Example of a treasurer's report (with a template you can copy)

Last updated 2026-07-25

What does a treasurer do (in plain terms)?

A treasurer tracks the money coming in and going out of an organization, and reports on it regularly so the board or membership knows where things stand. That's the whole job at its core. Everything else (spreadsheets, bank reconciliations, tax filings) is just the machinery that makes that reporting possible and defensible. For a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer usually does five things on a repeating cycle: collects and deposits money (dues, concession sales, fundraiser proceeds), pays approved bills, keeps records that match the bank statement, reports to the board at meetings, and files whatever the IRS and state require each year. None of this requires an accounting degree. It requires consistency and a habit of writing things down the same way every time. Many new treasurers ask 'what does a treasurer do in a club' expecting something more complicated than it is. In a volunteer club, the treasurer is often the only person who can answer 'do we have enough money to do X' with an actual number instead of a guess. That's the value you bring, and it's why the report matters more than people think.

What is a treasurer's report, exactly?

A treasurer's report is a short written summary, given at a regular interval (usually monthly), that shows the starting balance, all money received, all money spent, and the ending balance for that period. It is not a full audit and it is not a tax filing. It's the routine health check that lets a board vote with real information instead of vibes. Most small nonprofit boards expect a report at every meeting, even if it's just one page. The report should tie back to the bank statement exactly. If your ending balance doesn't match what the bank shows (after accounting for any outstanding checks or deposits), something is wrong and needs to get fixed before the report goes to the board, not after. A good report also flags anything unusual: a bill that's overdue, an account that dropped unexpectedly, a fundraiser that came in under budget. The report isn't just numbers. It's a two-minute narrative wrapped around the numbers so the board doesn't have to interpret a spreadsheet cold.

Example of a treasurer's report (full sample)

Category	Amount
Membership dues	$1,250.00
Concession stand sales (3 home games)	$2,940.75
Spirit wear sales	$865.00
Raffle ticket sales	$1,600.00
Total income	$6,655.75	Expenses:
Category	Amount
Concession stand supplies	$1,180.40
Team equipment reimbursement	$2,200.00
Raffle prize (gift card, per state raffle license terms)	$500.00
Printing (spirit wear order)	$610.00
Bank fees	$12.00
Total expenses	$4,502.40	Ending balance (October 31): $10,565.65 Notes: Bank statement reconciled and matches ending balance above. Raffle proceeds and prize payout logged per our state raffle license file. Two outstanding reimbursement requests ($340 total) pending board approval for November. That's it. One page, a clear start and end balance, categorized totals, and a couple of sentences of context. Boards don't need forty line items to trust a report. They need the number, the category, and confirmation that it reconciles.

Here's a realistic monthly report for a mid-size booster club. Adjust categories to match your own group; the structure works for PTOs, athletic boosters, band boosters, and most small youth-sports organizations. Riverside High School Football Boosters Treasurer's Report: October 2025 Beginning balance (October 1): $8,412.30 Income:

How do you build a treasurer's report from scratch?

Start with your bank statement, not your memory. Pull the statement for the period you're reporting on and use it as the source of truth for the beginning and ending balance. Then sort every transaction into a small number of categories, five to ten total is plenty for most booster clubs. Common income categories: dues, fundraising event A, fundraising event B, concessions, donations, raffle proceeds. Common expense categories: supplies, equipment, insurance, printing, bank fees, state filing fees. Don't over-engineer this. A category list with thirty entries helps nobody; a board member skimming the report needs to recognize the big buckets in five seconds. Once categorized, total each column, add beginning balance plus income minus expenses, and confirm that equals your ending bank balance. If it doesn't, you likely have an uncashed check, a pending deposit, or a data entry error. Track that down before the meeting. A report that doesn't reconcile undermines trust fast, even when the error is small and honest. Finally, write two to four sentences of narrative: anything unusual, anything the board needs to vote on, anything coming up (a big expense next month, a fundraiser wrapping up). That narrative is what turns a spreadsheet into a report people actually read.

What is Form 990 and how does it connect to your treasurer's report?

Form 990 is the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS to report income, expenses, and activities. It's not an income tax return in the traditional sense (tax-exempt organizations generally don't owe federal income tax on mission-related revenue), it's a disclosure document that keeps your exempt status current and public. The IRS describes the family of forms this way: organizations file "Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF or 990-N (e-Postcard)" depending on gross receipts and asset levels ^[1]. Your monthly treasurer's reports, added up across the fiscal year, become the raw data for whichever version your group has to file. Most booster clubs and PTOs with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less file the simplest version, Form 990-N (the e-Postcard), which the IRS confirms is for organizations whose "gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" ^[2]. Larger organizations file Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990 instead, with different income and asset thresholds triggering each version. If you're not sure which version applies to your group, confirm with the IRS and your state charity office, because gross receipts averaging rules and short first years can change the answer. Read more on how these forms differ in our guide to Form 990 and to 990-N filing specifically.

What is Form 990-N and do small clubs really need to file it?

