Budgets
Prior to the beginning of the school year, a budget for each activity is recommended by the Finance Committee and approved by the Executive Committee. Committee Chairs are responsible for knowing their budget and staying within their budget. The monthly Treasurer’s Report will include a net total of all actual income & expenses, the approved budget amount and a variance amount for each PTAO activity. Disbursement can not be made for expenses that are more than the approved budget unless the overage is approved in advance by the chair (for overages of $100 or less) or the executive committee (overages of more than $100).
Income
To facilitate reporting, all income should be deposited and expenses should be paid for or reimbursed with a check. All income should be deposited within 2 weeks of receipt. If income is going to be collected over a longer time period, intermediate deposits should be made. This will help ensure that we can make disbursements in a timely manner.
Checks
All checks should be made out to VMA PTAO. The PTAO Treasurer will follow up on returned checks. The person who wrote a returned check will be asked to reimburse the PTAO for any applicable bank fees.
Cash
A receipt will be provided for cash deposits if requested. The PTAO does not accept credit cards at this time. Regarding non payment of money due to the PTAO; The executive committee will decide how to handle situations where money owed to the PTAO is not paid.
Disbursements
A disbursement request form should be filled out to request disbursement of PTAO funds. Attach any invoices or receipts and send them to the PTAO Treasurer by:
- PTAO bin in the VMA Office
- Mail to the Treasurer’s address
- Email with a follow up of invoices and receipts
The disbursement of PTAO funds can be done in any of the following ways:
Advance Check - A check will be written directly to the supplier prior to the purchase and can be used at the time of purchase. The payee and an exact amount must be provided.
Invoice – The supplier sends an invoice to the PTAO and a check is sent directly to the payee.
Reimbursement – The committee member pays for the expense with their own money and then makes a request for reimbursement. Requests for reimbursement must include receipts. Requests for reimbursement should be made within 2 weeks of the end of the activity. Reimbursement can be expected within 1 week of submitting a request.
Cash Advance – Committee member requests an advance of cash to pay for expenses. In this situation a check will be written to the committee member. An accounting of the expenses including receipts should be returned to the treasurer within 2 weeks of the end of the activity along with any unused funds. Cash advances are limited to $100 or less.
All efforts should be made to use the above disbursement methods for PTAO funds. If there is a situation where the amount of an advance check will not be known until just before or on the date of the event and another method can not be used, the Treasurer should be contacted to determine how to handle the payment. If there are no other options for handling the payment, the Program Committee Chair will be permitted to obtain a check without an exact amount. The payee must be included on the check and the Program Committee Chair will be asked to sign a receipt for the check. In this case, a receipt from the payee with the amount of the check must be returned to the Treasurer within 3 days.
Closing out an activity
A report should be submitted within 2 weeks after the end of the activity indicating any outstanding income or expenses and who they are due from or to. If an exact amount is not known, an estimate should be provided.