[Finance] A bank account: official or personal?

[martin.p.burns@uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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>I would *not* be able to use one of my sub-accounts at the credit
>union for evolt.org because they can't set it to be non-interest
>bearing. I could open a second checking account there, but it
>wouldn't be any less costly than WF or BA, and would be less
>convenient than the other two. IOW, I might as well open an account
>at a local bank I can actually walk into.

>I HAVEN'T yet looked into on-line banking. Does anyone want to help
>me with this?

I think that the order of preference should be
1) Online banking
2) A bank you can walk into

If we can get a bank that is both, then ideal

>WF and BA both have about the same fee structure and/or minimum
>balance requirements, so given that I already have an account with
>WF, I'd lean towards them.

Go with the people you know to be good imo.

>So that brings us to the following. I either open a second personal
>checking account at Wells Fargo and use it only for evolt.org
>(short-term view), or we can do what's needed to actually open an
>official business account for evolt.org (longer-term view).

Is it an either-or? Would it be possible to have a personal account as an
interim measure which migrates over once we have all the stuff we need for
a business account?

>1. Indicate who our "officers" are and what signing ability they have
>on the account.

I assume that any bank would have some process to guard against those with
signing power running off with the chequebook, so I'm not sure how much we
need co-signing for cheques.

Maybe something like:
1 Up to $1000-ish, only one sig needed
2 Above that, Treasurer plus one other
3 To change sigs, at least 3 of 4 (or 4 of 5 etc)

with internal policies requiring appropriate mandates for 2 and 3.

Officers with signing ability really need to be fairly stable - they should
be endorsed with a formal process which normally doesn't run very often
(annually is good), with ability to make changes sooner in the event of
someone leaving the office early.

I think Executive Officers plus maybe one or (max) 2 non-exec financial
officers. Non-execs acting as the check and balance, and would probably
rotate less often than EOs.

I think the thing to do is elect new exec officers, which we could do
either
1) By appointment of the SteeringCttee (which is somewhat non-democratic)
2) By general voting of the membership (which raises issues about defining
qualifying members)
3) By appointment of theforum as one of the last things it does before the
new structure comes fully into operation

>The problem with C is that we may not want to give signing privs to
>the heads of other Monkey Groups.

Not all other MGs may *want* to formalise a chef de groupe, and I think
they'll change too quickly to keep the bank happy.

>3. Obtain a tax identification number (more information at the
>Internal Revenue Service through http://tinyurl.com/9kl), unless we
>don't file pension or excise tax returns and have NO employees. In
>that case, I can use my Social Security Number and treat the business
>as if I'm a sole proprietor. Not sure if this would be a good idea or
>not, but it would get us past this particular hurdle without too much
>hassle (I think).

How do other voluntary orgs handle this?

>==========
>NOTE:
>I was thinking I'd email Dan and request all of the documents and
>information he'd previously put together in trying to make evolt.org
>an official NFP. Does anyone have a problem with this request?
>==========

I think it's essential as part of the handover.

>So, the bottom line is either I open another personal account, or we
>go the lengths needed to open a business account.

If we need to operate an account sooner than we can get a business account,
then I think a personal account is the only way to do it.

>Unless we have a business account, we won't be able to deposit any
>donations made out to evolt.org.

I don't think there's any argument that we need a business account. It's a
question of what we do up until that point.

>As part of my duties, I'll be keeping an account ledger of all
>account activity, and that ledger (probably in Quicken) will be
>available to the joint account holders/signers at any time.

Cool. Quicken exports to Excel, right?

>So, how's this all sound?

Good, very good.

>Finally, I'd need each person on the account to sign the application
>form. All signatures MUST be on the same form. That'll be a headache,
>but if we have to we can mail the document around and hope it doesn't
>get lost or delayed somewhere.

That's what DHL was invented for...

Cheers
Martin


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