The treasurer's job

What the role covers, what to put in front of the board, and the questions worth asking out loud.

Most charity treasurers are not accountants. They are the person on the board who was least uncomfortable with a spreadsheet. This is what the job is.

What you are actually responsible for

You are a trustee first. The treasurer role does not transfer the board's financial responsibility onto one person — every trustee shares it. What you take on is making sure the board can discharge it: that the numbers reach them, that they are right, and that they are explained in a way a non-financial trustee can act on.

The monthly job

Check the bank balance against the books, and that somebody other than the person who pays the bills has looked.
Know what is owed to you and what you owe.
Watch restricted funds separately. Spending restricted money on the wrong thing is one of the few ways a trustee genuinely gets into trouble.
Compare against budget, and be honest about the variances rather than smoothing them.

What to put in front of the board

Four things, every meeting, on no more than two sides:

Cash at the bank today, and the figure at the same point last year.
Income and spend against budget for the year so far, with the three biggest variances explained in a sentence each.
Restricted funds: what is held, what it is for, and what is left.
A forecast to the year end, and how many months of running costs the reserves cover.

The questions a good treasurer asks out loud

If our largest funder stopped tomorrow, how long could we run?
Which of our activities loses money, and have we decided that on purpose?
Are we spending restricted funds on what they were given for, and can we show it?
Is anybody able to move money on their own?
When did we last change the bank mandate after somebody left?

What you should not be doing

Bookkeeping. If the treasurer is also the person entering the transactions, nobody is checking anybody, and both the board and the examiner will say so. A small charity that cannot afford staff is better off buying a few hours of bookkeeping than turning a trustee into the finance department.

Questions

Do we have to have a treasurer?

Only if your governing document says so. Plenty of boards share the role or use a finance sub-committee instead. What matters is that somebody is making sure the board gets the numbers.

Can the treasurer sign cheques alone?

They should not. Two signatures or two approvers on every payment is the single most effective control a small charity has, and its absence is the first thing an examiner asks about.