Financial Management
This web page serves as the focal point for information about financial management for the Lake Wilderness Arboretum Foundation (LWAF). This includes information about policy, people, processes, budget,
forms, and other miscellaneous finance-related documents.
Our financial policy provides an overall set of guidelines that
drive how we manage the finances of the Lake Wilderness Arboretum
Foundation (LWAF).
Their are three key players involved in financial management. They are:
-
The LWAF President
The president appoints the Budget and Finance Committee chairperson and also
plays an important part in the authorization of expenditures.
- The Budget and Finance Committee
This committee serves as the focal point for the management and administration of LWAF finances.
This includes oversight of LWAF financial records and transactions as well as the development
and maintenance of LWAF financial procedures.
- The LWAF Treasurer
This individual is a key member of the Budget and Finance Committee, pays the
Arboretum's bills, and is the focal point for financial management data provided
to the Board.
Our financial management process describes the people and procedures they must follow in order
to effectively manage the financial business of the Arboretum Foundation. Procedures include the
approval of budget, authorization of expenses, payment of bills, and the monthly reporting
of actual versus budgeted income and expenses. People performing these procedures include
the Board, account managers,
the treasurer, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the Foundation's bookkeeper.
Each year an annual budget is developed and approved. A budget is prepared in late October or early November because it
must be approved by the Board in the November Board meeting. A draft budget is prepared by the Budget and Finance chair
using input from account managers, reviewed and approved by the Executive Board, and finally reviewed and approved by the
full Board.
The budget reflects forecast income and expenses. Currently, the majority of our income comes from our plant sales
and a grant from the the city of Maple Valley. The deadline for submitting a grant request to the City is
usually the end of August.
The expense budget is apportioned among
account managers, each of whom are responsible for first forecasting their needs and then
managing their expenses within their approved expense budgets.
Listed below are links to our 2008, 2009 and 2010 budgets. These
documents show
all income and expense accounts, the approved amount for each account, and some descriptive commentary.
Following the budget links are several other links to grant requests to Maple Valley and
associated grant awards from Maple Valley.
- Yearly Budgets
The spreadsheets listed below show approved budgets to date.
The current year's budgets may be changed during the year, but those changes must be approved by the LWAF Board.
Any approved changes to the budget will be shown in the appropriate file below. Each month, a
"Budget and Performance" report is generated showing actual income and
expenses to date as related to the budget.
- Grant Requests and Awards
Each August, LWAF submits a grant request to the city of Maple Valley, requesting funds to help
maintain and improve the Arboretum. Listed below are recent grant requests and subsequent awards.
Shown below are forms used to manage the budget and authorized expenses against it.
- Expense Voucher
This voucher is used to obtain pre-authorization to procure one or more items
or it is used to obtain subsequent reimbursement for expenditures already made. The
account manager must sign this form for either pre-approval or for subsequent
reimbursement to the indivdidual or entity that will be expending or has expended
funds. To obtain reimbursement for
expenditures, this form, signed by the account manager, should be turned in to the
LWAF treasurer. See our financial management document for more information.
- Commitment Charge
This form enables an account manager to record expenses that have been incurred
but not yet paid. Thus reports showing actual expense versus budgeted expenses
are more accurate. Once a commitment has been paid, this form must be used to
delete the committed charges (because actual charges have been entered into the
account).
- Account Adjustment Request
This form allows an account manager to request a transfer of charges from one
account to another. This form must be approved by the treasurer and the
other account manager if a second account manager is impacted.
- Budget Approval Form
This form is used to provide initial budget authorization to Account Managers.
It must also
be used when there is a budget change. A copy go to the Account Manager and
to the Budget and Finance Chairperson. A copy is also posted on the web.
In addition to the above documentation. Other reports, documents, and memos are
periodically created that provide finance-related information. This
information is currently available via a
directory on our web site. These documents are also available
via our document retrieval menu.
At the end of each month, the Budget and Finance chair creates a set of financial reports that
reflect income and expenses during the month, cum-to-date income and expenses as compared to the
budget, status of Maple Valley grant expenses, and current cash-on-hand. The reports for any given
year are contained in a subdirectory for that year. The subdirectories are reachable from the
top level budget and finance directory.
These reports reports are prefixed to identify the
month-ending date (yyyy_mm) of the
report. Reports created are:
- yyyy_mm_transactions_by_account
This report is the one that shows the data that drives all other reports.
It shows income and expense transactions by account for the month.
Account managers are asked to review this report and submit changes to the
B&F committee chairman
if there any anomolies. Once the anomolies are resolved, the other monthly reports
are generated. This report is in a "transactions" directory accessible from the directory which contains
all of the other reports listed below. Entry into a "transactions"
directory requires a password that can be obtained from the Budget and Finance chair.
- yyyy_mm_all_transactions_by_account
This report is similar to the "transactions" report above except that it shows all transactions to date,
not just the ones for the current month. This report is found in the "transactions" directory - entry into
which requires a password as noted above.
- yyyy_mm_month_end_balance
This report shows the month_ending balances in our checking, savings, and
CD accounts. Data is shown for the current month and all prior months of the year.
- yyyy_mm_MV_grant_accounting
The City annually
grants us money for both general and specific expenses. We first pay
grant-allowable expenses, from
our Arboretum bank account and then submit a bill to the City and they reimburse us.
This report shows
how much was granted, how much has been spent, how much has been
billed back to the City, and how much has been reimbursed to us.
- yyyy_mm_budget_performance
For each account, this report shows current month actuals, year_to_date actuals
and annual budget. It is the report that the B&F committee uses to analyze
our income and expense plan versus actual and report potential problems to the
Board.
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