C. Guidelines for Section Audits Report

I have received some responses asking me how an audit is done, how does an audit report look like,

and of course , some of you have reported completion of audit.

Thank you for responses. Here is a quick write-up that may answer some qns, not meant to be comprehensive, but a guide. As always feel free to ask any qns.

1. Identify a two person team (who is not a section chair, nor treasurer) for your audit team.

2. Depending on how you locally manage accounting/transactions, there are possibly up to three sources of record. CB(Concentration Banking) report (the one and only official record), perhaps your spreadhseet, and Netsuite.

3. A section typically has two accounts- checking and LTIF(long term investment fund) .

4. Your reporting to Netsuite, keeping Netsuite up to date does not mean you did an audit.This was done in Jan/Feb to ensure reporting compliance with MGA and to  secure your section rebate.

5. Make sure your section has an approved budget sheet that is available to the auditors. Typically, budget for a calendar year is created and ExCom approved no later than October/Nov of previous year. This gives the treasurer the authority to write checks, process inflow & outflow without constantly reaching out to the section chair. Exceptions can always be handled separately, and makes for a smooth flow of treasurer’s duties.

6. The treasurer needs to produce a report of transactions for the auditors. This could be Netsuite statement, CB statement, or local spreadsheet. The statement must have transactions bracketed by  balance as on Dec 31 of previous year, and balance as on 12/31 of audit year. To amplify, the treasurer is stating the opening and closing balances, and transactions conducted in between. The auditors will certify these numbers after their inspection.  Note that if Netsuite or local spreadsheet reports are used, they may differ from CB report (which is always the master, and account of record), by uncashed checks issued by section.

7. All transactions – if income, must have clear identifiers to identify the source (MGA rebate, Donation/sponsor, Society support, refunds,  ..) If expense or payouts, 1. are they approved expense (in the budget?, or adhoc approved by section chair supported by mail or meeting minutes), receipts (expense reports) for transactions over $25. Make sure the payee and person authorizing the check are not the same!

8. A typical treasurer summary , transactions report and auditor report are attached. This is at the region level. You may reduce it in complexity to meet your section needs. (For example , you do not have a separate assessment account). 

9. The auditors report emphasizes the opening and ending Networth of the section (CB balance + LTIF balance), noting the delta in networth. The report is presented to the section chair and shared with section ExCom. It would be ideal if this can be done by March 31 of a year. The auditors will also make note on their process of inspection (did they inspect all or some selected transactions, auditor finds and recommendations. The audit report once accepted and approved by section chair & ExCom may then be shared with the area chairs. 

10 Typically, all CB accounts must be audited. If your section has multiple CB accounts (for chapters, seminars, ..), please follow a similar and applicable set of guidelines. The input is always, treasurer’s report/s, and auditors’ report once the audit is done to be given to chapter/unit chair. The chair must follow through on any findings and implement remedies as needed.

I hope this gives you most of what you need to know. Again, hats off if you doing already doing this.

While you are welcome to share with your treasurers, please do not foward the mail since the attachments contain region specific financial data if the recipients do not have a need to know.

Remember – region does the audit twice a year (reason is part tradition, part to handle scrutiny of over 700-800 transactions in a year); sections are required to do only once.

My attachments are meant to give you an idea of how you can use this as a guide to get your own report from auditors that has a few basic highlights discussed above.

Caitlyn Chow, Marisol Toro from IEEE Piscataway are auditor contacts – should you have any qns.

Harold Ruchelman & Bob Pellegrino are region auditors – They can also be source of answer for any qns you may have.