Mini Audits: What They Are and How to Conduct One

Following is a transcript of this podcast episode, with audio/video below.

Welcome to the Two-Minute Treasurer’s Tip Podcast. I am your host, Cyndi Meuchel. I happen to be the Co-Owner of MoneyMinder, where our goal is to make your life as a volunteer super easy.

Today I’m answering the following question: What’s a “Mini Audit” and how do you conduct one? Ty writes in, “I’ve heard you refer to the idea of Mini Audits in workshops. Can you tell me more about this and how you would recommend conducting one?”.

Well, let me start by saying, here at MoneyMinder we use the terms “financial review” and “audit” somewhat interchangeably. So some folks say that technically audits are done by tax professionals and financial reviews are done by volunteers, but let’s not get hung up on that. Whatever term you choose to use, it’s just good practice to have a third party review your books on a monthly, as well as an annual, basis.

That’s the basis there. The idea of the mini audit is to check for the accuracy of your books and to make sure everything is accounted for and that the report that you present at your meeting each month can be substantiated. Doing this once a month provides really good oversight and can help catch any errors that might have occurred. After all, we’re all human.

So how do you do this? We recommend that you simply draw straws at your board meeting, or maybe play ‘rock, paper, scissors’, to get to see who performs the mini audit for the month. It doesn’t require any expertise, just someone willing to compare documents and do some really simple math. You would start by giving that lucky winner a copy of your bank statement and your Treasurer’s Report, and then they can use the 10-Minute Financial Review form, that you can download from our Treasurer’s Compass Guide found on our website, and then they simply fill in the blanks.

Based on the data from your bank statement, compare it to the MoneyMinder reports, do a little simple math and they’re all done. Just make sure you do this every month so that you can confirm that your bank statement and the reports are always in agreement. It’s always also good to do a full audit or a financial review of your books every year. Ideally this would occur right when your board is transitioning.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! If you have a question you’d like answered, email it to me at [email protected]. My name is Cyndi Meuchel and this is your Two-Minute Treasurer’s Tip for today.

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