Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
A treasurer tracks money in and out, keeps bank accounts reconciled, reports balances to the board or membership, and handles tax filings like the IRS Form 990 or 990-N. For a small club, it's part bookkeeper, part compliance officer, usually unpaid, and usually the job nobody trained you for.
what does a treasurer do, exactly
A treasurer is the person responsible for tracking an organization's money and reporting on it honestly. That's the whole job in one sentence. Everything else is detail. In practice it breaks into four buckets: recording transactions (deposits, checks, reimbursements), keeping the books reconciled against actual bank statements, reporting to whoever you answer to (a board, a PTO membership, league parents), and staying compliant with whatever the IRS and your state require. For a booster club or PTO, that last bucket usually means filing an annual Form 990-series return with the IRS and possibly registering as a charity with your state's attorney general or secretary of state office. Nobody hands new treasurers a manual. Most people inherit a shoebox, a login nobody remembers the password to, and a vague sense that something is due 'sometime in the fall.' That's normal. It's also exactly why so many small nonprofits end up on the IRS auto-revocation list (more below).
what is a treasurer
A treasurer is an officer, usually elected or appointed, who is legally and practically responsible for an organization's finances. The title shows up in corporate bylaws, PTO constitutions, and youth sports league charters, and the specific duties are almost always defined (or supposed to be defined) in those governing documents. Legally, in a nonprofit corporation, the treasurer is often the officer whose signature is required on financial filings and who can be held personally accountable if money goes missing on their watch. That doesn't mean treasurers are auditors or lawyers. It means the role carries real responsibility even when it's unpaid and even when the org is small. Most state nonprofit corporation statutes require corporations to have a treasurer or an officer performing treasurer duties, though the exact title can vary (some bylaws use 'financial secretary' instead). Check your own bylaws first; they usually spell out exactly what the treasurer must do and how often.
what do treasurers do day to day
Day to day, a treasurer's job is mostly bookkeeping and communication, not tax law. Here's what that actually looks like across a typical month: - Deposit checks and cash promptly, ideally within a few days, with a second person present for cash counts.
- Record every transaction in a ledger or software (spreadsheet is fine for small clubs; QuickBooks or Wave for bigger ones).
- Reconcile the checkbook against the bank statement every single month. This is the single most protective habit a treasurer can build.
- Pay approved bills and reimburse members, always against a receipt or invoice.
- Prepare a simple financial report (income, expenses, current balance) for board or membership meetings.
- Track restricted funds separately if the group gets any grants or gifts with strings attached.
- Watch the calendar for tax filing deadlines and any state charity registration renewal dates. None of this is glamorous. It's also the difference between a club that keeps its tax-exempt status and one that gets a surprise letter from the IRS two years later.
what does a treasurer do in a club (or PTO, or booster group)
In a volunteer club setting, the treasurer's job shrinks to fit the size of the organization, but the core responsibilities stay the same. A small booster club with a $15,000 annual budget still needs someone tracking every dollar, reconciling the bank account, and filing whatever return the IRS requires, exactly like a $500,000 organization does, just at a smaller scale and usually with less software. Specific club-treasurer tasks include: managing the checking account and any debit card, collecting and depositing fundraiser proceeds (concession stands, car washes, raffles), reimbursing coaches or parent volunteers for approved purchases, presenting a budget report at meetings, and handing off a clean set of books to the next treasurer at the end of the term. If your club runs raffles, bingo, or other games of chance, add one more job: confirming with your state charity office or attorney general whether you need a raffle license before you sell a single ticket. Raffle rules are entirely state-specific, and running one without a required license can create real legal exposure for the volunteers involved, more than the organization.
what does a club treasurer do that's different from a corporate treasurer
A corporate treasurer manages cash flow, investments, and debt for a company with paid finance staff. A club treasurer is almost always a volunteer doing the same core job (track money, report honestly) with none of the infrastructure. No accounting department. No CFO to check their work. Often no predecessor's notes. The stakes are different too. A corporate treasurer's mistake shows up in an audit committee meeting. A club treasurer's mistake can mean the IRS automatically revokes the organization's tax-exempt status because three years of required filings got missed [1]. That's not a fine. That's the organization losing its exempt status entirely, and it happens to thousands of small nonprofits every year, mostly because nobody realized the annual Form 990-N or Form 990-EZ was required. The fix isn't complicated, it's just unglamorous: file every year, on time, even if the organization took in almost no money. "Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years will automatically lose their tax-exempt status," is essentially the IRS's own framing of this rule [1]. That one habit prevents most of the disasters small booster clubs and PTOs run into.
