Accounting and money for large activities and trips

Leaders of youth are often more interested in the youth and the activity at hand than the mundane matters of money – and many a youth leader has gotten in hot water for mishandling of money. So here are some comments about money:

• Always have extra cash on hand to bail out a kid or two.
• Try to arrange to have a cash advance for fast-food and incidental expenses. I generally plan on $5/kid for breakfast, $5/kid for lunch and $10/kid for dinner for fast-food meals. If someone wants to spend more than this allotment, they can do so out of their own spending money. Often a youth who doesn't spend their allotment will cover the cost of the youth that needs more than the average.
• For fast food meals and other receiptless situations – issue kids or groups of kids whole bills (such as a $20 bill to a group of four) and get the change back and put in an envelope (I always keep a supply of dollar bill sized envelopes at hand). At a more leisurely time you can count the change and calculate the total cost of the meal or activity and put this on your ledger (I use the back of the envelope for a temporary ledger).
• Get a receipt for cash spent any time you can and stick in the envelope.
• If you can sell the Trustees on it, get a corporate credit card, if not, get a credit card separate from your own that you use only for church related activities. Use it any time this is possible, carrying large amounts of cash is a pain and potentially dangerous and harder to account for.
• Always produce a balance sheet of any complicated or expensive activities.