Have you been thinking about becoming a volunteer treasurer? Have you been holding back from committing to help because you’re unsure of what being the treasurer actually means?

While each charity and association is unique, most volunteer treasurers have similar duties and responsibilities. If you do decide to accept this challenging role, it’s likely that you will be involved, either directly or indirectly, with the following tasks.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Volunteer Treasurer

Volunteer treasurers are responsible for ensuring that literally hundreds of functions are carried out correctly. In small businesses, the treasurer is responsible for performing every single task related to the nonprofit’s finances.

In other organisations, especially larger ones, the treasurer provides oversight and management of the nonprofit’s finances, and then delegates many of these tasks. Regardless of the size of the nonprofit, most treasurers employ automated software and apps that simplify most common tasks such as data entry, record keeping and the preparation of various budgets and reports.

It is also their responsibility to ensure that these are established and carried out in accordance with accepted best practices and all legal and statutory requirements, guidelines, and regulations are met. They are also responsible for tasks that fall into the following broadly defined categories.

• Providing oversight of finances and practicing sound financial management, including the control of assets and stock, cash handling and banking activities, including deposits, payment of insurance, utilities, and the nonprofit’s other expenses, the collection of rents, fees, and dues.
• Keeping up with the accounts, including record keeping, data entry, and bookkeeping tasks, preparing accounts for audit and providing information to auditors and the board.
• Compiling and preparing reports to the board, and various governmental and regulatory bodies. Preparation of various filings, including annual reports, business activity statements, GST and other required disclosures. Providing insight into the state of the nonprofit’s finances.
• Financial planning activities, including the preparation and monitoring of annual budgets and presentations of budgets and other reports to the board.
• Filings for grants and other sources of funding, participation in fundraising activities, including sales.

How the Right Software Can Help You Reclaim Your Life and Make it Easy to be a Volunteer Treasurer

Becoming a volunteer treasurer does carry significant responsibilities, however fulfilling your duty doesn’t have to be such a heavy burden. While it is helpful to have some experience with accounting, it is not necessary to be a practicing accountant to be a successful treasurer.

Using the Admin Bandit software system will simplify much of your record keeping and significantly lighten your load. The system automates most of your tasks and walks you through the creation of most of the reports and filings that you will need. The software greatly decreases the amount of time and skill that are needed to fulfill your duties while also helping you to establish better financial controls and decrease your nonprofit’s potential risk of financial losses.

Selecting an accounting program for your nonprofit is a significant investment and one of the most important decisions you will make. Two extremely relevant factors that you should consider are how easy the software is to learn to use, and how effective it is at simplifying your role as treasurer. Admin Bandit comes with a free demo, as well as a 55-day trial so that you have the opportunity to use the software before you make your selection. Why not get in touch today and learn just how fun and easy it can be to be a volunteer treasurer?