It is July. The outgoing treasurer's youngest is leaving Year 6, and the new committee meets in September. The new treasurer has been sent a bank card, a spreadsheet called "PTA accounts FINAL 2" and a text that says "it's all in there". There are no notes on which payments are still waiting to clear, where the float tin lives, or what the school was promised for the playground.
This is a common way for a parent teacher association (PTA) to lose a year. The books are rarely wrong. What is missing is the context that tells the next person which numbers are settled and which are not. This piece sets out what a PTA treasurer handover should cover, in what order, and how to do it in one evening rather than over six weeks of emails.
What a PTA treasurer needs to hand over
Start with the bank. The next treasurer needs to know who the signatories are today, who is leaving the mandate, and who is joining it. Most banks will want a form or a letter signed by the people on the mandate, so note the branch, the account name and the sort code in one place.
Then the cash book. Hand over the book to the last reconciled date, meaning the last date on which the bank statement and the book agree. Anything after that date is still open. Write the date at the top of the handover note and say which transactions after it are known, such as a cheque posted but not yet cleared.
Next, cash on hand. Count the float and any cash tin together, on the same evening, and record the figure with the date and both people's initials. A count that nobody witnessed is a count the committee will ask about later.
The last few items are the ones that cause most arguments:
- Event takings from the summer fair, the disco or the quiz night, with the sheets showing what was counted and who banked it.
- Outstanding payments that have been agreed but not yet paid, such as a supplier invoice for the school trip coach.
- Refunds promised but not yet sent, for example to a family who cancelled a ticket.
Write each of these down with a name next to it. If you do not know who promised the refund, say so. That is more useful to the next person than silence.
Restricted money a PTA often holds
Many PTAs hold money that is not free to spend on anything. A fund raised for a named playground, or a subsidy for a residential trip, is restricted. The committee agreed to use it for that purpose, and the next treasurer should not treat it as general money.
The practical test is simple. If someone asks what the money is for, the answer should be in the minutes or in a written donation note. Show restricted funds separately in the cash book, with their own balance, rather than netting them against general funds. Vasker's Free plan (£0) gives you a starter cash book with one fund, which is enough to show the general account on its own. Standard, at £59 a year, adds full books, members, subscriptions and reports, so the committee can read the position in one place.
Whatever you use, the handover note should list each restricted fund, its purpose as minuted, its current balance and any commitment already made against it.
Gift Aid and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS)
This section is general information, not tax advice. Check current HMRC guidance on Gift Aid and on the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS), including the rules on declarations, records and caps, before you rely on any of it.
For a PTA, the handover should answer four questions:
- Which Gift Aid declarations exist, and where are the paper or digital forms kept?
- Which donations were claimed in past years, and what do the claim records show?
- Are there any small cash donations, such as from a collecting tin at the gate, that might fall under GASDS?
- Where is the HMRC Charities Online login written down, and who holds the password?
Keep the password out of the cash book. Write down where the login is recorded and who the next treasurer should ask for it. Also note whether the organisation is registered for Gift Aid and whether the most recent claim was submitted and accepted. HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years, so the handover should say where past claims and declarations are held, not just the most recent ones.
A note on membership fees: a subscription does not automatically qualify for Gift Aid. Check the current HMRC rules on membership benefits before you assume a fee can be claimed.
A one-page handover checklist
The outgoing treasurer can fill this in over one evening. It does not need to be pretty.
- Bank: account name, sort code, account number, current signatories, date of last mandate change
- Cash book: last reconciled date, bank balance on that date, known items after it
- Float and cash tin: amount counted, date, two sets of initials
- Event takings: each event, date, amount banked, where the sheets are kept
- Outstanding payments: payee, amount, reason, who agreed it at committee
- Refunds owed: family or supplier, amount, promised date
- Restricted funds: fund name, minuted purpose, current balance, commitments
- Gift Aid: where declarations are kept, date of last claim, location of claim records
- HMRC Charities Online: where the login is recorded, who holds it
- Logins: email account for the PTA, bank app, shared drive, anything else the next person needs
- Contacts: school office, bank branch, the committee chair, the previous treasurer if they are willing to answer questions
Keep the paper with the cash book and file a copy with the minutes.
Changing signatories at the bank and telling the school and the committee
The bank will need the change made formally. Once the new mandate is in place, tell the school office in writing. Many schools hold PTA funds or handle payments through the school, so they need to know who to contact. Then take the change to a committee meeting and minute it. Record the date, the names of the outgoing and incoming signatories, and a line that the handover checklist was reviewed and signed by both treasurers.
A dated sign-off in the minutes is the cheapest protection the PTA has. If a question comes up in the following year, the minutes show what was handed over and when.
The same discipline works for a Scout group or a church, where treasurers also change hands mid-year. The pattern is identical: sign-off in writing, minuted, dated.
How the Vasker handover pack and balance snapshot keep the books intact
Vasker is a web app with an App Store and Google Play client and a PWA install. The cash book needs a connection to work, so plan the handover for a time when both treasurers can sign in. There is no offline bookkeeping.
When the year closes, Vasker's treasurer handover ZIP bundles the cash book, the reports and the notes into one file for the next person. The year-end balance snapshot records the closing position at a given date. It does not rewrite opening balances, so the next year starts from the figure the committee already saw, even if someone later corrects an entry in the current year. That matters because a handover that quietly changes last year's numbers is hard to explain to an examiner or a committee.
You can still do the handover with a spreadsheet and a checklist. The point is that the figures and the reasoning travel together.
The next treasurer should not have to guess
The old treasurer does not need to have been perfect. They need to have written down what they knew and where it lives. The new treasurer does not need to rebuild the books from a text message. They need a date, a balance, a list of what is still open, and a login they can actually reach.
If you are taking on the role this September, start with the checklist above and ask for a short handover meeting before the first committee. If you are keeping the books and want a clean record to hand over later, you can create your free account and set up a starter cash book with one fund at no cost. The Free plan is £0. Standard, at £59 a year, adds full books, members, subscriptions and reports. There is no sales call and no setup fee.