Cohousing-L Mailing List: Internal bookkeeping

[Terri Hupfer (terri]

Here at Pleasant Hill coho in Northern California we have done our own 
bookkeeping for 9 years. We have had one person as bookkeeper with two 
assistants. That person has now passed it on to me. We use Quickbooks and also 
have an outside accountant who does all our taxes. There is a lot of 
institutional memory which resides in one person, so it is good to have others 
trained and know what's going on. It is not overly time-consuming on a day to 
day basis, but requires a lot of time for the annual budget and when reports 
need to be generated. We have a committee called the FAT (financial advisory 
team) to which the bookkeeper belongs, the two assistants, and also our 
treasurer. We make recommendations to the community in money matters such as 
investment of reserves, contributions to reserves, and legal requirements for 
contractors, among other things. It is, as Brian from Fresno says, a little bit 
of an OCD type job.
 
Terri Hupfer
Pleasant Hill Cohousing