Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
A nonprofit treasurer tracks money in and out, keeps books that match the bank, files or oversees the right IRS Form 990 variant each year, and hands clean records to the board and the next treasurer. For groups under $50,000 in gross receipts, that usually means the Form 990-N e-postcard, done online at irs.gov.
what does a treasurer do?
A nonprofit treasurer is the person who keeps the organization's money honest on paper. That means recording every deposit and every payment, reconciling the bank statement against the books every month, and being able to answer "how much do we have and where did it go" at any point without digging through a shoebox. In a booster club or PTO, the treasurer usually also writes checks (or approves electronic payments), tracks fundraiser income against expenses, and prepares a budget-to-actual report for board meetings. On the compliance side, the treasurer is typically the one who files or arranges the annual IRS return, tracks the state charity registration renewal if one applies, and keeps receipts organized in case anyone (a new board, an auditor, or the IRS) ever asks to see them. None of this requires an accounting degree. It requires consistency. Same process every month, same categories every year, and a habit of writing things down before they're forgotten. Most small nonprofit treasurer jobs fail not from fraud but from drift, receipts piling up, categories changing year to year, nobody reconciling the bank account for six months. The job is less about spreadsheets and more about not letting the gap between "what happened" and "what's recorded" grow.
what is a treasurer, exactly, in a nonprofit or club?
A treasurer is an officer, usually elected or appointed by the board, who is legally and practically responsible for the organization's financial recordkeeping. The title carries fiduciary weight even in a volunteer PTO: it implies a duty to handle the group's money carefully and honestly and to report on it accurately to the board and members. Most bylaws spell out the treasurer's authority (who can sign checks, what spending needs board approval, how often financial reports go to the membership) but many small groups have outdated or vague bylaws that never anticipated things like Venmo tip jars or PayPal fundraising pages. If your bylaws are silent or ancient, that's worth flagging at your first board meeting rather than guessing. Legally, treasurer isn't a title the IRS or state defines with a single national standard. It's whatever the organization's own governing documents say it is. What the IRS does care about is that someone at the organization is accurately reporting the group's finances on the annual return, whichever form applies.
what do treasurers do differently in a small club versus a large nonprofit?
In a large nonprofit, the treasurer role is often more of an oversight function: a board member who reviews financials prepared by paid staff or a bookkeeper, and who might chair a finance committee. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer is usually the bookkeeper, the reporter, and the internal auditor all at once, because there's no staff. That concentration of duties is exactly why small nonprofits are more vulnerable to both honest mistakes and outright theft: one person holds the checkbook, the bank login, and the only copy of the ledger. The fix isn't distrust, it's structure. Two signers on the bank account. A second person who reviews (more than rubber-stamps) the monthly reconciliation. Someone other than the treasurer opening the bank statement's mail or PDF each month. Small club treasurers also tend to deal with more cash: concession stand money, raffle ticket sales, bake sale proceeds. Cash-handling controls (two people counting, a signed count sheet, same-day bank deposits) matter more here than in nonprofits that run entirely on card payments and grants.
what is Form 990, and does every nonprofit have to file it?
| Form 990-N (e-Postcard) | Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 | Filed online only, no paper option [2] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form 990-EZ | Gross receipts < $200,000 AND total assets < $500,000 | Optional even if you qualify for 990-N [1] | |
| Form 990 (full) | Gross receipts ≥ $200,000 OR total assets ≥ $500,000 | Required [1] | |
| Form 990-PF | Private foundations | Required regardless of size [1] | Almost every booster club, PTO, or youth sports group that's genuinely small (concession stands, spirit wear, a few fundraisers a year) lands in 990-N territory. Groups running larger fundraising operations, grants, or facility budgets can cross into 990-EZ or full 990 territory without anyone quite noticing until receipts pile up over $200,000 for the year. Missing this filing isn't a paperwork inconvenience, it's how organizations lose their tax-exempt status entirely, covered in the next section. For the exact form instructions and current thresholds, check irs form 990 guidance and the IRS's own page before you file. |
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. It reports income, expenses, program activities, and governance information, and (for the full version) it's a public document anyone can look up. There isn't one single "990": the IRS has a family of versions scaled to organization size [1]. Which version you file depends on gross receipts and total assets: | Filing | Who files it | Threshold |
what is Form 990-N, the e-postcard version?