what does a treasurer of a club do when there's no money coming in
Even in an off-season with zero transactions, a treasurer still has work to do. Filing obligations don't pause because fundraising did. If gross receipts are normally under $50,000, most small tax-exempt organizations still must file the electronic Form 990-N (the 'e-Postcard') every year, even with no activity to report [2]. Skipping the filing because 'nothing happened this year' is the single most common way small clubs end up on the IRS auto-revocation list. Quiet periods are also the best time to do the boring maintenance work: reconcile old bank statements, organize receipts by category, update the signature list on the bank account, and write down procedures for whoever takes over next. A treasurer who uses the off-season for cleanup instead of just waiting hands off a much easier job to their successor.
what is form 990
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Smallest orgs | Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Small/mid orgs | Gross receipts < $200,000 and assets < $500,000 | |
| 990 (full) | Larger orgs | Above the 990-EZ thresholds | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations | Regardless of size | Source: IRS, Form 990 series thresholds [2] [3] Most booster clubs and PTOs fall into the 990-N or 990-EZ category. Confirm your exact threshold with the IRS or a qualified preparer every year, since the numbers can shift and your organization's size can change. |
Form 990 is the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It reports income, expenses, program activities, and governance information, and it's the primary way the IRS (and the public) sees what a nonprofit did with its money during the year. There isn't one single 990. There's a family of forms scaled to organization size: Form 990-N for the smallest orgs (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less), Form 990-EZ for mid-size orgs (generally gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000), and the full Form 990 for larger organizations [2] [3]. Private foundations file a different version, Form 990-PF. Here's a quick comparison: | Form | Who files it | Rough size threshold |
what is a 990 tax form (in plain language)
Think of the 990 tax form as a public report card, not a bill. Nonprofits generally don't owe income tax on their exempt activities, so the 990 series isn't calculating a tax owed the way a personal 1040 does. It's disclosure: here's what we raised, here's what we spent it on, here's who runs this thing. That disclosure matters more than most volunteer treasurers realize. Form 990 filings are public record. Donors, grantmakers, and watchdog sites (GuideStar/Candid, for instance) pull data straight from them. A messy or late 990 doesn't just risk IRS trouble, it's the first thing a potential grant funder or a skeptical parent might look up. The irs form 990 isn't optional paperwork you can skip because the club is small. Even the tiniest booster club with $3,000 in concession stand revenue needs to file something every year, most likely the 990-n.
what is the 990 used for, beyond just filing it
The [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) does three jobs at once: it satisfies the IRS's annual filing requirement, it creates a public paper trail of the organization's finances, and it gives incoming treasurers and board members a snapshot of financial health from prior years. When you take over as a new treasurer, the fastest way to understand what you've inherited is to pull the last two or three years of form 990 filings. You can search for them for free on the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool [4]. If the search comes back empty for your organization, that's an immediate red flag: it likely means required filings were missed, which is exactly how orgs end up on the IRS auto-revocation list. This is also the moment to check your organization's status directly. The IRS auto-revocation list is public and searchable [1], and it's worth five minutes to confirm your club isn't already on it before you assume everything is fine.
what happens if a treasurer misses a required filing
Miss one year, and usually nothing dramatic happens beyond maybe a late notice. Miss three years in a row, and the consequence is automatic and severe: the IRS revokes the organization's tax-exempt status by law, no hearing required [1]. "Automatic revocation occurs when an exempt organization does not file required Form 990-series returns for three consecutive years," per IRS guidance on the topic [1]. Once that happens, the organization is treated as a taxable entity going forward, donations may no longer be tax-deductible to donors, and getting reinstated means filing an application for exemption again (Form 1023 or 1023-EZ in many cases), sometimes with back-filings and a fee. Reinstatement is possible. The IRS has a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for small organizations that file within 15 months of the revocation notice, described in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 [5]. It takes real paperwork and time, and it isn't guaranteed. Confirm current procedures and fees with the IRS directly, since these change.
what a treasurer should hand off to the next treasurer
The single best thing an outgoing treasurer can do is leave a clean, boring handoff packet. Not a personality, not a memory, a document. At minimum that packet should include: the last three years of filed 990s or confirmation of filing, current bank statements and reconciliations, a list of all signers on every account, copies of the state charity registration (if applicable), the organization's EIN, a budget-vs-actual for the current year, and any raffle or gaming licenses on file with the state. If any of this is missing, the incoming treasurer's first job is reconstructing it, which is a miserable way to start a volunteer term. This is also the exact gap a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: a one-time, $99 packaged set of state-specific checklists, filing calendars, and handoff templates so a new volunteer isn't guessing at deadlines their first month on the job. It's not a substitute for an accountant or attorney, just a starting map.
