Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
A club treasurer tracks money in and out, keeps clean records, reports to the board, and files the right paperwork with the IRS and state each year. For most small booster clubs and PTOs, that means a Form 990-N or 990-EZ, a simple ledger, and two sets of eyes on every deposit and check.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the person a club, PTO, or booster organization trusts to track its money and tell the truth about where it went. That's the whole job in one sentence. Everything else, the spreadsheets, the bank reconciliations, the tax filings, is just the mechanics of doing that honestly and on time. Most small nonprofits don't hire a bookkeeper. The treasurer is a volunteer, often a parent who raised a hand at the wrong meeting, and the job comes with real legal weight even though nobody's getting paid. If your club has a bank account, it needs someone recording every dollar that moves through it. If your club has tax-exempt status, someone has to file with the IRS every single year or the exemption gets pulled automatically [1]. The treasurer isn't the president's assistant and isn't just "the person who writes checks." In a well-run club, the treasurer reports to the board independently, flags problems even when they're unpopular, and keeps records clean enough that a total stranger could pick them up and understand the last twelve months in an hour.
What does a treasurer do, day to day?
Day to day, a treasurer does four things on repeat: record transactions, reconcile the bank account, report to the board, and file required paperwork on deadline. Everything else is a variation on those four. Recording transactions means every deposit and every check gets logged with a date, amount, purpose, and who approved it. Not "misc income $340." Something a stranger could understand: "concession stand sales, Oct 4 football game, $340, counted by two volunteers." Reconciling the bank account means comparing your ledger to the actual bank statement every single month, more than at tax time. Discrepancies caught in month one are a five-minute fix. Discrepancies caught in month eleven are a forensic project. Reporting to the board means a short written summary at every meeting: cash on hand, money in, money out, upcoming big expenses. Boards can't govern what they can't see, and "the treasurer will handle it" is exactly how clubs end up in the newspaper for the wrong reasons. Filing paperwork means knowing your organization's fiscal year, its 990 deadline, its state charity registration renewal date, and its raffle license expiration if it runs raffles. Put these on a calendar with reminders 60 days out, not the week before.
What does a treasurer do in a club specifically (PTO, booster, youth sports)?
In a school booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer job looks a little different from a big nonprofit because the money moves in bursts: a car wash in September, a spring gala, concessions every home game. The core habits don't change, but the volume and cash-handling risk go up. A typical club treasurer handles: the operating bank account, a simple budget approved by the board each year, cash counts after every fundraiser (with two unrelated people counting and both signing off), reimbursement requests from coaches or committee chairs, and the annual tax filing. A lot of booster clubs also run raffles, which adds a state licensing requirement most new treasurers don't see coming until it's late. Raffle rules are set state by state, not federally, so a raffle that's fine in one state can require a license, a bond, or specific record-keeping in another. Confirm requirements with your state's charity regulator or attorney general's office before you sell a single ticket. The other thing that's different in booster and PTO land: high volunteer turnover. Treasurers often serve one or two years and hand off to someone new who's never seen a P&L. That's exactly why a clean, boring, well-labeled filing system matters more here than almost anywhere else in the nonprofit world.
What is Form 990 and does my club have to file it?
| $50,000 or less | Form 990-N (e-Postcard) | Filed online only, 8 basic questions [2] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than $200,000, and total assets under $500,000 | Form 990-EZ | Short form [3] | |
| $200,000 or more, or assets $500,000+ | Form 990 (full) | Full financial detail required [3] | Most small booster clubs and PTOs fall into the 990-N category. Read more in our 990-N guide and our full breakdown of the 990 tax form. |
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 way most people think of one, since tax-exempt orgs generally don't owe federal income tax on mission-related revenue, but the IRS still requires the filing to keep tax-exempt status active. There are several versions scaled to organization size. The IRS explains it directly: "Every organization exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code section 501(a) must file an annual information return except" certain excluded categories like churches [1]. For everyone else, which is Form 990, size determines the version. | Gross receipts | Which form | Notes |
What is the 990-N (e-Postcard), and what happens if I miss it?
The 990-N, sometimes called the e-Postcard, is the simplest version of Form 990. It's for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, and it's filed electronically through the IRS website, not mailed [2]. It asks basic questions: your EIN, tax year, legal name and address, confirmation you're still under the $50,000 threshold, and whether you've terminated. Here's the part every new treasurer needs to hear clearly: miss three years in a row and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status, no warning letter required beforehand for the final year. The IRS states plainly: "Organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status. The revocation is effective on the original filing due date of the third annual return" [4]. Auto-revocation is common. As of recent IRS data, hundreds of thousands of small organizations have been auto-revoked since the rule took effect in 2011, most of them small volunteer-run groups exactly like booster clubs and PTOs that simply lost track of who was supposed to file. Getting reinstated means filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again and, in many cases, paying a user fee. The IRS publishes and updates exempt organization user fees, including for the streamlined 1023-EZ application, in its annually revised revenue procedure on tax-exempt determination requests [5]. Confirm the current fee and eligibility on irs.gov before assuming which reinstatement path applies to you.