Form 990-N is the shortest version of the 990 family, built for small organizations. The IRS describes eligibility plainly: "most small tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" file the e-Postcard instead of Form 990 or 990-EZ [2]. It's filed entirely online through the IRS's Form 990-N electronic filing system, there's no paper version. You'll need the organization's EIN, tax year, legal name and any doing-business-as name, mailing address, the name and address of a principal officer, and a statement confirming gross receipts are $50,000 or less [2]. The due date is the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. For a calendar-year organization (fiscal year ending December 31), that's May 15 [2]. Unlike the full 990, there's no dollar penalty for filing 990-N late, but there's a much bigger consequence: three consecutive years of missed 990-series filings triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status, and that includes the 990-N [3]. For step-by-step filing details, see form 990-n and 990n.
what happens if a treasurer misses the 990 filing deadline?
Nothing dramatic happens after year one or two. The real cliff is year three. Federal law (added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006) requires the IRS to automatically revoke the tax-exempt status of any organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years [3][4]. The IRS states it directly: "Organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years lose their tax-exempt status. The revocation is effective on the original filing due date of the third annual return or notice" [4]. That's retroactive; the group has effectively been non-exempt (for federal income tax purposes) since that missed third deadline, even if nobody noticed until later. Once revoked, the organization has to apply for reinstatement (usually Form 1023 or 1023-EZ, depending on size) and, depending on circumstances, might owe corporate income tax for the gap years. The IRS does offer streamlined retroactive reinstatement procedures for small organizations that file within 15 months of revocation, described in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 [5]. If you're taking over a set of books and you're not sure the last three years of 990s got filed, the very first thing to do is check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool [6] for the group's status before anything else.
what does a treasurer do in a club, specifically?
In a booster club, PTO, or rec league, the day-to-day treasurer job usually breaks into four buckets: recording, reconciling, reporting, and filing. Recording means logging every transaction as it happens, ideally the same week, not batched up at year-end from memory. Reconciling means matching the books against the actual bank statement every month and investigating any difference immediately, not letting it "work itself out." Reporting means giving the board (and often the general membership) a plain financial summary at each meeting: cash on hand, money in, money out, and anything unusual. Filing means the annual IRS return, plus any state charity registration renewal, sales tax exemption paperwork, or raffle license renewal the group's activities require. A club treasurer also usually manages the sign-up and reimbursement side: approving expense reimbursements with receipts attached, tracking who owes dues, and making sure fundraiser proceeds get deposited (not held in someone's car trunk for two weeks). None of this is glamorous. It's also exactly the stuff that, done sloppily, turns into a mess for whoever takes over next season.
what does a club treasurer do that's different from what a PTO treasurer does?
The core job is the same across booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports treasurers: track money, reconcile, report, file. Where they differ is in the specific revenue streams and regulatory touchpoints each type of group tends to hit. A booster club treasurer often deals with concession stand cash, spirit wear sales (sales tax questions come up here), and larger equipment purchases for a specific team or program. A PTO treasurer often handles school-directed restricted funds (a grant tied to a specific classroom purchase, for instance) alongside general fundraising, and needs to track restricted versus unrestricted money separately. A youth sports league treasurer frequently runs raffles or 50/50 drawings, which can trigger state raffle licensing requirements that don't apply to a group that only sells cookie dough and wrapping paper. All three types face the same 990 filing thresholds, the same auto-revocation risk, and the same need for basic internal controls. The differences show up mostly in what needs a state permit and what needs a sales tax exemption certificate, which varies enough by state that it's worth checking directly with your state's charity registration office or attorney general's office rather than assuming.
what does a treasurer of a club actually need to hand off to the next person?
A clean handoff should include, at minimum: the current bank statement and a reconciliation showing it matches the books, the last three years of filed 990s (or confirmation they were filed, checkable at the IRS's search tool [6]), a list of who has signing authority on the bank account, and the EIN and any state registration numbers. Also hand over: the chart of accounts or category list used for budgeting, copies of any state raffle or gaming licenses and their renewal dates, the current year's budget versus actual spending, and a folder (physical or digital) of receipts and invoices for the current fiscal year. If the group uses accounting software or even a shared spreadsheet, the new treasurer needs full access before the old one disappears, not a promise to "send it over." A surprising number of handoffs happen with none of this: a shoebox, a login nobody wrote down, and a vague sense that "it's all fine." That's how organizations end up discovering, two years later, that nobody filed a 990-N since a coach moved away. Building a simple, repeatable handoff packet at the end of every term (regardless of whether the same person is staying on) is the single highest-leverage thing a treasurer can do for the organization's long-term health.
what internal controls should a treasurer put in place?