what a treasurer does not have to be (skills and background)
You do not need an accounting degree to be a good club treasurer. You need to be organized, honest about mistakes, and willing to reconcile a bank statement every month without skipping it. Most successful volunteer treasurers are parents, coaches, or club members with basic spreadsheet comfort and a stubborn streak about keeping receipts. The technical stuff (which 990 to file, whether a raffle needs a license, how to register with the state) is genuinely learnable in an afternoon of reading IRS.gov and your state's charity office site. What trips people up isn't complexity, it's not knowing what they don't know. Nobody tells a first-time treasurer that a $0-revenue year still requires a 990-N filing, or that raffle licensing rules live with the state attorney general, not the IRS. That's the actual knowledge gap, not the math.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks all money coming in and going out of an organization, keeps bank accounts reconciled, reports financial status to the board or membership, and handles required tax filings like the IRS Form 990 series. For volunteer clubs, it's usually an unpaid officer position with real legal responsibility attached.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is an officer of an organization, elected or appointed under its bylaws, responsible for managing and reporting on its finances. In nonprofits, the treasurer often signs financial filings and can be held accountable for financial mismanagement, even when the role is entirely volunteer and unpaid.
What do treasurers do at board meetings?
Treasurers typically present a financial report: current bank balance, income and expenses since the last meeting, budget-versus-actual comparisons, and any upcoming bills or deadlines. Board members should be able to ask questions and see supporting bank statements or reconciliations on request, more than a summary number.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a school district treasurer?
A club treasurer usually manages a much smaller, simpler set of accounts (one checking account, maybe a savings account) with no paid finance staff, while a school district treasurer works within formal government accounting rules and audited financial statements. The core duty, tracking money honestly, is the same at any scale.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS, reporting income, expenses, and governance details. It comes in several versions scaled to size: 990-N, 990-EZ, full 990, and 990-PF for private foundations. It's public record, not a tax bill.
What is a 990 tax form used for?
It's used to satisfy the IRS's annual reporting requirement for tax-exempt organizations and to create a public record of the organization's finances. Donors, grantmakers, and watchdog sites like Candid/GuideStar pull data directly from filed 990s, so accuracy and timeliness matter beyond just compliance.
What is the 990-N e-Postcard?
The 990-N is the simplest IRS filing, for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's filed entirely online through the IRS's website and asks for basic information: EIN, tax year, legal name, address, and confirmation that receipts are under the threshold. There's no financial detail required, but it's still mandatory every year.
How many years of missed filings trigger IRS auto-revocation?
Three consecutive years. The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status for organizations that fail to file any required 990-series return for three years in a row, with no advance warning or hearing required by law. Reinstatement requires reapplying for exemption, sometimes with a streamlined process for smaller organizations.
Does a treasurer need to be a CPA or accountant?
No. Most volunteer club treasurers have no formal accounting background. What matters more is consistency: reconciling bank statements monthly, keeping receipts, and meeting filing deadlines. Complex situations (audits, large grants, unrelated business income) are good reasons to consult an actual accountant, but routine bookkeeping doesn't require one.
What records should a treasurer keep and for how long?
Keep bank statements, reconciliations, receipts, filed tax returns, and board financial reports for at least the current year plus several prior years; many organizations keep 7 years to be safe, and permanent records (EIN documents, bylaws, incorporation papers) indefinitely. Confirm specific retention guidance with the IRS and your state, since requirements can vary.
What does a treasurer do if the club runs a raffle?
Before selling a single ticket, confirm with your state's charity regulator or attorney general's office whether a raffle license or gaming permit is required; rules vary enormously by state and even by county or city in some places. The treasurer usually also tracks ticket sales, prize costs, and net proceeds separately for reporting purposes.
Is a treasurer personally liable for a club's financial mistakes?
Liability depends on the organization's structure, its bylaws, and the nature of the mistake, honest error versus willful mismanagement are treated very differently. This isn't a settled yes-or-no answer; a treasurer with real liability concerns should talk to an attorney familiar with nonprofit or association law in their state.
Sources
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): Organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less generally file Form 990-N
- IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Form 990-EZ threshold is generally gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Filed 990s are publicly searchable through the IRS's own search tool
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11 (streamlined retroactive reinstatement): The IRS offers a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for small organizations that file within 15 months of revocation