The activities of the Treasurer have increased in complexity and complication over time with legacy resources and actions causing confusion and stress.
The process has been changed in order to simplify the process for all stakeholders and participants in the process.
Membership Invoicing
Paid Member Subscriptions (web plugin)
Membership status is managed using a program called “Paid Member Subscriptions”. It allows the Secretary and Treasurer to work together to create accounts, assign roles, and allow the program to monitor, contact the Brethren about upcoming renewals, as well as displaying their membership status and historical payments.
Ever Accounting (web plugin)
This program allows for the documentation of receiving bills requiring payment, accepting money for services or items rendered (membership, GL resources, donations), paying bills. It keeps the submitter in the loop regarding any financial transactions.
Secretarial Actions
Secretary creates invoices in bulk based on PMS Subscriptions by October 1st (typically before payments are submitted and leaves them in DRAFT status.
- Secretary monitors bank transactions.
- Secretary saves an electronic copy and prints a hard copy for the backup records.
- When dues payment is received, the Secretary:
- updates PMS Subscriptions with payment
- updates Dues Invoice to SENT and then applies the payment to the invoice
- verifies that Accounting program has adjusted income accordingly
- sends an email to the Brother with a link to their invoice for their records
- Secretary distributes outstanding invoices via mail system
- Secretary repeats this loop
Submitting Bills for Remuneration
Bills can come from external service/product providers (Scottish Rite Club, banquet halls, Grand Lodge), or from HML brethren who have spent their money on Lodge purposes and would like remuneration.
Both entities are treated the same: they are configured in the system as a Vendor.
The Submitter must send an email to the Treasurer with the details of the Invoice(s).
Treasurer receives the request
The submitted email is received. This provides assurance to the submitter that the receipts would not get lost or misinterpreted.
The Treasurer can download the attached images for submission to the Invoice. They can then be deleted from their local computer as a copy will have been uploaded to the server.
The Treasurer accesses the Accounting program on the web site.
The Accounting dashboard is displayed giving an overview of the activity and status of the financial details.
Treasurer creates a Bill
From the WordPress Dashboard, the Treasurer selects the Purchases action. This handles the various items related to the expenditure of money and includes configuring
- Vendors
- Bills
- Expenses
Vendor creation will not be covered in this presentation.
After selecting the Purchases action, the Treasurer selects the Bills tab and then clicks on the New button to create a new Bill in the system.
Treasurer selects the configured Vendor and the Bill Details.
He then adds the various items. The system automatically calculates the line items and Bill total as items are added.
Attaching the Receipts to the Bill
Once the items have been added, the Treasurer can upload the submitted images of the receipts and then click on the Save button. Until this time, the status of the Bill has been Draft, but now changes to Sent.
Sharing the Invoice
The link to the Invoice can be shared and sent to the Submitter to assure them that their Invoice has been received and processed. If they do not receive a message, they can follow up with the Treasurer and their original email.
The link is encrypted to prevent inadvertent discovery of the information.
The Submitter can confirm whether the Invoice has been processed as expected.
The system automatically adds a note to the Invoice on the activity. The status of the Invoice is now Sent. but the system does not actually send any email. The Treasurer has the ability to confirm to the Submitter. that the Invoice has been entered into the system.
Presenting the Account for Payment
The Invoices can be presented at the General Purposes meeting for discussion, and then at the Regular meeting for account payment approval (subject to the usual audit).
Since the Bill has not yet been paid, there is no associated Expense in the listing.
Paying the Account
Once approval has been granted during the Regular Meeting, the Treasurer will issue a cheque and update the Cheque Register, and then send payment to the Submitter.
Accessing the Cheque Register from the web site.
The display of information can be modified.
Editing the entry opens the TablePress component of the Dashboard and the appropriate record can be updated.
Once completed, the update table is saved.
Registering a Payment Against The Invoice
Now a payment can be registered against the Bill
The Payment details are provided.
The system applies a new note to the Bill identifying the payment.
Dashboard Showing Financial Activities
The dashboard shows the trends of the financial activities