Decide on your financial administration system

1. Your organization should have bookkeeping, accounting , and asset management systems in place. You will need to be able to read those records.
2. Does your organization have guidelines for investing operational surpluses?
3. Find out what financial reporting will be required of you. It may include:
• monthly or other reports to your supervisor
• balance sheets
• awards and other staffing requirements
• tax office requirements
• insurance requirements
• audits
• lists of potential costs
• invoice and payment summaries
• budgets, commitment and expenditure
• cost management plans
• recommended and approved courses of action
• project and/or organisation files and records
• cost management lessons learned
4. Who will do the reports: you, the bookkeeper, or the accountant?
5. Are there any specified limits on non-budget expenditure? Who decides it?
6. Who will be approved to authorize expenditure?
7. Who will sign cheques?
8. What will be your invoice procedures?
9. How often will you check actual income and expenditure against budgets?
10. What are your organization's guidelines on unspent funds?