It is the first Monday of term. You have the bank statement, a float tin with a bit of change in it, and a folder from last year that says things like "tuck shop" and "raffle??" with no totals. Nobody has told you which money is for the class trip and which is for the playground appeal. The first event is in three weeks.
This is the most useful time to get the books into shape. Last year's labels will not fix themselves, but you can set up a clean start in an evening or two and keep it simple enough that the next treasurer can follow it. This guide covers the first half-term only: setting up, the first fortnight of records, and the first committee report. The termly routine and event cash have their own guides.
Set up one cash book and a short list of funds before the first event
You need one cash book. That is the single record of every pound that comes in or goes out, with a date, a description, an amount and the fund it belongs to. A spreadsheet can do this, and so can a dedicated tool. What matters is that there is one place, not three.
Then decide your funds. For most parent teacher association (PTA) groups, three is plenty to start:
- General: the everyday money for running the PTA, such as printing, insurance and small purchases.
- Class trip: money raised or given for a specific trip, to be spent on that trip.
- Playground appeal: money raised for a named project.
The second and third are where you need to think about restricted funds. A restricted fund is money that can only be spent on the purpose it was given or raised for. If parents gave money on the understanding that it was for the playground, it should not quietly pay for the summer disco. Check your constitution and any committee minutes that set these purposes. If the wording is unclear, ask the committee to minute what the fund is for. That note will save a difficult conversation later.
Opening balances matter too. Work out what is in the bank on the day you take over, and what is in the float tin. Split the opening balance across your funds, based on the best evidence you have. If the split is a guess, say so in the notes. A rough, honest opening position is better than a precise one nobody can check.
Agree who counts cash, who banks it and what gets written down
Most of the errors in a PTA's books happen on the night of an event, not in the spreadsheet afterwards. The fix is a routine that two people follow every time.
A plain two-person routine works well:
- Two named people count the cash together, at a table, before anyone leaves. Both sign or initial a short count sheet with the total.
- The count sheet shows the opening float, the money taken, and the closing total. The difference should be zero, or it should be written down with a reason.
- The money goes to the bank within a set period, such as the next working day. The person who banks it keeps the paying-in slip.
- The count sheet and the paying-in slip are both filed, and the total goes into the cash book against the right fund.
Write this routine down in one paragraph and put it in the committee minutes. Then the next volunteer who runs the tuck shop knows what to do without asking you.
Decide too what goes on the receipt. If someone pays £4 for a cake, you need a record that says what it was for, which fund it belongs to and who took the money. A printed or handwritten receipt book, or a simple form, is enough. Keep the copies.
Tick the bank in the first fortnight
In the first two weeks of term, do one thing before anything else: tick the bank statement against the cash book. Go line by line. Every credit on the statement should match a line in your cash book, and every debit should too. Anything that does not match goes on a short list of questions.
This is called bank reconciliation, and it is the habit that keeps the books honest. It does not need to be done every day, but it should be done at least monthly, and it is much easier when you start early in the year than when you are trying to untangle six months at the year-end.
Keep your receipts and paying-in slips by month, in a labelled folder or envelope. January's receipts go in January's envelope, even if they are messy. You will be grateful for this when the committee asks where a figure came from, or when the examiner asks for the supporting paperwork at the end of the year.
If the cash book needs to be open on a phone or laptop, remember that Vasker needs a connection to work. It is not an offline tool. If you are sitting in a school hall with no signal, write the figures on the count sheet and enter them when you are back online.
Produce a one-page committee report
The first committee meeting after the first event is where your books start to matter to other people. The committee does not need a full set of accounts. It needs a one-page report it can understand in five minutes. Three figures per fund are enough:
- Money in since the start of the year
- Money out since the start of the year
- Balance at the date of the report
Put these in a simple table, one row per fund, with a total at the bottom. Add a sentence or two on anything unusual, such as a cheque not yet cleared or a payment you are waiting on an invoice for.
The balance should match the bank, once you allow for uncleared items. If it does not, say why in the report. A committee that sees a small, explained difference will trust the figures far more than one that is told everything is perfect.
Keep a copy of each report with the minutes. Over time, these reports become the record of how the money moved, which is exactly what the next treasurer and the examiner will ask for.
Where the Free plan fits and where Standard adds to it
If you are starting from a shoebox and a spreadsheet, you may want a tool that keeps the cash book, the funds and the reports in one place. Vasker has a Free plan at £0 that gives you a starter cash book with one fund. That is enough to try the routine above with a single general fund while you decide how the other funds should work. You can create the organisation from Sign up in a few minutes. There is no sales call and no setup fee.
The Standard plan at £59 a year adds full books, reports and grant matching. If your PTA has a class trip fund, a playground appeal and a general fund, and you want the committee report to come out of the cash book rather than being typed up by hand, Standard is the plan built for that. Grant matching helps if you are tracking money against a funder's conditions.
If your PTA is a registered charity and you are thinking about Gift Aid, that is a separate question and is covered by different rules. Gift Aid is general information only, not tax advice, and you should check current HMRC guidance before you act on any of it.
What to keep for the examiner and the next treasurer
Your records need to outlast your term. Keep the cash book, the bank statements, the count sheets, paying-in slips, receipts and committee reports together for each year. Store them somewhere the next treasurer can find them, and note where they are in the handover.
For the examiner, the most useful things are a clear cash book by fund, bank reconciliations for each month, and the supporting paperwork for anything large or unusual. For the next treasurer, add a short note: the funds and what each is for, who does the cash count, where the bank logins are kept, and what is still open. A handover pack that is written down is worth more than a good memory.
You do not need to be an accountant to do this well. You need a single cash book, a routine that two people follow, a monthly bank tick and a one-page report the committee can read. Set those up in the first half-term and the rest of the year is far easier.