[Nancy]

The first thing that you need to do is have a job description for the position. For example do you want your treasurer to actually maintain the financial records or do you have staff to do this job? Is the Treasurer a doer or an over-seer?

I would try to recruit the CFO from a medium to large size nonprofit with a similar mission to be your Treasurer. The CFO will have the accounting and finance skills and I find that CFO’s generally aren’t recruited for outside activities and are delighted to serve. Just check the 990 of the organization of the CFO to make sure that their nonprofit is financially sound itself.

Most statewide CPA associations have a board matching program so contact them.

Just because a bank deals with money, it doesn’t mean bankers make good treasurers. As a small nonprofit you will be recruiting from local branches. These folks are primarily marketing folks not finance folks. The same is true of investment advisors. If you are are located in a city with a bank headquarters, you may be able to recruit from their financial department.

I do financial and administrative consulting and have about 20 clients – two of my best treasurers are retired goverment employees. Prior to retirement, both of them had a direct role in funding the organizations for which they are now treasurers. They are mission focused and have an understanding of the organization. My worse treasurers are the bankers.

[Nancy]

How easy it is to make the change depends on the staff. If you have a lot of low income hourly workers, it is difficult. Those people live paycheck to paycheck and they will view the change as losing an entire week of payu. No matter how you demonstrate that they will be making the same amount of money, you can’t deny that there will be a one-time delay in getting the next check. That delay will hurt some staff – they may have to pay a rent penalty because the rent was late. It may be another week’s interest on a pay day loan. If you are living pay-check to pay-check, you really can’t plan ahead and save up a week’s salary.

You may want to consider a one week loan with a four paycheck payback. Or if you have the resources, a one week bonus. Or let the employees cash out a week’s worth of vacation or sick leave.

[Nancy]

An organization needs to have reliable financial systems. I use ADP for payroll and Quickbooks Online ($75/year from Quickbooks.) Quickbooks works up to about $2M-$3M in annual revenue.

There needs to be someone that really understands accounting (either staff or consultant). This means a lot more than writing checks. It means understanding accrual accounting.

It means a major commitment of time from ALL staff. Time sheets need to be prepared timely and accurately – no catching up at the end of the year. All expenses need documentation and allocation -timely, not when one feels like it.

In my nonprofits, I scan copies of all documents and attach that documentation to each transaction in in Quick. If a deposit is entered, attached is a copy of the check and the deposit ticket in Quickbooks. If a bill is paid, I include a copy of the invoice – if approved by email, a copy of the email is attached as well.

This makes audits so much easier. The documents are right with the transactions.