Budgeting for Clubs and Organizations
As a Club Treasurer, you will begin working with the rest of the group's officers in early February to create a budget for the following academic year. You will submit this budget by completing the CCC Budget Request, a Microsoft Excel file that will be emailed to your club's email and President. After your club receives notification of its allocation from the CCC (typically in late April, when the club completes Club Registration with the Student Activities Office), you will need to begin to revise your budget, since your club may not receive the entire amount of student activity fees it requested.
A good way to learn about budgeting is to take things step by step. The following tutorial will walk you through everything from planning to managing your club's budget!
STAGE I. BUDGET PLANNING
- Educate yourself. Check your records and review last year's budget request (you can ask the CCC for a copy if you do not have one). Review the club's current account statement (ask or Deb Acrey the CCC for a copy), and see where money was actually spent. This will give you a good idea of how well the club respects a budget and sticks to it. If you have questions, ask the past treasurer, past president or club advisor.
- Brainstorm. Don't rely on what the club has done in the past. Think about potential expenses which may come up, and then create a list of potential sources of income you may be able to tap into.
- Compile your brainstorming ideas from the planning stages, and work with the rest of the officers to create a preliminary budget. When working on your preliminary draft, start with identifying the types of events/services the club wants to coordinate.
- After you have a list of your expenditures, examine what some potential sources of income could be tapped into.
- Most likely, your expenses will be larger than your income. The next step would be to start cutting events/reducing expenditures so that your projected income and expenses balance (Helpful Budget Hint: Leave about 2-5% of your budget flexible for unforeseen expenses which may aries).
- Toward the end of April, you should find out what your club's allocation will be for the following academic year. As you will discover, your budget will most likely get reduced by the Club Coordination Council so that all clubs can receive some form of financial support from the CCC. Also be aware that your monetary allocation may be lower than anticipated, since the CCC may have assigned you a concession stand rather than a higher fee allocation.
- After you review your allocated figures, once again revisit your budget development process to establish a budget which falls in line with your allocation and projected dues.
- Now that you have a budget and money to work with, what do you do? The best thing you can do is keep detailed records of everything.
- Invest in a financial ledger.
- Keep separate ledgers for each of your events/activities.
- Keep detailed records of membership dues. Here is a sample dues ledger you can use.
- Invest a couple bucks and purchase a receipt book. Use this for membership dues and any other times cash will be exchanging hands.
- Keep copies of all receipts, invoices, bills, etc. which relate to the club. Having all of your paperwork in order will help you reconcile your books!
- Establish a system for processing reimbursements. A standard process many clubs use is to have the person needing to be reimbursed submit an itemized receipt, signed by the club member and attach a note delineating what the expense was for. Don't forget that all financial reimbursements require an original, itemized receipt, the payee's Net ID and your advisor's signature!
- Meet with your club advisor on a monthly basis. Reconcile your books with your advisor so that you can determine your financial standing on a monthly basis. These monthly meetings are also a great time to get receipts signed for reimbursements!
- Announce the club's financial standing at club/officer meetings. While this may sound repetitive and unnecessary, it is a great way to keep club members involved in the financial affairs of the club. Likewise, if a member knows the club is tight on money, they are less likely to frivolously spend club money!
- Last but not least, get to know who you can call if you have questions! If you ever have any questions about your club's financial standing, contact the Treasurer's Office by calling 574/631-7417.
