New PTO treasurer: your first 30 days

Week 1 — the paperwork hunt

Before you touch a dollar, find out what exists. You're looking for six things:

• The EIN letter (CP 575 or a 147C replacement). Missing? One phone call recovers it — and do check, while you're there, that the group's tax-exempt status is still active.
• The IRS determination letter — proof of 501(c)(3) status (or your parent organization's group-exemption paperwork).
• The bylaws — read the money parts: budget approval, spending authority, whether members vote on the budget, what the review committee requires.
• Last year's 990 confirmation — evidence it was actually filed, and the fiscal year it used.
• Bank statements, the ledger, and any software login — however your predecessor kept the books, get all of it, even if it's a shoebox.
• Insurance policy — bond/crime coverage matters to you personally; know if it exists.

Whatever you can't find goes on a list you hand the board in week 2 — loudly and in writing. Missing paperwork you flagged is your predecessor's gap; missing paperwork you sat on becomes yours.

Week 2 — the review you insist on (this one protects you)

The single most repeated piece of veteran advice: get the books reviewed before you formally accept them. A small committee — not a CPA, just careful members — checks the ledger against statements and receipts and signs a one-page finding.

• Who can review: members who are not bank signers and not relatives or household members of signers. Independence is the entire point.
• Why you insist: the review draws a line in time. Everything before it is certified as your predecessor's stewardship; everything after is yours. Skipping it means any discrepancy discovered in February — from any year — lands on you.
• It protects them too. A clean review is the outgoing treasurer's reputation, documented. Frame it that way and nobody's offended.
• If the books are a mess, the review says so now, while the people who can explain them are still reachable — that's a gift, not a scandal.

Week 3 — bank access and how money moves

• Change the signers. Board resolution, one branch visit, outgoing signers removed the same day. The full ritual and the copy-paste resolution are here.
• Kill the personal payment apps. If any group money flows through someone's personal Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal, migrating off it is your first-month priority — here's why it can't wait and what to use instead.
• Set up a reimbursement form. One page: who, what, category, receipt attached, chair approval. Announce that reimbursements need receipts and land within 30 days — the June stragglers that roll into next year's budget are a known mess; head them off in September.
• Adopt the cash rules before your first event: two unrelated counters, counts signed the same night, deposits within days. Write them down; rules that live in your head protect no one.

Week 4 — the rhythm that makes the job small

• The monthly report, same format every time: beginning balance, income by category, expenses by category, ending balance, versus budget. Five lines that fit on one page. Consistency is what builds trust — and what makes June's year-end close trivial.
• Reconcile monthly, the week the statement arrives. Twenty minutes monthly or a weekend in June; there is no third option.
• Calendar the deadlines now: the 990-N by November 15 (June 30 fiscal year — file it in October), 1099-NEC by January 31 if you pay contractors $600+ (collect W-9s before paying anyone), and your own bylaws' budget dates.
• Facing a budget with no starting point? The free Budget Builder seeds one from how real groups split their money — and the real numbers behind it are worth ten minutes.
• Know the folk rules veterans quote: the school has no authority over PTO funds (and vice versa — keep them separate); keep individual thank-you gifts modest (under ~$100 is the commonly cited comfort zone); document everything unusual in the minutes, because minutes are the group's memory.

What you are not signing up for

You are not the group's ATM, you don't need QuickBooks (a clean spreadsheet or a simple treasurer tool is fine at PTO scale), you don't approve spending alone (the budget and the board do), and you never have to choose between awkwardness and controls — "the rules protect the volunteers" is the sentence that ends most arguments about two-person counts.

FAQ

What does a PTO treasurer actually do?

Safeguards and reports the money: bank account, records, approved payments, a consistent monthly report, the annual budget, event cash controls, and the annual IRS filing.

How much time does it take?

A few hours in an ordinary month; peaks at fundraisers and year-end. Chronic overload means missing systems, not a hard job.

Do we really need the review before I take over?

Yes. It's the line that separates your stewardship from your predecessor's, it's probably in your bylaws, and it protects both of you. Insist warmly, but insist.

What's the one deadline I can't miss?

The 990 — November 15 for a June 30 fiscal year. Three consecutive misses and the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status. File the ten-minute 990-N in October and save the confirmation.

What if I inherit a shoebox and no records?

Start the record from the bank statements — they're the ground truth. Flag the gap in writing, get the review committee to certify a starting balance, and build forward from there. You are not responsible for reconstructing 2019.