Controls don't need to be complicated to work. The basics that matter most for a volunteer-run group: require two signatures (or two approvals) on checks or transfers above a set dollar threshold, never let one person both collect cash and record the deposit alone, and have someone other than the treasurer review the bank statement each month. For cash-heavy events (concession stands, raffles, gate admission), use a count sheet signed by two people at the point of collection, before the cash goes anywhere else. Deposit cash the same day or next business day when possible; cash sitting in a car or a coach's bag overnight is the single most common way small amounts of money quietly disappear, not through theft necessarily, but through simple loss and confusion about who had what. Separate restricted funds (grant money earmarked for a specific purpose) from general operating funds in your bookkeeping, even if they sit in the same bank account, so you can always show a grantor or auditor exactly what happened to their money. None of these controls assume anyone is dishonest. They assume, correctly, that even honest people lose receipts, misremember numbers, and make mistakes when nobody double-checks.
does a treasurer need to worry about state charity registration and raffle licenses too?
Often yes, and this is the piece most new volunteer treasurers miss entirely. Many states require nonprofits that solicit donations from the public to register with the state's charity regulator (usually the attorney general's office or secretary of state) separately from anything filed with the IRS, and registration thresholds and exemptions for small organizations vary by state. Raffles, 50/50 drawings, and similar games of chance are regulated at the state (sometimes county or city) level, and require a specific gaming or raffle license in many jurisdictions, again with rules that differ significantly from one state to the next. Running a raffle without the right license, even a small one at a single fundraiser, can expose the organization to fines or force it to return proceeds. Because these rules genuinely vary and change, the right move for any treasurer is to confirm current requirements directly with your state's charity registration office and your state's gaming or raffle licensing authority before running a raffle or before your first solicitation of the year. Don't rely on what last year's treasurer assumed was fine; state rules shift, and "we've always done it this way" isn't a defense in an audit.
where do you actually file the 990 or 990-N?
Form 990-N is filed entirely online through the IRS's electronic filing system for the e-Postcard; there's no separate software required and no fee to file [2]. Forms 990-EZ and full Form 990 are filed electronically as well. You'll want the organization's EIN on hand, its exact legal name as registered with the IRS, the tax year dates, and (for 990-N) the gross receipts confirmation. If your fiscal year doesn't run calendar-year, mark the actual due date on a calendar the moment the fiscal year closes; the 15th-day-of-the-5th-month rule catches a lot of treasurers off guard because it doesn't line up with April 15. If your group has never filed, or you inherited books with a filing gap, start by checking the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search [6] to see current status before you file anything, so you know whether you're filing a routine annual return or dealing with a revocation that needs the reinstatement process in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 [5]. For a walkthrough of the differences between the return types, see form 990, 990 tax form, and [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990).
how do first-time treasurers get organized fast without guessing at every rule?
The honest answer: pull your organization's EIN, check its status on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search [6], find last year's filed 990 or 990-N confirmation, and get a bank reconciliation done for the current month before you do anything else. Everything else (budgets, reports, fancy spreadsheets) can wait a week; knowing your filing status and your actual cash position can't. Most of the actual work is jurisdiction-specific: your state's charity registration form, your state's raffle license, your state's sales tax exemption rules. Generic advice can get you the federal picture right, but the state layer needs to come from your own state's attorney general or charity office site. This is the exact gap BoosterLedger's $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: it pulls together the federal 990 requirements with your specific state's raffle licensing and charity registration rules into one packet, so a first-time volunteer treasurer isn't reverse-engineering fifty different state websites in their first month on the job.
what's the single biggest mistake new treasurers make?
Assuming the previous treasurer's system was fine because nobody complained. The most common failure pattern in small nonprofit finances isn't dramatic fraud, it's quiet drift: a 990-N that stopped getting filed two treasurers ago, a bank account with three old signers who've all moved away, receipts that exist in three different people's inboxes and nowhere else. The fix is almost always the same regardless of the specific problem: check the IRS exempt status right away [6], get the bank reconciled to the current month, confirm who actually has signing authority, and write down the state's filing requirements once so nobody has to rediscover them next year. It's boring work. It's also the entire job. If you take over mid-crisis (a revocation, a missing 990, a raffle nobody licensed), don't panic and don't guess: confirm with the IRS and your state charity office what's actually required to fix it, because the reinstatement and registration procedures are specific and getting them wrong can cost more time than doing nothing for another month while you figure it out properly.