What's the difference between Form 990-N, 990-EZ, and full 990?
The difference comes down to money: how much your club took in and how much it owns. All three exist to give the public and the IRS a look at how a tax-exempt group spends its money, but the depth of detail scales up hard. 990-N is eight questions, filed online, done in ten minutes. No financial detail at all beyond confirming you're under the threshold [2]. 990-EZ requires a real (if short) accounting of revenue, expenses, and balance sheet items, plus schedules for things like fundraising events or lobbying if they apply [3]. Full Form 990 requires program service accomplishments, compensation disclosures for key people, detailed functional expense breakdowns, and multiple schedules. Most club treasurers will never touch a full 990 unless the group has grown well past typical booster-club size. One thing that trips people up: gross receipts, not net income, decide which form applies. A club that brought in $180,000 through a big gala and spent $170,000 on it still has $180,000 in gross receipts for filing purposes, not $10,000. Check the specific thresholds and any updates directly on irs.gov [3], because these numbers have shifted before and could again.
What records should a club treasurer keep, and for how long?
Keep more than you think you need, and keep it organized by fiscal year. At minimum: bank statements and reconciliations, deposit slips, receipts for every expense, board-approved budgets, meeting minutes where financial decisions were made, the prior year's 990 filing confirmation, and any state charity registration or raffle license paperwork. A reasonable retention rule many small nonprofits use: seven years for financial records, permanently for formation documents (articles of incorporation, IRS determination letter, bylaws). The IRS doesn't set one universal retention period for all nonprofit records, so when in doubt, keep longer rather than shorter, and confirm any specific document retention question with the IRS or your state's guidance. Digital storage beats a shoebox, but a shared, backed-up folder with clear year-by-year subfolders beats a fancy system nobody else can navigate. The real test: could next year's treasurer, who you've never met, find the March bank statement in under two minutes? If not, reorganize now.
How does a treasurer handle cash safely?
Cash is where small nonprofits get into the most trouble, not because volunteers are dishonest but because sloppy handling creates suspicion even when everyone's clean. The fix is boring controls, applied every time, no exceptions for the treasurer's best friend running the bake sale. The core rule: two unrelated people count cash together, both sign a count sheet, and the cash gets deposited within a day or two, not held at someone's house. No single person should ever be the only one who touches a cash box from collection to deposit. Other habits worth building in from day one: pre-numbered receipt books for cash sales, a locked box or bag for cash between events, bank deposits that match the count sheet exactly (any variance gets written down and explained, not rounded away), and a monthly reconciliation that catches discrepancies while they're still recent and explainable. None of this implies anyone's stealing. It protects the treasurer as much as the club, because a documented process is the only thing that clears your name fast if a parent or board member ever asks hard questions about a fundraiser total that looked light.
What is a budget and how does a treasurer build one?
A budget is a plan for money in and money out over the coming year, built from last year's actuals plus whatever the club knows is changing. It's not a guess, and it's not the treasurer's solo project. Build it with input from the board and committee chairs, then get formal approval at a meeting, recorded in the minutes. Start with last year's actual income and expenses by category (dues, concessions, uniforms, tournament fees, whatever applies). Adjust for known changes: a new fundraiser, a bigger tournament schedule, a fee increase. Build in a cushion, most small nonprofits target something like a 5 to 10 percent buffer for surprises, though there's no official rule here, just common sense and your own club's history of surprises. Once approved, the budget becomes the yardstick for every reporting period. "We budgeted $2,000 for uniforms and spent $2,400" is a normal, useful sentence at a board meeting. A treasurer who can't produce that sentence isn't really tracking the money, just moving it.
What should a treasurer do when handing off to the next person?
A good handoff takes real time, plan for at least a few weeks of overlap if you can manage it, not a five-minute folder transfer at the last meeting. Rushed handoffs are how clubs lose the thread on their own tax filings and end up auto-revoked two years later with nobody noticing. At minimum, hand over: the login for the IRS 990-N e-filing portal, the bank account access and signer paperwork, the current year budget and last three years of filed 990s, the state charity registration and raffle license status with renewal dates, and a written summary of any open issues (a bounced check, a pending reimbursement, a state filing that's overdue). Walk the new treasurer through one full bank reconciliation together before you go. Reading about it and doing it once side by side are completely different levels of understanding, and it's the single highest-value hour you can spend on your way out the door.
What about state registration and raffle licenses?
Federal tax-exempt status and state charity registration are two separate things, and a lot of new treasurers only find out about the second one when a check bounces on a raffle prize. Many states require charitable organizations to register before soliciting donations or running raffles, sometimes with an annual renewal and a fee. Raffle rules in particular vary enormously state to state: some require a specific license, some cap prize values, some require a bond, and some ban raffles for organizations under a certain age or size. There's no federal raffle law that covers this, it's entirely state and sometimes local. Confirm requirements directly with your state's charity registration office or attorney general's office before running any raffle, and check whether your specific county or city adds its own layer on top. This is genuinely one of the more confusing corners of the job because the rules don't map cleanly across state lines, and a treasurer who moves from a booster club in one state to one in another can't assume anything carries over.
