Treasurers

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The role of treasurer is quite a logical and systematic one: it simply takes structure and good record keeping to ensure that everything stays on track.

View Your Transactions Online
You can now look at your Excel accounts online whenever you want to. You should use these records in conjunction with your own records (kept by using the Treasurer Accounts Template) (xls), in order to check that all your paperwork has been received by KCLSU as you expected.

Expenditure
As Treasurer, the most important thing you need to keep track of is your group’s level of expenditure. You should have robust systems in place to keep track of what expenditure you plan for the year, where that money is coming from (see ‘Income’), how payments are being raised, when paperwork was submitted to KCLSU, how payments are being collected, etc. KCLSU has produced a comprehensiveTreasurer Accounts Template specifically to help you with your responsibilities.

Income
You will be responsible for monitoring, and probably sourcing, your group’s income. This will cover your grant application (see ‘Grant Application’ below), membership fees, equipment payments/deposits, sponsorship, and event profits. As you can only spend what money you get in: this is the key to setting your level of expenditure. You will need to keep on top of all your income streams so that you know just how much money your club actually has right now, and over the course of your year in charge.

Membership Fees
All individuals who partake in club or society activities must pay their annual membership fee. That includes all the committee members! Astute Treasurers very quickly realise that getting all their members to pay up is the best way of getting flexible funding, as subs account funds can be spent on anything that benefits the members. Work with your President to ensure all your members pay up, and don’t be afraid to get tough with those that don’t: if you need to exclude them from your activities, then that’s exactly what you do until they pay!

See the Student Activities Handbook for more info on VAT and how it affects your membership fees.

Payment Requisitions Forms and Purchase Order Forms
As Treasurer, you authorise all payments out of your accounts. Depending on your group’s level of activity, this could mean signing a lot of paper (Payment Requisition Forms and Purchase Order Forms). Every time you sign a form, you should add it to your records: that is money that will now come out of your accounts. KCLSU recommends that you get BACS details (sort code and account number) from all your members who will be reclaiming expenses at some stage. Expenses will just be transferred directly from your account into their personal bank account. Please note that KCLSU will no longer be issuing cheques to Clubs & Society's payments.

Grant Application
Once a year, you will be offered the opportunity to apply for funding from KCLSU (your grant account). In effect, you will be putting in a financial plan for what you would like your group to be doing in the year after your term in office (you apply in 2007/2008 for your funding in 2008/2009). If you submitted a grant application for the current year, it can be found online in the A-Z listings section.