Frequently asked questions
what does a treasurer do?
A treasurer records income and expenses, reconciles the bank account monthly, reports the group's financial position to the board, and files (or oversees filing) the organization's annual IRS return. In small clubs, the treasurer usually also handles cash deposits and reimbursements directly, since there's no paid staff to do it.
what is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the officer, usually elected by the board, responsible for an organization's financial recordkeeping and reporting. The exact duties come from the group's own bylaws, but universally include tracking money accurately and reporting it honestly to the board and members.
what do treasurers do day to day?
Day to day, a treasurer logs transactions as they happen, files receipts, and checks the bank balance against the books. Monthly or per meeting, they reconcile the account and prepare a budget-to-actual report. Annually, they file the IRS Form 990-series return that matches the group's gross receipts.
what is Form 990?
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, reporting income, expenses, and governance details. There are several versions (990-N, 990-EZ, full 990, 990-PF) scaled to an organization's size, and the full versions become public record once filed [1].
what does a treasurer do in a club?
A club treasurer tracks dues, fundraiser income, and event expenses, reconciles the bank account, reports to the board, and files the annual IRS return. They often manage cash from concessions or raffles directly and may need a state raffle license depending on the activities involved.
what does a club treasurer do differently from a nonprofit treasurer?
Nothing fundamentally different; a club treasurer is a nonprofit treasurer, just usually for a smaller, all-volunteer organization. The job is the same (record, reconcile, report, file), but a club treasurer typically does the bookkeeping personally rather than overseeing paid staff.
what is a 990 tax form?
It's the IRS's information return that tax-exempt organizations file annually instead of a corporate income tax return, reporting revenue, expenses, and activities. Which version applies depends on gross receipts and total assets, ranging from the simple 990-N e-Postcard to the full Form 990 [1][2].
what is the 990?
"The 990" usually refers to Form 990, the IRS's annual reporting form for tax-exempt organizations. Small organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less typically file the short Form 990-N version instead [2].
what does a treasurer of a club do about missing filings?
First, check the organization's status on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search [6]. If tax-exempt status was auto-revoked from missed filings, the group generally needs to apply for reinstatement using Form 1023 or 1023-EZ, and may qualify for streamlined retroactive reinstatement under Revenue Procedure 2014-11 [5] if filed within 15 months of revocation.
does a small booster club or PTO have to file taxes at all?
Yes, even tax-exempt organizations with no tax owed must file an annual information return. Groups with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less file the free, online Form 990-N e-Postcard; there's no dollar threshold that exempts a group entirely from filing [2].
what happens if a treasurer never files the 990-N?
Missing one or two years usually has no immediate penalty, but three consecutive years of missed filings triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under federal law, retroactive to the third missed due date [3][4]. Reinstatement then requires a formal application to the IRS.
who has signing authority on a nonprofit's bank account?
Whoever the board designates, typically listed in the bylaws or in board meeting minutes, and updated with the bank whenever officers change. Best practice is at least two authorized signers, with any check or transfer above a set dollar amount requiring two approvals rather than one.
does a treasurer need to register with the state, more than the IRS?
Many states require organizations that solicit public donations to register separately with a state charity office or attorney general, and rules vary by state and by revenue level. Confirm current requirements directly with your state's charity registration office rather than assuming last year's rules still apply.
how often should a treasurer reconcile the bank account?
Monthly, at minimum, comparing the bank statement line by line against the recorded transactions in the books. Waiting longer makes errors harder to trace and gives problems (lost deposits, duplicate payments, unauthorized charges) more time to compound unnoticed.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: 990-EZ and full Form 990 gross receipts and asset thresholds
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): 990-N eligibility, filing requirements, and due date rule
- IRS, Revenue Ruling and Statute Background: Automatic Revocation for Non-Filing (IRC section 6033(j)): three consecutive years of non-filing triggers automatic revocation
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption for Non-Filing: Frequently Asked Questions: revocation effective date is the original due date of the third missed return
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: streamlined retroactive reinstatement procedures for small organizations filed within 15 months
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: tool to check an organization's current tax-exempt status and filing history
- IRS, Form 990-N (e-Postcard) instructions and process, About Form 990-N: electronic filing details and process for exempt organizations' 990-series returns