A PTA payment needs the membership’s approval, recorded in the association minutes. The association can approve it before you pay, by releasing funds at a meeting, or after, by ratifying it at the next association meeting. Between meetings the executive board can authorize spending within the adopted budget. You can pay without waiting for the meeting. The date that goes on the payment form is either the release date or the ratification date.
This follows standard PTA financial procedures. Your bylaws set the dollar limits and what the board can authorize between meetings.
Board meeting or association meeting?
Ratification happens at the association meeting. It is the membership approving something the executive board already did, and it goes in the association minutes.
Between association meetings, the board can authorize bills within the budget the association adopted. Its approvals go in the executive board minutes. At the year-end financial review, the reviewers look for each payment in both sets of minutes: the board’s approval, and the association’s release or ratification.
Released in advance, or ratified after
Adopting the budget does not authorize spending. Each payment has to be within the budget and approved by the membership in one of two ways:
- Released in advance. A motion at an association meeting releases money for an activity before it is spent: “I move to release up to $600 for the fall festival. Budget category: fall festival.” Payments within that amount are approved when they are made.
- Ratified after. The board authorizes a payment between association meetings, the treasurer pays it, and the membership ratifies it at the next association meeting.
A PTA can do both at every association meeting: ratify the payments made since the last one, and release funds for the period ahead. A release names an amount and a budget category. For the stretch until the next meeting, it can point at the budget itself:
Release the remaining budgeted amount in each budget line, as shown in the attached budget to actuals, for spending through the next association meeting.
Payments inside a release are already approved. Ratifying all of them anyway catches a payment that went past its line.
Some state PTAs treat the budget the membership adopted as the authorization for spending within it, with no vote on each payment. If your bylaws and state guidance say that, there is nothing to ratify for budgeted spending.
Do you have to wait for the meeting to pay?
No. Once the spending is released, or authorized by the board within its limits, a complete payment authorization with receipts lets the treasurer pay. Standard procedures say you do not have to wait for the next association meeting to reimburse someone.
There are three cases where timing matters:
- No one has voted on it yet. If the expense is in the budget but no release or authorization covers it, wait. The bill goes to the next board or association meeting for a motion to pay it. A board approval is then ratified at the next association meeting.
- It isn’t in the budget. Your bylaws cap how much the board can spend on unbudgeted items between association meetings. Some scale the cap to how many association meetings you hold. Those payments must be ratified at the next association meeting and recorded in its minutes. If the membership declines, the executive board that authorized the spending is personally liable and repays the PTA. At the same meeting, move to amend the budget so the spending has a line: create one, or increase the line it came from (“Increase the Staff Appreciation budget from $3,000 to $4,500”). Do the same for a line that ran over.
- The money isn’t the PTA’s. Pass-through funds, like book fair income due back to a vendor, don’t need approval before you pay them out. They are still ratified at the next meeting.
How ratification happens at the meeting
Ratification comes during the treasurer’s report. You prepare one covering the time since the last association meeting, listing every payment, and present it to the membership. Someone moves to ratify the payments in it, and the membership votes. The secretary records the motion and the payments it covers.
In the minutes, it can read like this:
Treasurer’s report presented for May 14 through June 10. Motion to ratify disbursements 4721 through 4725, totaling $4,200.00. Motion: Penny Banks. Second: Sam Rivera. Motion passed.
Listing the disbursement numbers and the total gives the financial reviewer something to match against the bank statement. For what belongs in the report itself, see the PTA treasurer’s report.
What the board does at its own meetings
The board can’t ratify payments or release funds. Both belong to the association. At a board meeting, the treasurer’s report covers the time since the last board meeting, and the board takes two actions:
- Approve the disbursements made since the last board meeting.
- Authorize payment of bills within the adopted budget and the funds the association released, until the next board meeting.
Both are motions, recorded like any other:
Treasurer’s report presented for May 6 through June 2. Motion to approve disbursements 4721 through 4724, totaling $3,020.00. Motion: Penny Banks. Second: Sam Rivera. Motion passed.
Motion to authorize payment of bills within the adopted budget and the funds released by the association through the next board meeting. Motion: Penny Banks. Second: Sam Rivera. Motion passed.
Those approvals go in the executive board minutes. The same payments are ratified at the next association meeting. Saying “approve” at the board and “ratify” at the association keeps the two sets of minutes distinct.
Which date goes on the payment form
The payment authorization form has a line for the date the expense was approved in the minutes, signed by the secretary. That date can be either of two:
- The date the association released the funds. The secretary can fill it in and sign before the check is written, at the same time as the president.
- The date the association ratified the payment. The secretary signs after the meeting, once the check has already been written.
Your district or council may have a preference. Otherwise, pick the one that matches how your PTA approves spending and use it every time.
What the year-end review looks for
The financial reviewers go through every payment and check that it has a signed payment authorization with receipts, two authorized signatures, and an approval or ratification in the minutes. Payments they can’t find in the minutes go on their recommendation report. For the rest of what reviewers check, see how to do a PTA audit.
Recording ratification dates in Volo Cash
Volo Cash can record the date approved in the minutes on every request, for either way of approving spending. You choose one in your organization settings, and the recording secretary, or whoever you give the Recorder permission, enters the date.
The setting has three choices: off, at signing, or after payment.
- At signing fits PTAs that release funds in advance. The recording secretary enters the release date when they sign the request, and can’t sign without it.
- After payment fits PTAs that ratify. The recording secretary signs without a date, the treasurer pays, and each payment waits on the Queue until the meeting.
After the meeting, the recording secretary opens Payments to Ratify, unchecks anything the membership didn’t approve, enters the meeting date, and clicks Record date. Every checked payment gets that date at once. They can also date a single request from its own page, and undo a date entered by mistake.
Ratifying payments after payment in Volo Cash
The dashboard counts the payments waiting. The list you present at the meeting is the Treasurer’s Report, which Volo Cash builds from your books for any date range.
Whichever way your PTA approves spending, Volo Cash fits the process you already have. You can try it free for three months.
For the approvals that come before payment, see how PTA expense approvals work and the PTA reimbursement process.