It is usually at the end of a committee meeting that runs long. Someone hands you a bank card, a cash tin with a lid that does not quite shut and a lever-arch file, and says the books are probably fine. Then they go home, and you are left with a month before the committee expects a figure.
What follows is a routine you can work through in four weeks, one job a week. It assumes nothing about your software. It works the same whether you keep the cash book in a spreadsheet, on paper or in an online tool.
Rules differ by organisation type. A village hall run as an unincorporated association, a charitable incorporated organisation and a community group with a constitution each have their own duties. Check your governing document first. If you are a registered charity, use the guidance from the regulator for your part of the UK: the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland or CCNI in Northern Ireland. This is general information, not legal or accounting advice.
Week one: find out what you have
Do not open the cash book yet. Spend the first week working out what exists and where it is kept. Collect:
- the last three or four bank statements
- the most recent signed set of accounts, or the last year-end figures the committee approved
- the constitution or governing document
- any Gift Aid declarations on file, if your group is a registered charity or community amateur sports club
- the list of people who can sign for the bank account
If your group has a Charities Online login, find out who holds it and whether the password is still known. If the previous treasurer took it with them, ask the chair how access is recovered before you need it. Gift Aid is only available to certain registered organisations, so if your group is not one of them, do not spend your first month on it.
Put everything you find into one short list with dates against it. That list becomes the first page of your handover file later.
Week two: set the opening balance
The cash book starts from one known figure. Choose a date, usually the last day of the month before you took over or the closing date of a bank statement. Write down the bank balance on that date exactly as the statement shows it. Count the cash tin on the same day and record that figure separately.
The opening balance is what the organisation actually held on that date, not what you think it should be. If a cheque was written before that date and has not cleared, note it as outstanding rather than adjusting the bank figure. Keep the notes short. You are establishing a starting point the committee can trust, not auditing the past.
Then decide your funds. Most small groups start with one general fund. If someone has given money for a particular purpose, such as a grant for the roof or a lottery award for new kitchen equipment, that money belongs in its own fund. Keep it out of general funds so the committee can see at a glance what is free to spend and what is tied up. Restricted money that is mixed in with everything else is one of the most common reasons a treasurer cannot answer a simple question at the AGM.
Week three: record the last quarter and tick the bank
Enter the transactions from the statements for the last three months. Go line by line. For each entry, tick it against the matching line on the bank statement. When the ticks match the statement balance, you have reconciled that period.
When a transaction on the statement does not match anything you have recorded, do not guess. Put it in a separate line marked as unidentified, with the date and amount. Then trace it. Check the paying-in slips, ask the hall bookings secretary who paid for the Saturday, or contact the payer if you have their details. Some items will remain unidentified after a few days of looking. That is acceptable, provided you have written them down and told the committee they exist.
A reconciliation that reaches zero difference because you forced a figure to fit is worse than one that shows a small unexplained sum with a clear note against it.
Week four: the one-page note for the committee
The committee does not need the ledger. They need one page they will read before the meeting. Keep it to:
- the bank and cash balances at the opening date and at today
- each fund, with its balance
- what is owed to the group, such as hall hire arrears or a grant instalment not yet received
- what is due, such as an insurance renewal, a utility bill or a grant report deadline
- any unidentified items, with a line saying what you are doing about them
Write it in plain sentences. If a number needs explaining, explain it in one line. Finish with the one question you need the committee to answer, if there is one. A page like this tends to get read, and a page like this tends to prevent the same question coming back every month.
Where Vasker fits
Vasker is bookkeeping and Gift Aid software for unpaid treasurers of clubs, charities, PTAs, Scout groups, CASCs and village halls. You do not need it to follow the routine above. A spreadsheet can hold the cash book if that is what your group already uses.
If you want the cash book, the members and the reports in one place, the plans are:
- Free (£0): a starter cash book with one fund
- Standard (£59 a year): full books, members, subscriptions, reports and grant matching
- Plus (£119 a year): Gift Aid and GASDS claim tooling, with examiner access tooling
If the roof grant has to sit in its own fund beside your general money, check the plan details before you choose, because the Free plan gives you one fund. There is no sales call and no setup fee. You set up the organisation in a few minutes from the sign-up page. The cash book needs a connection to work, so it is not an offline tool.
When you are ready to start the cash book, Create your free account and enter your opening balance from week two.
Leave a note for your successor from day one
You will not be the treasurer for ever, and the person who takes over will not have been in the room for any of this. Start a running note on day one. Record where the bank logins are kept, who can sign, what each fund is for, the list of unidentified items and the dates the committee needs figures. Add to it at the end of each month.
By the time your term ends, the handover is half done. The successor opens a file that says what the books were on a known date, what has happened since, and what still needs an answer. That is the difference between inheriting a shoebox and inheriting a set of books.