Form 990-N, sometimes called the e-Postcard, is the short annual filing for small tax-exempt organizations, and yes, most small booster clubs and PTOs need to file it every year even if they think they're too small to bother. The IRS states plainly that "most small tax-exempt organizations whose annual gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" file the 990-N unless they choose to file a full return instead ^[2]. The filing itself is short: legal name, any other names used, mailing address, website (if any), employer identification number (EIN), the name and address of a principal officer, tax year, and confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or under ^[2]. It's free and done through the IRS's Form 990-N electronic filing system. Here's the part that catches new treasurers off guard: skip this filing for three consecutive years and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status. The IRS is explicit about this: organizations that "do not file for three consecutive years" lose their exempt status automatically, by operation of law, with no separate notice required beyond what's already been sent ^[3]. Recovering from that (reinstatement, possibly back taxes, re-registering with your state) costs far more time and money than filing a five-minute e-Postcard every year would have. If your group's status has already lapsed, see our 990-N filing guide for the reinstatement path, and confirm current procedures and fees with the IRS. The IRS reinstatement procedures, including streamlined retroactive reinstatement for organizations that qualify, are laid out in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 ^[4].

What does a treasurer of a club do that's different from a PTO or booster club treasurer?

The core job is the same everywhere: track money, report on it, keep records straight. What changes is the scale and the specific compliance layer on top. A small hobby club treasurer might just keep a checkbook ledger and give a verbal report at meetings. A booster club treasurer usually handles a state raffle license, concession stand cash controls, reimbursements to a coaching staff, and an annual IRS filing. A PTO treasurer often manages a bigger budget with school-district oversight layered on top, plus fundraising events that require separate accounting (book fairs, silent auctions, spirit nights). What doesn't change: every one of these treasurers needs a clean bank reconciliation, a habit of separating cash handling duties (the person who counts concession stand cash shouldn't be the only one who deposits it), and a report cadence the board actually sees. See our guide on financial controls for volunteer treasurers for a fuller breakdown of who should touch cash at each step.

What should a monthly treasurer's report include, at minimum?

At minimum, include five things: the reporting period, beginning balance, itemized income by category, itemized expenses by category, and ending balance confirmed against the bank statement. Anything beyond that is a bonus, not a requirement. A slightly more complete report also includes a comparison to budget (are you ahead or behind where you expected to be this time of year), a list of any outstanding checks or pending deposits, and a short narrative flagging anything the board needs to know or vote on. Some boards also want a running year-to-date total alongside the monthly numbers, which helps catch a slow financial drift that a single month's snapshot might hide. What you should not include in a routine report: individual donor names tied to specific gift amounts (unless your bylaws or state law require it), personal account numbers, or Social Security numbers of anyone reimbursed. Keep that data in your private records, not in a report that gets emailed around or posted in meeting minutes.

How often should a treasurer's report be given, and to whom?

Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports organizations give a treasurer's report at every board meeting, which for most groups means monthly, sometimes bimonthly during the off-season. The report goes to the board first, and a summarized version often goes to the general membership at an annual meeting or in a newsletter. Beyond the routine report, plan for an annual, more thorough version at fiscal year end: a full income and expense statement for the year, the ending balance reconciled to the bank, and whatever backup your outgoing or incoming treasurer needs for a handoff. That annual package is also what you'll lean on heavily when preparing your 990 or 990-N filing, so it's worth building the habit of closing out each fiscal year cleanly rather than reconstructing it later under deadline pressure.

What's the difference between a treasurer's report and a full financial audit?

A treasurer's report is a routine internal update given regularly to the board. A financial audit (or the lighter version, a financial review) is a formal, periodic check, often done annually or when a treasurer changes, that verifies the reports were accurate all along. Many state charity registration offices require some level of independent financial review once an organization crosses a certain revenue threshold, and those thresholds vary significantly by state (some states set the audit trigger around $500,000 to $1,000,000 in gross revenue, others use different tiers). Confirm the exact threshold and requirement with your state's charity registration office or attorney general, since this is one of the areas where rules genuinely differ state to state and change over time. Even without a state mandate, many booster clubs and PTOs do an informal internal review every time the treasurer role changes hands: a board member or outside volunteer checks that the bank statements match the reports for the past year. That's good practice regardless of your state's threshold, and it protects the outgoing treasurer as much as the incoming one. See our handoff and audit checklist for what that review should cover.

Do treasurer's reports need to mention raffle income or fundraising licenses separately?

Yes, if your group runs raffles, and you should keep raffle income clearly separated in your report from dues, concessions, or general donations. Most states require a specific charitable gaming or raffle license before you can legally sell tickets, and many states also require separate recordkeeping showing ticket sales, prize payouts, and net proceeds tied to that specific license number. Because raffle law is set state by state (license fees, prize limits, and reporting deadlines all vary), confirm your specific state's requirements with your state's charity gaming office or attorney general's office before running one. Once you have the license, your treasurer's report should show raffle income and the associated prize expense as their own line items, exactly like the example report above, so a board member or future auditor can trace ticket sales straight through to the license file without digging.

