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Easy swimming club carnival accounts

May 2, 2015 By Ben Ramsden

Swimming carnivals can become complex for Treasurers because of the mix of payments going in and out at different times for various purposes. Great record keeping will help the club understand how best to maximise profits, minimise leakage, and please the auditor!

We have developed and refined this system over 4 years so we know that it works well.

  1. Print the Event Financials Log pro-forma. Chose either the blank or pre-filled with SMNE clubs version
  2. Ahead of the event complete the event, date and venue (great memory joggers when referring back to the file months later
  3. From the meet director obtain a list of clubs that have entered, and their total entries. Meet Manager does have the capability to produce a report with $ output. If not use the entry numbers, multiply by the price per event to get $. Watch out for relays which are often entered via a separate route, late, and subject to regular change. Write the amount due into the Due $ column.
  4. Write money received from clubs in the appropriate Paid column. Clubs should be requested to pay ahead of the meet so that missing payments can be chased. Payments not received by the time the swimmer hits the water are very difficult and time consuming to chase. Tick those clubs that have paid in full. Chase those clubs that haven’t.
  5. On the day write the float amount into the ‘float’ box and as the day progresses mark transactions in the appropriate places. Expenses are marked under ‘expenses’. For multi-day meets, 1 page per day is recommended, and it will not be necessary to complete the ‘entries’ for each day. Be careful not to confuse float amounts each day.
  6. ‘Prelim’ and ‘final’ columns are included to allow an on the day count (preliminary) and a final count (actual) once exact totals are known or checked when cash is banked. The reality is that errors can be made on the day, or a last minute issue as you are leaving the pool needs sorting, leading to discrepancies.
  7. The ‘income on the day calculation’ shows the flow of money in and out down to cash banked at the end of the day.
  8. The ‘event surplus calculation’ is a quick way of calculating the surplus for the day (always good to know). Note the existing pro-forma does not have medals/trophies/prizes shown as a cost, this should be added.
  9. Attach receipts for all costs and reports validating the income for entries and gate/raffle/program sales. The latter is usually difficult to fully validate.
  10. After the event bank the cash asap.
  11. When entering this information into the accounting ledger be careful! The initial float should be recorded as a journal entry bank to cash. All cash transactions at the carnival should be recorded on the ledger (aggregated per ledger account). Banked cash should be reported as a journal entry cash to bank.
  12. Retain the form, with attachments in the file.

Filed Under: Carnivals, Treasurer

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