The Director of Finance/Treasurer is not only responsible for handling the organization's money; it also falls to her to produce monthly reports for the Board of Directors. Below is a brief explanation of the various reports Sandy Thornton produces each month.

Monthly Treasurer's Report

The Treasurer prepares a monthly report presented at the monthly meeting for Board approval.

• It begins with the bank balance from the previous report, and then I show debits and credits of the past month to arrive at available cash total for the end of the month. This must agree with the monthly bank statement.
• Next, I show any outstanding checks for the month and subtract them from available cash.
• Then I show the monthly balance in the PayPal account from the monthly statement and add it to available cash.
• We have nine Restricted Funds. I show the debits and credits to each Restricted Fund. Restricted funds are - well – restricted to only being used for that fund's purpose. For instance, The Sandra Moran fund can only be used for the Sandra Moran Scholarship to the Writing Academy. The monthly total of all Restricted Funds is subtracted from available cash.
• After that, I show all debits and credits for the month for the current year’s Conference and future Conferences. That total is subtracted from available cash.
• Then I show all other expenses for the current month. I pull this from a monthly Profit and Loss report from QuickBooks. This is subtracted from available cash.

We are either in a positive or negative position at the end of each month. It doesn't mean we are out of money for that month, just that our expenses were greater than that left over from subtracting the Restricted Funds and Conferences.

We are in a negative position for several months throughout the year. This is due to the buildup of funds for the conference and restricted funds. As we spend those funds, our balance reverts to a positive status.

The Restricted Funds are:

1. Jen Wright Conference Scholarship Fund
2. Lesbian Reading Room Conference Scholarship Fund
3. General Conference Scholarship Fund
4. Writing Academy Scholarship Fund
5. Bridge Builder Writing Academy Scholarship Fund
6. Sandra Moran Writing Academy Scholarship Fund
7. Membership Scholarship Fund
8. Awards Fund
9. Writing Academy Fund

The Conference Funds:

1. Current / Next Year Conference (July of one year to July of the following year)
2. Conference - One Year Out ( expenses only – hotel deposits)
3. Conference - Two Years Out ( expenses only – hotel deposits)

Budget versus Actuals Report

The other report I submit monthly to the board is a Budget Vs Actuals Report. This is for information only and does not require Board approval.

This report shows monthly and cumulative totals of income and expenses against the budget.

QuickBooks

GCLS uses QuickBooks (QB) online. Only the Treasurer and Executive Director have access to the QB files. All income and expenses that go through our bank account are updated automatically to QB. All expenses and income from our credit card processor, PayPal, and credit cards are updated automatically to QB. The treasurer must categorize each income and expense with the appropriate code. Codes are assigned for all income and each expense.

At the end of each month, after all items are categorized, I reconcile QB and pull a monthly Profit and Loss report from QB to use for the Monthly Treasurer's report.

At the end of the year, I pull and check reports and give access to the files to our accountant for preparation of the required IRS report, the form 990. This form is available to anyone who requests it.

Credit Card Processor

Our credit card processor (CCP) is integrated with our membership database, Your Membership (YM). Several times each month, I pull a transaction list and settlement list from the CCP. I use this for coding income and refunds in QB.

PayPal

PayPal is a secondary avenue for people to pay us if they don’t want to use their credit card directly. I pull a monthly statement from PayPal to use for the monthly treasurer's report.

Bank Receipts

I make a copy of each check we receive and staple it to the receipt from the bank deposit. I manually mark checks paid in YM and update the invoice data.