There are many potential risks for clubs when it comes to financial management including:
- Payment of accounts, reimbursements & players/staff in cash
- Coach and player contracts made without executive approval
- Workers attitude – e.g. Bar/Canteen of “one for all the hard work done”, Gatekeepers - allowing free admittance and/or understating attendance
- Emergency procedures – what does your Club have in place?
- Secure Data – where is it kept and is it backed up? Online/USB/Folder
- Asset control - Stock for the bar/canteen sold and paid for by the same person, medical supplies, footballs
Its recommended clubs adopt policies and procedures to reduce potential risks.
Bank Accounts and EFTPOS Machines
- Use online banking as the preferred banking method
- Have a minimum of two account signatories for payments online and to sign cheques
- Treasurer to reconcile the bank account monthly as a minimum
- Use EFTPOS machines and online payments to reduce cash handling
- Organise a club credit card to track payment of expenses
Cash on Hand
- Cash should be kept in a secure safe with details on who has access to the safe
- Cash should be banked as quickly as possible
- Generally, clubs should only keep the cash floats in the safe where possible as a minimum.
- When significant amounts of cash are to be taken to be banked we suggest two people go together for safety reasons (over $10,000).
- Care should be taken when taking cash from the safe to the car, and if taking cash home to bank the next business day
Cash Float Management
- Beginning floats should be checked off and agreed
- Sign off sheets should be used when counting end of day balances and reconciling sales less opening floats.
- Sense checks of the sales figures based on the end of day floats to be performed by the Treasurer. i.e. does $50 in beer sales make sense when we sold 5 slabs of beer?
- Bills paid for during the day out of cash floats
- Separate major income streams in the P&L
General Rules
- Always be sceptical of anyone handling cash for the Club.
- Pay people to do certain roles where there is significant handling of cash to remove the above temptation
- Segregate duties and have multiple shifts where possible
- Make sure all bank accounts held by the club are presented to the committee. E.g., senior account, junior account, social /events account, laddies committee accounts, canteen accounts – also ensure these are reported in the club financial reports.