Where do I get a treasurer's report template I can actually use?

Start from the example above, it's already structured the way most small nonprofit boards expect: beginning balance, categorized income, categorized expenses, ending balance, and a short notes section. Copy it into a spreadsheet, swap in your own income and expense categories, and reuse the same format every month so board members build familiarity with it over time. If you'd rather not build the whole compliance stack yourself (report templates, 990-N filing checklist, state raffle license reference, cash handling policy), BoosterLedger's State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is a $99 one-time bundle built around your specific state's rules. It's not a substitute for advice from a CPA or attorney, and it doesn't guarantee any filing outcome or exempt status, but it does save a lot of the research time a brand-new volunteer treasurer usually burns in the first month on the job.

Frequently asked questions

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer tracks all money coming into and out of an organization, keeps records that match the bank statement, reports regularly to the board, and handles required tax filings like Form 990 or 990-N. In a volunteer group, the treasurer is often the only person who can answer exactly how much money is available at any given time.

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer or volunteer responsible for an organization's money: collecting income, paying approved expenses, keeping accurate records, and reporting the financial position to the board or membership on a regular schedule, usually monthly.

What do treasurers do day to day?

Day to day, a treasurer deposits checks and cash, pays approved bills, logs every transaction into a ledger or spreadsheet, reconciles the bank statement monthly, and prepares the treasurer's report for the next board meeting. Around tax season, they also gather the year's numbers for the annual IRS filing.

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations, reporting income, expenses, and activities to keep exempt status current. Depending on gross receipts and assets, an organization files the full Form 990, the shorter 990-EZ, or the simple 990-N e-Postcard ^[1].

What does a treasurer do in a club?

In a club setting, a treasurer manages dues collection, event or fundraiser income, and routine expenses, then reports the balance to club officers or members regularly. Smaller clubs may keep this informal, while booster clubs and PTOs typically need a written monthly report plus an annual IRS filing.

What does a club treasurer do differently from a nonprofit board treasurer?

The core duties (tracking money, reporting, reconciling) are the same, but a formally incorporated nonprofit club treasurer usually also handles an annual IRS Form 990 or 990-N filing and possibly state charity registration, which an informal hobby club typically doesn't need.

What is a 990 tax form?

A 990 tax form is the IRS's information return for tax-exempt organizations, not a traditional income tax return, since exempt groups generally don't pay federal income tax on mission-related revenue. It discloses income, expenses, and activities to keep the IRS and the public informed ^[1].

What is the 990-N and who has to file it?

Form 990-N (the e-Postcard) is the short annual filing for small tax-exempt organizations, generally those with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less ^[2]. It's free, filed electronically, and requires basic information like legal name, EIN, and confirmation of the gross receipts threshold.

What does a treasurer of a club do if the group has never filed a 990?

If a club has never filed and isn't sure of its IRS status, the first step is checking the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool and confirming with the IRS directly, since missing three consecutive years of required filings triggers automatic revocation of exempt status ^[3]. Reinstatement is possible through the streamlined process in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 for organizations that qualify; confirm current steps and fees with the IRS ^[4].

How do I write a treasurer's report for a first board meeting?

Pull the current bank statement, list the beginning balance, categorize all income and expenses since the last report (or since account opening if this is the first one), calculate the ending balance, confirm it matches the bank, and add two or three sentences of context. Keep the category list short, five to ten buckets is plenty.

Does a treasurer's report need to be audited?

A routine monthly treasurer's report doesn't need a formal audit. Many organizations do an internal review or full audit annually, or whenever the treasurer changes, and some states require an independent review once revenue crosses a set threshold; confirm that threshold with your state's charity registration office.

What's the difference between a 990 and a 990-N?

Form 990-N is a short electronic e-Postcard for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, requiring only basic identifying information ^[2]. The full Form 990 (or the mid-size 990-EZ) requires detailed financial statements and is required once an organization exceeds the 990-N gross receipts threshold.

Can a treasurer's report include raffle income?

Yes, and it should be shown as its own line item separate from dues or general donations, especially if your state requires a charitable gaming or raffle license. Keep raffle ticket sales and prize payouts traceable back to your specific license, since state charity offices may ask to see that detail.

Sources

1. IRS, "Annual Filing and Forms": Tax-exempt organizations file Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, or 990-N depending on gross receipts and asset levels
2. IRS, "e-File for Charities and Non-Profits: Form 990-N": Form 990-N is for most small tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, and lists required information fields
3. IRS, "Automatic Revocation of Exemption": Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status by operation of law
4. IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: The IRS lays out streamlined retroactive reinstatement procedures for organizations that lost exempt status through automatic revocation
5. IRS, "About Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard) for Tax-Exempt Organizations": The 990-N filing requires legal name, EIN, tax year, mailing address, principal officer information, and gross receipts confirmation
6. IRS, "Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax": Organizations exceeding the 990-N gross receipts threshold but under the full Form 990 threshold may file the mid-size Form 990-EZ