Audit Committee Report - June 2011

Mann,

An audit of Dogwood's financial records was conducted on Sat. June 25, 2011 by Dogwood audit committee (Liz Jones, Cil Schoolar and Mo Martin). Our findings follow:

Documentation

Rally expense reports for three recent rallies are not in the files. Dogwoods standing rules require that rally hosts submit a report detailing income and expenses for each rally. The missing rally expense reports are:

Nov 5 - 7, 2010 Urbana rally hosted by Alexander's

Dec. 3 - 5, 2010 VA Beach rally hosted by Alexander's, Buelow's Cummings' and Hughes'  (treasurer's update:  this report had been misfiled and has been located) 

May 12 - 15,2010 VIR rally hosted by Duff's.

Missing rally expense reports should be located or created and added to the file to make the documentation complete. In accordance with standing rules, each rally expense report should be properly approved prior to filling in the Dogwood Treasurers records.

The Bank statement dated Oct 29, 2010 has transactions with no explanation.

The rally expense report for June 4 - 6, 2010 rally at VIR hosted by the Duffs includes cash refunds to participants with no receipts?? In accordance with standing rules, the excess funds should have been turned in to the Treasure not returned to the participants.

The audit committee recommends that there should not be any cash transactions with out receipts. It is recommended that cash transactions be avoided to the greatest extent possible since they are very difficult to trace and may lead to increased opportunity for error and resulting misunderstandings.

Procedural Suggestions

All expense reports should include sufficient information to fully explain all expenditures. For example, instead of GEAR happy hour food, the report might say "food for GEAR happy hour to recruit prospective members and to meet with FMCA Officers".

More complete explanations enable the audit committee and / or others to understand expenditures

Rally Hosting-Fees and Refunds: Standing rules covering the subject of refunds to registrants who have paid but are unable to attend a rally leave lots of room for interpretation and possible misunderstandings. To correct this, it is suggested that standing rules be amended to establish a definitive cut off date for any request for refund. A cut off date to request a refund that is the same as the cutoff date for payment would enable hosts to complete planning and purchases with full knowledge of funds available to cover expenditures.

Rally Expense Reports: It is recommended that standing rules be amended to make clear the requirement for rally hosts to submit a rally expense report even if there are no funds collected and no funds dispersed. This will make the record complete for the audit committee. It is also suggested that the VP Rallies provide a copy of standing rules and Rally Expense Report forms to rally hosts well in advance of rallies to facilitate record keeping.

Accounting Records: Dogwood Treasurer Carolyn Duff is in the process of implementing the use of Quicken accounting software for maintenance of Dogwoods financial records. Dogwood should consider modifying standing rules to require the use of Quicken. Use of Quicken is recommended by FMCA. Standing rules should also include requirements for back up procedures for chapter records kept on magnetic media.

With the exception of noted items above, the audit committee did not find any serious problems and we have made suggestions for some areas which could be handled better.

Mo Martin