A Treasurer handover checklist that doesn’t lose the year

January is when a lot of Treasurers quietly decide: “I’m done after the next AGM.” Sometimes it’s burnout, sometimes a new job, sometimes they’ve been the only person who understood the accounting file for years and they’re tired.

Whatever the reason, the handover decides whether the next Treasurer starts with a clear picture or spends months piecing it together from email threads and a shoebox of receipts.

Treat the handover as a project

A half-hour chat is not a handover. Block out time, use a checklist, and sit together (or share screens) so you do the transfers rather than just talk about them. The outgoing Treasurer should stay available for a few weeks of “where is X?” questions, but the systems should already work without them.

If the outgoing Treasurer is leaving on bad terms, still do the checklist. It matters more then.

Access first

Bank account signatories and online banking users
Accounting software login, and who owns the licence (a personal email address is a trap)
BAS, STP and ATO access if relevant, and who the registered agent is
Grant portals and acquittal logins
Payment platforms such as Stripe, Square or TryBooking
Debit cards and who holds them
Safe or lockbox keys, if you have them

Remove access when people leave. Ex-committee members who can still see bank balances months later is a control failure, and it usually happens because nobody remembered.

The full picture, not just the balances

Hand over:

Current bank balances and reconciliations
Unpresented cheques and pending payments
Recurring payments and subscriptions (Zoom, software, insurance)
Outstanding invoices, both owed to you and by you
Grant conditions and reporting dates
An asset list, even a simple one
The auditor or reviewer’s contact details, if you have one
Where the last few years of reports are kept

Explain the quirks too. “We code the hall hire under Programs, not Venue” saves the new person weeks of confusion.

Put the dates in a shared calendar

Everyone on the executive should be able to see:

BAS and IAS dates
Insurance renewals
Membership renewals that affect cashflow
Grant acquittals
The AGM financial report deadline
The audit timeline, if you have one

One folder for the handover

Create a folder called “Finance – Handover”. Put in it the chart of accounts notes, instructions for the password manager (share the access securely, not as plain text in the folder), the supplier list, payroll contacts, and a one-page note on how your organisation handles money. If the only copy of last year’s financials is on a personal laptop, copy it to the organisation’s shared drive today.

What the board should do

Don’t leave the new Treasurer to find problems alone. The President should check that payments are authorised by two people, that reports are reviewed monthly, and that the board understands the numbers well enough to ask sensible questions. You don’t need to be an accountant. You need to notice when numbers stop making sense and ask.

Common failure points

Handovers tend to go wrong in the same places:

The accounting file is still owned by a personal email address
Nobody has a list of direct debits, so subscriptions keep billing unnoticed
A grant acquittal is due two weeks after the AGM and nobody told the new Treasurer
The petty cash tin is ignored until it’s a problem
BAS is lodged late because access wasn’t transferred

Go through these one by one and tick them off. It’s tedious, but it costs less than reconstructing a year.

Close it out

On the last official day, confirm that access has been removed, confirm the new signatories are active, minute that the handover is complete, and thank the outgoing Treasurer properly. If you can, record a short screen-share of “how we reconcile” while they’re still around. A fifteen-minute video can replace three panicked phone calls later.

Next step

Put the handover checklist on the agenda for the meeting before the AGM, and give each item a name and a date. If your finance setup is tangled and you’d like a plain priority list before the next person inherits it, see our reporting and financial support or book a free 30-minute call.

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