Financial Cluster

TO DO LIST

It's been a looong while since the Financial Cluster section has been updated. Let's get things organized to facilitate the transfer of the responsibilities going forward, make sure nothing falls through the cracks and outline how the responsibilities can be divided logically such that more than one person can help take care of them.

Try to re-organize the 'Financial cluster' pages more logically
Outlined the weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and bi-annual responsibilities
Outline how to manage the books

General Financial Responsibilities

All duties are coordinated by the Financial Cluster Coordinator.

Useful Links

Incidental Duties

This is the category that requires the most creativity and responsiveness. The person fulfilling these duties needs ample flexibility to spend BK money and legally sign on behalf of the BK. So this person should be the Treasurer in the corporate sense. The sorts of things that this person does is included in the following list. For more information, see the Financial Cluster Coordinator.

Being familiar with how the weekly/monthly/yearly jobs work and ensuring that they get done.
Checking the mail at least weekly and paying the bills.
Main contact for vendors (i.e., PG&E, Golden Gate Disposal, etc.)
Sniffing through the Accounting Inbox weekly and writing any reimbursement checks.
Fixing and developing systems like special order protocol, earmarked fund management, cash money allocation, etc.
Migrating incidental tasks to the Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly categories as possible.
Being responsive on email
Managing PayPal and EventBrite ticket money
Speak up about spending proposals
Having a solid opinion about the BK financial situation, and promoting that opinion in meetings and on the mailing list.

Daily Duties

Each shift has some financial duties which they must handle. The main daily duties are:

Pick up the bills and mail and put in the office in-box.
Get petty cash for urgent, minor purchases.
Close the register at the end of each shift.

Weekly Duties

Every week, the daily closing reports are reconciled and the weekly deposit is prepared. This incorporates determining how many sales in each category of sales (membership, day use, parts, etc), recording special order payments, recording petty cash spent for Saturday lunch and other items, determining if the register is short and why. It also involves recording all of this in GnuCash and preparing the deposit slip and taking the money to Chase.

Checks written to pay bills, reimbursement checks, and any other transactions are also recorded in GnuCash on a weekly basis.

Monthly Duties

Monthly duties include:

Reconciling the ledger
Entering the monthly QBP order in to GnuCash
Reconciling EventBrite ticket sales with PayPal and entering class sales and EB/PP fees into GnuCash
Reconciling QBP orders with Special Order payments
Sales tax is due to the California Franchise Tax Board on a quarterly basis, at the end of the month following the last month of the quarter (EG April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31)

Quarterly Duties

Sales and Use tax

These are filed with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

Yearly Duties

File Income Taxes with the IRS before May 15th

The big one here is reporting to the IRS. This is just the usual bureaucratic game of filling out forms, keeping records, etc. The IRS stuff is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after the end of our fiscal year (December 31 -> May 15 each year). As a non profit, we do not pay income tax, but are required to file taxes

We can file a [postcard] as long as our annual gross receipts (all income including sales, donations, interest, etc.) are less than $50,000. "Tax-exempt organizations with annual gross receipts that are normally greater than $50,000 must file Form 990 or Form 990-EZ."

If our gross receipts continue to exceed $50,000, we can submit a 990-EZ here: https://efile.form990.org/Default.asp.

File Income Taxes with the State of California before May 15th

State Taxes are also due May 15th and also have a postcard version for their form called the 199N.

Fiscal year end annual report.

The Fiscal year ends December 31st and the annual report should be presented to the board. The annual report is useful for preparing the taxes and other financial documents. There is no document on how we do this stuff, but we're constantly massaging the weekly and monthly tasks in an effort to make the yearly tasks as painless as possible.

Renew Liability Insurance.

Our landlord requires us to carry insurance and list them as the co-insured. After renewal, a COI (Certificate of Insurance) should be sent to the landlord for their records. Check the lease for details. We are currently getting insurance through CJ Abad at Barbary Insurance.

Ensure the following are recorded and safely stored (e.g. saved in the Accounting Dropbox folder):

Monthly and Year end statements for accounts:
1. Checking
2. Savings
3. Square
4. Paypal
5. All QBP Orders
Transactions imported or manually entered in accounting software (e.g. Gnucash) for all accounts, and categorized correctly:
1. Checking
2. Savings
3. Paypal
4. Square

Bi-Annual Duties

Our Business Registration must be renewed every two years.

The SI-100 Form needs to be sent in to the California Secretary of State every odd year by December 31st. Filing is accepted starting 5 months prior to the deadline. https://businessfilings.sos.ca.gov/

Specific Protocols

Receipts

In all cases....

If you can't tell from the receipt, write down what it was for. Also say what 'department' it's for - shop supplies, fundraising, etc
If you can't read the dollar amount, write that down too.

If you took cash out of the register....

Put the receipt and the change in the register. If you took out $20, the change + the receipt amount should = $20.

If you need to get reimbursed....

Write your name and that you need to get reimbursed on the receipt.
Put the receipt in the Accounting In Box folder (the first file in the top left drawer in the office).

If you used a BK card....

Write that you used a BK card on the receipt.
Put the receipt in the Accounting In Box folder.

For other financial-related information, see the Financial Cluster page.

The Register

Closing the Register

At the end of each shift,

Leave $100 in small bills in the register.
Fill out the register report, noting anything unusual.
Put it in an envelope with the rest of the cash, any change, and any receipts (if there are any under the change drawer). Drop it in the safe.

Gift Cards / Certificates

See the Gift Card Protocol page.

Additional Resources

Reports:

Financial Cluster

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