Every September the new committee meets, and someone asks for the figures. The outgoing treasurer has already moved on to their own children or their own life. What you have is a cash tin, a bank card, and a spreadsheet with tabs called "Misc" and "Fair final v2". Nobody has explained which tab is current.
That is the normal state of a PTA handover. It does not have to stay that way. A few hours of written notes and one proper sit-down will save you a term of guesswork.
Why the handover goes wrong in September
Most PTA treasurers serve a year or two and never planned to be treasurer at all. The job passes on informally, often at the end of a meeting or by email. The outgoing person assumes you know where things are. You assume they will be around to ask.
The result is usually the same. The bank mandate is out of date, the Gift Aid records sit on someone's laptop, and the summer fair money is mixed in with the general account. The committee then asks why the balance does not match the last report, and nobody can answer quickly.
The fix is not complicated. The outgoing treasurer writes down what they know, and the incoming treasurer collects the paper trail and the access details before the first committee meeting.
What the outgoing treasurer should write down
Ask the outgoing treasurer for a short note, one or two sides of paper, covering these points:
- Bank mandate and signatories. Which bank accounts the PTA holds, who is named on each, and who can sign or approve payments. Note any signatory who has left the school or the committee but is still on the mandate.
- Gift Aid and GASDS records. Who holds the Gift Aid declarations, where they are kept, and whether any claim has been sent. If the PTA collects small cash donations, say how they are recorded. GASDS means the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. Check HMRC guidance for whether your PTA can claim at all, because that depends on its status.
- Restricted funds. Money raised for a named purpose, such as the summer fair, a playground appeal or a book fund, should be listed separately. If a donor or a fundraising event tied money to a purpose, record that purpose. Do not let it drift into general spending.
- What is still owed or unpaid. Outstanding invoices, deposits not yet refunded, unpaid supplier bills, and any pledges that have not come in. Also note any money owed to the PTA, such as ticket sales not yet banked.
Keep the note short. The aim is a map, not a full history.
The paper trail to hand over
The incoming treasurer needs evidence, not just a summary. Collect the following before the handover meeting:
- The last year's income and expenditure summary, with the previous year beside it if there is one. Committees usually ask about the change from last year first.
- Bank statements for the full year, or at least from the start of the last financial year to the date of handover.
- Receipts, invoices and cash counting sheets for the year. A shoebox is fine if the contents are sorted by month.
- The independent examiner's report, if the PTA has one. Many PTAs do not, and that is common. If yours does, hand it over with the letter of engagement and any notes on points the examiner raised.
Keep copies, not only originals. Store them somewhere the committee can reach. Records of Gift Aid and receipts should be kept for at least six years, as HMRC expects. Check HMRC guidance for the exact rules that apply to your records.
Logins and access
This is where handovers quietly fail. A bank app or an online account tied to a personal email address means the PTA cannot manage its own money when that person leaves.
Before the handover, list every login the PTA uses:
- The bank. Who is the online user, and is the account set up with the PTA's own email address or a personal one?
- Charities Online, if the PTA is a registered charity and uses HMRC's service for Gift Aid. Check whether the account is held by the PTA, and who knows its password.
- Government Gateway, which is the sign-in used for some HMRC services. A PTA should use its own Government Gateway login rather than an individual's personal one, so the record stays with the organisation.
- Any cash book, spreadsheet or cloud storage where the records live.
For each login, record who holds it, what the recovery email or phone number is, and where the password is kept. Store passwords in a password manager or a sealed envelope held by the chair, not in an email to a personal address. The PTA's own login should always be the one used, not a personal one.
Vasker does not store Government Gateway passwords. Sender IDs and passwords are typed only at claim submission and then discarded. That does not change your responsibility to keep the PTA's own access details safe.
A handover checklist the committee can minute
A short checklist makes the handover visible to the committee. Ask the chair to minute it. The list can be as simple as this:
- Outgoing treasurer's handover note received and read.
- Bank accounts and signatories confirmed, with mandate changes sent to the bank.
- Gift Aid and GASDS records located, and the status of any claim noted.
- Restricted funds listed with their purposes.
- Outstanding payments and money owed recorded.
- Paper trail collected: income and expenditure, bank statements, receipts, examiner's report if held.
- Logins transferred to the PTA's own accounts and recovery details updated.
- Handover meeting held on a fixed date, with both treasurers present.
Put the date of the joint sit-down in the minutes. A handover meeting held in the first week of the term tends to happen. One that is "sorted out sometime" usually does not.
Keeping opening balances intact with Vasker
If you keep the cash book in Vasker, the handover can be a pack rather than a conversation about spreadsheets. Vasker offers a treasurer handover ZIP, which bundles the records a new treasurer needs into a single file. It is a copy of the data, not a replacement for the paper trail above.
Vasker also has a year-end balance snapshot. It records the closing balance at the year-end and does not rewrite the opening balances of the next year. The mechanism is simple: the closing figure becomes the starting point for the new year, and the old figure is kept as it was. The incoming treasurer can see what the balance was and why it moved, rather than wondering whether a number changed after the report was signed off.
Vasker is a web app. It has App Store and Google Play clients, and you can install it as a PWA. The cash book needs a connection to work, so do not plan to keep it offline on a trip to the fair.
If you want the next handover to be a pack the next volunteer can open, create your free account and set up the cash book now. The first steps take a few minutes and there is no sales call.
Check your PTA's status first
A PTA may be a registered charity, a group that is part of a school, or an unregistered group with no separate legal status. The rules that apply to the accounts, the committee and the records depend on which it is. Before you rely on any of the steps above, check current guidance from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, or the relevant regulator for your nation, and check HMRC guidance on Gift Aid and GASDS for your PTA's situation.
This is general information for volunteer treasurers. It is not tax advice or legal advice. If the PTA's position is unclear, ask the chair to check with the school, the regulator or a qualified adviser before the next year-end.