SRRT Budget Cheat Sheet

When building a budget

• First think about moneys coming in (special events, buttons or T-shirts sales, books, etc.) assign to appropriate line item account number
• Then think about how you plan to spend the money (awards, annual program, postage, etc.) assign to appropriate line item account number
• The difference is the budget request made of ALA through SRRT action council; provide documentation for request so voting members have enough information to support the budget requests
• SRRT "administration" is charged with approximately 5% overhead of total SRRT budget
• Remember that budget approved at midwinter will be for following fiscal year (approved in Jan 1999 for fiscal year 2000)
• Task forces need to be prepared to modify requests if full budgets are not approved or if a shortfall is anticipated, etc.

When submitting checks

• Write appropriate line item number to be credited on check
• Send to task force chair who will forward to ALA

When requesting reimbursement

• Always submit request with a completed reimbursement form; debit appropriate account number
• Attach receipts and other documentation
• All requests should go through task force chair (or other designated person) so that one person per task force is responsible for knowing what comes in and what goes out

Oversight

• Task force chair (or designated person) should pay attention to what is coming in and going out
• This person may need to say stop spending if it look like task force will soon go over budget
• Any "surplus" will revert to SRRT at end of fiscal year although task force chair and SRRT treasurer should keep track of which task force is contributing what moneys

Notes

• Fiscal year runs from September through August
• Line item-numbers include those that identify SRRT, the individual task force, and a descriptive number for different expenses such things as photocopying, programming, etc.
• Reimbursements do take some time and ALA will question if something is not clear (which further delays the process)
• Always make copies of everything submitted