15A Secretarys Financial Duties - OVERVIEW

Secretary’s How to Guide

Secretary’s Financial Duties - Overview

The Treasurer is the custodian of Lodge funds. However, all monies are received by the Secretary and turned over to the Treasurer for deposit. Also, all expense invoices are turned over to the Secretary, who in turns prepares a Warrant to be given to the Treasurer for payment. If the Secretary receives cash then he should issue a receipt for same from a receipt book kept in the Secretary’s office. Along with maintaining the membership records, of equal importance is for the Secretary to maintain an exact accounting of funds. Therefore, during an audit, the Audit Committee can compare the Secretary’s Records and the Treasurer’s Records. This ‘How to Guide’ will present templates and information on how one Secretary has maintained his financial records. As will become evident from this procedure, and to eliminate duplicate data entry, the Treasurer, as custodian of Lodge funds, will not have to re-enter all information from Warrants and Receipt/Deposit Statements provided by the Secretary. The Treasurer should secure all Warrants, with invoices attached, and Receipt Statements, with bank deposit slips attached, so that the Audit Committee can reconcile the Lodge funds against both the Secretary and Treasurer’s records.

The examples presented in this guide are created from actual Lodge records using Quickbooks, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel. This guide is not intended to be a tutorial on any software. However, with screen captures and/or printouts of various reports, and with some side notes, it should be relatively easy to copy and customize all templates and files from the CDROM.

The benefit of using Quickbooks is that the following records can be created and maintained:

Check Book Register

Expense Warrants

Deposit Reports

Quickbooks is a single entry data system, with the functionality of a double entry system,

which facilitates the management of liability/restricted funds, such as deposits like prepaid dues, Masonic Home & LYPMGC donations, and rental deposits, to name a few.

Dues Receipts by member name

Annual Budget and current receipts/expenses compared to budget

Budget comparison versus year-to-date actual expenses and receipts

IRS 990 required data

Audit Committee Reports

Year-end Annual Results

Microsoft Word for Windows is used for creating a #10 envelope template to make it easy for members to provide invoices for payment and receipts for deposit to the Secretary.

Microsoft Excel for Windows is used by the Assistant Secretary or Secretary pro tem for creating an accounting of receipts and invoices and for providing a Financial Report for Stated Communications. The receipts and invoice statements will in turn be entered by the Secretary into his Quickbooks ledger.

It goes without saying, and deserves repeating, the Secretary should familiarize himself with Chapter 22.01-09 in the Digest of Masonic Law, as well as all other sections specifying the duties and responsibilities of the Secretary.

Note: Examples, templates and files created with Microsoft Word and Excel in the How To Guide are based on Microsoft Office Version 2003-2007. These files are upward compatible to more recent releases of Microsoft Office, but are not backward compatible to earlier versions of Microsoft Office.

C:\Secretary’s How To Guide\Secretary’s Financial Duties\15A Secretary’s Financial Duties Overview.doc