I'm the treasurer but have no insight into the finances!

I was elected to our board in June and voted into the treasurer position. The previous treasurer was the HOA mgr and the president. Both are gone but we have a new HOA manager and she is essentially the treasurer. I was "trained" by the president before he left but he basically went over how to read financials, which I already knew and was told that if I needed to see anything to just ask the manager and she can get me whatever info or report I needed. If anything went down and money was misappropriated I would be in hot water. I need advice on how to handle this. We use TOPS software and I don't have access but was reassured there is no way to really do anything inappropriate with it based on how the software works. I need to have insight but how much? I think the manager and new president would be pretty open to me having more insight but what is expected and reasonable? I don't need to sign or see every check going out but I need more control and insight. HELP! I feel like I have a meaningless title.

Mel

What you want is financial oversight. Our MC handles all our money and pays our bills. They prepare a 25 or so page Monthly Financial Report. We can see every penny coming in, every penny owed, and every penny paid out and to whom paid. The Pres and myself (VP & Treasurer) review/discuss this report and if any questions arise (rarely) we call the MC for clarification.

The bottom line on financials are: Is the income the same as forecasted (Budgeted) and is the outgoing the same as forecasted (Budgeted)? Are we on Budget and if not, how do we get there?

There can be ups and downs when looking at only one month. Maybe more people paid their dues that month thus higher income. Maybe expenses were higher that month thus more outgoing. Look closely at YTD (Year To Date) for an overall look at ones financial health versus get excited by any one or two months financials.

Become familiar with the Yearly Forecasted Budget. Learn it inside and out.

Exactly!

Personally, I would refuse the title of treasurer, unless I had possession of what I felt I needed to carry out the duties of treasurer. If issues arise, I would certainly expect the treasurer to be called to the carpet. If the response was . . . "well I never saw any financial documents or knew what was going on with the money", then that's unacceptable from any Board Member of Officer, but especially the Treasurer.

That said, I can't really follow who all the players are in your HOA/Management scenario. You need to get a handle on who are the Board Members, Officers (Pres, VP, Treasurer, Secretary, possibly others), and/or Manager/Management Company (MC).

Oftentimes, individual Board Members also serve in the Officer roles, but that's not always the case and not always required. Further, while it's typical that all Board Members must also be HOA Members, it's possible that some Officer positions do not need to be HOA Members. It gets a bit confusing and often people confuse Board Members and Officers. But it should be spelled out clearly in your docs and it's important that your HOA is operating IAW them.

Manager/MC may do the accounting; however, there is also the Officer position of Treasurer that has similar and additional responsibilities.

Our MC uses a bank lock box system. Our dues are monthly and paid to the bank in several ways:

1. Electronic transfer with the bank notifying owners (Email) about 3 days before the withdrawal will be made. This is how I pay.

2. Credit card charge paid to the bank. There is a $5.00 service charge for this.

3. Via personal check with a payment book we send to all owners the first of every year. Not even sure where my payment book is. Still have a few old timers that pay this way.

All dues payments are forwarded to the MC. Our Monthly Financial report show dues amounts paid and paid by whom and each transfer to the MC. Our Monthly Financials also show a check register which shows check#, amount, date paid, and who paid to.

The Pres and I (VP & Tres.) have a "code" we can use to stop all bank payments to the MC.

The MC can make deposits to our Reserve Funds (two funds, each in a different bank) but they cannot withdraw any money from the funds. Only the Pres and I (VP & Tres.) can withdraw and it takes us both being there and signing to do so.

There is no full proof way to prevent a cheater. Cheaters cheat.

Getting back to the OP. The main function of a Treasure is to assure the income covers the out go and adjust if necessary. Also to keep an eye on all financial transactions. Trust but verify.

I would, at minimum, ask for monthly reports and a yearly audit. I think you should also have access to the software. That should obviously be limited to a few people but you are the treasurer and need to be able to do anything the manager normally does.

You probably know this already but the statement, "there is no way to really do anything inappropriate..." is not true with any system or software. Any good software will make fraud difficult to hide as long as your have adequate and oversight and audits.

It does say in our covenants that we are to conduct yearly audits.

I absolutely agree that if there's a will there's a way. People find ways to embezzle millions of dollars and don't get caught for decades. At the very least, I will request access to our software just to have an extra set of eyes on it.

You are so right. I will definitely have a meeting with our HOA manager and discuss this. It is very concerning that I am in the dark right now. I should be able to see everything. Thank you for the advice.

Thank you for all of the great advice. This forum has been so helpful and I at least now know what I need to ask and look for.

Thank you! I will request this info going forward.