Is there a shortcut for getting set up correctly?
There's no shortcut for doing the work, but there's a real shortcut for not reinventing the wheel every time someone new takes over. A lot of the pain new treasurers hit, tracking down the right form, figuring out the state's raffle rules, building a reconciliation template from scratch, is repeat work every club solves independently and imperfectly. That's the gap BoosterLedger's $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: state-specific forms, a 990 filing calendar, cash-handling checklists, and a handoff packet built for exactly this job, so you're not building your own system from a blank spreadsheet in week one. Check it out at treasurer-kit-builder if you'd rather start from a template than a blank page. Whatever system you use, home-built or purchased, the standard is the same: could a stranger open your records and understand the last year in an hour? If yes, you're doing the job right.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks all money coming into and out of an organization, keeps clean records, reconciles the bank account monthly, reports finances to the board regularly, and files required tax and state paperwork on time. For a club treasurer, that also usually means overseeing cash handling at fundraisers and building the annual budget.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the officer or volunteer responsible for an organization's money: recording it, safeguarding it, reporting on it, and filing whatever tax and legal paperwork keeps the organization in good standing. In small nonprofits like PTOs and booster clubs, it's usually an unpaid volunteer role with real legal responsibility attached.
What do treasurers do at board meetings?
Treasurers present a short financial report at each meeting: current cash balance, income and expenses since the last meeting, budget-to-actual comparison, and any upcoming large expenses or filing deadlines. This gets recorded in the meeting minutes so there's a written record of what the board knew and approved.
What does a treasurer do in a club?
In a club setting like a booster organization, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer manages the bank account, tracks fundraiser income (often cash-heavy), reimburses volunteers and coaches, builds the annual budget with the board, and files the club's Form 990 and any required state charity or raffle paperwork each year.
What does a club treasurer do that's different from a corporate treasurer?
A club treasurer is almost always an unpaid volunteer handling smaller, more irregular income (concessions, raffles, car washes) with less formal accounting support than a corporate treasurer would have. The core duties, record-keeping, reporting, and compliance, are similar, but the cash-handling risk and volunteer turnover are much higher in clubs.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations, reporting revenue, expenses, and activities. It comes in several versions (990-N, 990-EZ, full 990) scaled by an organization's gross receipts and assets, per IRS guidance on annual exempt organization returns.
What is a 990 tax form?
The 990 tax form is the IRS's information return for tax-exempt organizations, not a typical income tax return, since most exempt orgs owe no federal income tax on mission-related revenue. It exists so the IRS and the public can see how a tax-exempt organization raises and spends money each year.
What is the 990-N and who has to file it?
The 990-N, or e-Postcard, is the simplest annual filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's filed online only through the IRS website and asks eight basic questions. Miss it for three straight years and the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status.
What happens if a club doesn't file its 990 for a few years?
Missing the annual 990 filing (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) for three consecutive years triggers automatic revocation of federal tax-exempt status, per IRS rules. Reinstatement generally requires refiling for exemption (often Form 1023 or 1023-EZ), possibly paying a user fee, and back-filing missed returns. Confirm current requirements with the IRS.
Does a small booster club really need to file taxes?
Yes, in the sense that it needs to file an annual information return, even if it owes no income tax. Almost every organization exempt under IRC section 501(a) must file some version of Form 990 annually, according to IRS guidance, with narrow exceptions like churches.
Do club treasurers need to register with the state, more than the IRS?
Often yes. Many states require charitable organizations to register before soliciting donations or running raffles, separate from federal tax-exempt status. Rules and fees vary by state. Confirm directly with your state's charity registration office or attorney general's office before fundraising or running any raffle.
How long should a treasurer keep financial records?
A common practice among small nonprofits is keeping detailed financial records for around seven years and permanent formation documents (articles of incorporation, IRS determination letter, bylaws) indefinitely. There's no single universal IRS rule covering every document type, so when unsure, keep records longer rather than risk shredding something needed later.
What's the single most important habit for a new club treasurer?
Reconcile the bank account every single month, without exception, and never let cash sit uncounted or unrecorded overnight. Small errors caught monthly are minor fixes; the same errors discovered a year later during tax filing or an audit are much harder and much more suspicious to untangle.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: Every organization exempt under section 501(a) must file an annual return except certain excluded categories
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): Form 990-N is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less and is filed electronically
- IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Thresholds distinguishing Form 990-EZ from full Form 990 based on gross receipts and total assets
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status, effective the original filing due date of the third year
- IRS, User Fee for Exempt Organization Determination Letter Requests: IRS user fees for exempt organization determination letter requests, including the Form 1023-EZ streamlined application, are set and updated by the IRS