Does your PTA have a non-signer reviewing your finances each month? Did you know that if you have Fidelity Bond (crime) insurance, you are required to have a member of your PTA, that does not have the authority to sign for financial transactions, reviewing your financial statements monthly? Even if your PTA does not carry fidelity bond insurance, WSPTA highly recommends that you have someone reviewing your financial statements monthly, this is one of the simplest ways to protect your PTA from embezzelment.
How does it protect your PTA? The answer is twofold:
- Having someone check your financial statements every month can catch mistakes being made or policies not being followed early, instead of waiting until the mid-year or end of year financial review. This helps keep your board of directors informed and allows them to change course if needed.
- The 2nd piece to this protection is not something that PTA leaders like to think about, but we must, since our membership elects us to not just run PTA events and programs, but to protect their finances. It is believed that 10% of people will never steal, 10% will steal at any opportunity, and that the other 80% fall somewhere in between. As leaders we are charged with ensuring the opportunity for theft is as small as possible. With strong checks and balances, like someone outside of those with access to PTA funds checking on those funds monthly, the opportunity for embezzlement goes down significantly.
In order to help your non-signer understand what they are reviewing, WSPTA has put together an easy to follow worksheet for them to fill out and sign each month (found under the Finance section of the linked Leadership Guides page).
Plus we have a short video that will walk your reviewer through the steps of helping keep your PTA secure.