Recently we spoke about what to do now you are a volunteer treasurer and we briefly touched on some issues around managing bank accounts. We’ve noticed that a lot of smaller committees, or those with inexperienced members, don’t understand banking. Group or committee banking is different to managing a personal account. There are questions that the committee and the volunteer treasurer will find hard to answer.

We have written a series posts for you which will provide a more detailed discussion on managing your bank accounts. It is critical that you understand banking so you can minimise the risk of fraud, and manage your internal control systems. Think of it as your bow: if you don’t know how to load the arrows you have no hope of hitting your target.

The sad thing is that this is the part of the handover that is often missed. That means that the new treasurer has to learn fast and often, learn through mistakes. That is not a great scenario, is it?

Obviously, every transaction goes through the bank accounts so the better the management, control and understanding of what occurs will eliminate any surprises and make it easier to plan and manage the cashflows of the organisation.

Next week we will take a closer look at the bank accounts and what you need to know about them.