Cohousing-L Mailing List: Operating Expenses, Who Does them and with what Controls?

[Douglas G. Larson (ddhle]

Our community is making changes to one of our bank accounts and we would
like to know what policies and practices other communities use.

Specifically we would like to know


These questions relate solely to operating expenses, not to replacement
reserve budgeting or expenditures

 1) How does your community use credit cards and debit cards to pay for
community expenses and what controls do you have in place for those
expenditures?
    1a-  Who is authorized to use your community credit card or debit card?
    1b-  What policies or authorization procedures are in place for use of
these cards?
    1c-  Are your books audited and if so by whom and how frequently?
  

 2) What budgeting controls do you have in place for operating expenditures?

    2a-  Is every operating expenditure checked to see that it is within
budget? If so, who does that?
    2b-  If a legitimate expenditure exceeds budget, what override or
exception procedures are used?
    2c-  If a requested expenditure would exceed budget but is not deemed
essential, what denial or refusal procedure is used? Who issues the refusal?


Please limit your responses to only operating budget and operating
expenditures and not to Replacement Reserve spending. 



Douglas Larson,
Songaia Cohousing,
Bothell, WA