Squadron-Level Financial Budget

[Adam B]

Hello,

I've reviewed all the applicable regulations I could find and I've tried to search on this forum, but I'm coming up short.

How exactly does a squadron write their budget?
I see that at the wing level, the budget is entered and maintained in Quickbooks, but I can't find anything regarding the squadron's budget, except that one is required and that it must be submitted to Wing. 

Is an Excel spreadsheet acceptable? Or is there a standard program/form for squadron budgets?

Thanks in advance!

[Eclipse]

How exactly does a squadron write their budget?

Haphazardly and as ambiguous as possible.

I see that at the wing level, the budget is entered and maintained in Quickbooks, but I can't find anything regarding the squadron's budget, except that one is required and that it must be submitted to Wing. 

Is an Excel spreadsheet acceptable? Or is there a standard program/form for squadron budgets?

There is no standardized form or format, unless your wing designates one, which means you need to check up the chain.
My wing requires a standard excel spreadsheet, submitted and re-approved each quarter.

Absent a standard, it's up to the unit's CC, FM, and the committee.

Here are some examples as well as related forms.:

https://www.capmembers.com/cap_national_hq/financial_management/budgets/

https://www.capmembers.com/cap_national_hq/financial_management/sample-procedures-and-forms-1548/

The same goes for how you run and document your required quarterly finances meetings.  Having a gavel-to-gavel, parliamentary procedure
meeting is a waste of time, but you need to document the discussions and insure all parties approve the minutes and the actions.

I've handled my finance issues solely via email for over 10 years, with the FM being responsible for recording / filing the discussions,
and taking whatever actions are necessary.

Providing your FM with an electronic copy of your sig makes her / his job easier as well, though increasingly the need for  wet sig
is reduced every year.

[Adam B]

It does not appear that the wing has any specification in regards to budget formatting, so that's one thing out of the way.

Next, when it comes to specific budget items, 173-1 appears to dictate pretty clearly that only the approved COA categories can be used... but at the same time, only 1 of the 3 example budgets on NHQ actually use proper COA.
So either am I misreading 173-1 or the examples out of date.

I'm also having difficulty determining where and how the squadron ledger is kept. I've looked at every reg I can find, and I even viewed the power-points on NHQ, but there doesn't seem to be any standard for recording revenues and expenditures at the squadron level.

It looks like our old ledger was hand-written on college ruled paper. Is that enough?

[Eclipse]

It looks like our old ledger was hand-written on college ruled paper. Is that enough?

No - there is no "ledger" - all wings are using the Wing Banker program which keeps the official
records of your unit's finances, and provides >you< with cash reports, transaction logs and the like
using standard forms for submission and Quickbooks as the official records.

It sound like you're swimming in the deep end without a mentor, your best best is to contact
either the Group FM or Wing FM  or Admin and get the 1-2-3 on how things are done.

That or contact an FM at another unit for the lowdown.  It's not complicated and Wing Banker takes
the risk out of most of it, but you do need to know exactly what your wing expects.

Again, there are no local book, accounts, or other records which are not formally held at the wing at some point. 

You will have some transaction approval and meeting records, which can and should be electronic (ditch the paper man!),
but even those are formalities linked to something done through WBP - even the official approval of whatever you
submit to the FM as your budget will be sent through a system called Sertify for the approval of record.

[etodd]

A question on the side here: How much autonomy does a Squadron have with their budget? If some outside group donated money to the squadron .... can they use it for anything (reasonable, sensible) for the Squadron, or must they ask permission from Wing to spend their own money?  Does anything bought then belong to the Wing or is it Squadron assets?

Yes, I'm asking these things 'before' I reach out to some potential donors.

[Eclipse]

Squadron's have compete autonomy within the bounds of reason, common sense, and FWA.

If the committee approves an expense, higher HQ doesn't have much to say about it, though
at the end of the day, it's all corporate money and a Wing CC could re-distribute it, though that's
not a very good way to retain volunteers and could open a huge kettle of fish.

We've all seen or heard of wings where the accusation was made that a unit was dissolved to get at their money, etc.
It's rarely black and white from anyone's side, though.

One issue is restricted funds - it is possible for a donor to indicate a specific use for a given donation, and
if things are done by the book, the funds wind up restricted for that use only (though there are ways around that as well).

In some cases the money is returned (if possible) to the donor if the intention is not fulfillable.

I, personally, would not accept a restricted donation.  They are a PITA unless the "thing" is on the calendar and you can spend the
money.  I've seen a number of units with hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the books that were unspendable because of a restriction,
while the unit floundered for money it needed for legit expenses.

In at least one case, the unit died an natural death with $$$ on the books.  I have no idea what happened to it from there.