Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: C-L]_ Finding Effective Support for a Treasury Team?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jul 16, 2022, at 1:28 PM, Steve McClary <smcclary [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Our experience suggests:
> 
>   1. Try to avoid being overly dependent on a single person. Internally,
>   this can lead to bun-out; externally you can end up having to pick matters
>   up in mid-stream with no notice.
>   2. Our finances (and probably most cohousing communities’) are not
>   overly complex. However, if you need to work with an outside firm like a
>   CPA or bookkeeper, having your books in something that can at least export
>   to an industry standard like Quickbooks is very helpful.
>   3. Getting reports into a format that is clear and complete can take a
>   lot of work over time, and requires patience from everyone.

In addition, a CPA advised a nonprofit that I was keeping books for to have 
separate people keeping the books and managing the bill paying/check writing.

One of the issues with less than complex banking activity is that it can be let 
go because there were only 2 checks to be written, etc., so there has to be 
attention paid on everyone’s part to keeping the books up to date. 

There are many online accounting sites that produce professional reports, print 
checks, etc. The one I have used and liked is Freshbooks. It was more user 
friendly than Quickbooks.

And do not believe that a management company will do a better job than you can 
do yourselves. Ours just discovered a $45,000 error in accounting that was made 
3 years ago. It was in reserve account and when we went to spend it it wasn’t 
there. It was an accounting problem, not missing money, but it can be equally 
vexing. Our current company has been better than a few of our previous 
companies but we have had services like utilities and internet services cut off 
because the bills were not paid. Others were paid when we had directed them not 
to pay because we were being erroneously charged. 

No one in the company looks at the monthly balance sheets to see that the 
remaining budget for those items was unchanging. The person in charge is likely 
to be a young person with no experience who processes paper and types. They 
don’t do analysis or even understand the programs they are using. It takes 
significant attention to oversee the management company.

Thank you for sharing these stories.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org