any money that was recorded as income in one account with no matching outflow in the other.
On the third evening, produce balance per account and balance per fund as at the same date. Check the reconciling difference is nil, or that every difference has a named, explained cause. Write a short paragraph for the committee and put the date against the reconciliation.
If you want to run this in Vasker, start free: create your organisation from Sign up in a few minutes. There is no sales call and no setup fee. Enter one account first, so you can see how the cash book handles a transfer before you add the rest.