You are a volunteer treasurer who is handed the books in a mess and they need to be fixed before you can continue. The community organisation accounts haven’t been audited for two years, some of the paperwork is missing, where do you start?? Here are the nine steps we suggest:-

  • If your organisation is affiliated with a peak body, ask them if they provide any support in this situation;
  • Contact the auditor to ask for guidance (they may even offer to provide some assistance in the process);
  • Talk to the main suppliers and ask for details of bills that have been paid during the period;
  • Get bank statements (& the cheque butts) for the period;
  • Sorting the invoices into date order may help to line them up with the payments on the bank statements;
  • The audited accounts from previous years might give some clues about he invoices paid in the missing years;
  • Whatever system you use for recording the transactions (please tell me it isn’t a paper cash book or a spreadsheet because that would add to the tedium), record all the items you can easily identify first, based on the source documents (bank statements, receipt book and cheque book if you have them), then fill in the blanks from your other research;
  • Reconcile each month to the bank statement as you identify the transactions; and
  • If you get completely stumped, ask the auditor for guidance. They might be willing for you to record the unidentifiable transaction as “Other Income” or “Other Expenses”.