Best Business Practices for IEEE Unit Treasurers

The Treasurer should present the Section/Chapter check register(s) to the Section Executive Committee at least two times during the year for review and approval.  A check register should always include name, date, amount, budget line, and purpose for each transaction (for example, expense reimbursement, services provided).  The reason for this is to provide an independent review of expenses and to ensure that the Section Executive Committee is informed and approves Unit expenses.

The Unit Chair and Treasurer should periodically review the original monthly account statements and compare them to a recent financial report.  It is good business practice for Unit leaders to review account activity so that more than one person has oversight of the financial records.

All U.S. Geographic Units are obligated to comply with the Internal Revenue Service’s information reporting requirements for taxable income payments made to individuals.  The reporting threshold is the total of payments to an individual that equal or exceed US$600 for services rendered and for awards, honorariums, and prizes.  As you make payments during the year to individuals please be sure to collect:

1. name and address of the individual;
2. social security number;
3. the total amount paid;
4. a brief description of the payments.

It is recommended that IRS Form W-9 (PDF, 268 KB) be used to obtain the names, addresses, and social security numbers of each individual.  The 1099 information is requested by the IEEE Tax department at the end of the year.  If you did not provide this information to the IEEE Tax department last year, please e-mail IEEE Tax Compliance Staff.

All IEEE Units must submit their signature/bank account cards, signed by all authorized Unit Officers, to IEEE for the required staff signature.  The cards are then mailed from IEEE directly back to the bank.  This is to ensure that appropriate authorized signers and accurate signatures are on all accounts for the protection of IEEE assets and the protection of the Unit Officers.  Please be sure to remove all outgoing Officers from the Unit bank account.  For Units outside of the United States, should local laws or banking rules prohibit this; an exemption must be obtained as part of the annual L50 financial reporting process.

Geographic Units with annual revenues or expenses of under US$100,000 are encouraged to conduct a financial operations review each year.  The findings of the review should be provided to the unit Executive Committee.  The person reviewing the financial operations should not have been directly involved in the Unit's financial operations.  In order to assist with the review, the following three documents have been provided:

1. Geographic Unit Financial Operations Review Checklist (DOC, 2.5 KB)
2. Geographic Unit Financial Operations Review Step (DOC, 24.5 KB): Step-by-Step guide for the review of Unit activity.
3. Geographic Unit Financial Operations Review Ex Com Report (DOC, 44 KB): Document to be presented to unit Executive Committee, outlining the results of the operations review.