Treasurer: financial records

This guide is for treasurers of Queensland croquet clubs that are incorporated associations. It covers what the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Qld) says about the club's money records, and which size the club is.

How clubs do it

1. Find last financial year's total revenue.
2. Find the club's current assets: cash, money owed to the club and other liquid assets. Land, buildings, vehicles and equipment are left out.
3. Check both figures against the table below to see the club's size.
4. For a small club, the president or treasurer checks the records and signs the verification statement within 6 months of year end.

The three sizes

These sizes have applied since 1 July 2023. Before then they were called Levels 3, 2 and 1.

*Current assets leave out land, buildings and depreciable assets such as vehicles and equipment. A club that owns its grounds may still have low current assets.

If another law requires an audit, the Act says a small or medium club has one too. A club with a liquor licence can ask CAQ before relying on a verification statement. For any doubt about size: CAQ, or the Office of Fair Trading on 13 74 68.

What a small club signs

The Act says the president or treasurer signs a statement that "the association's financial records show the association keeps adequate financial records to correctly record and explain transactions to enable a true and fair financial statement to be prepared".

The person who signs does so on their own authority. If the records turn out to be inadequate, that person is personally exposed. So signers often check the records through the year, not only at the end, and a treasurer who starts partway through a year often reviews the records from its start before signing.

What the records do

The Act says the committee makes sure the club keeps financial records that:

• correctly record and explain every transaction
• show the club's financial position at any time
• allow true and fair statements to be prepared
• allow an audit or verification if one is needed.

This duty belongs to the whole committee, though the treasurer usually keeps the records. The Act also says the committee has a financial statement prepared within 6 months of year end, giving a true and fair view.

Penalties for not keeping records or not preparing the statement: up to 10 penalty units ($1,727) per committee member in a small or medium club, or 20 ($3,454) in a large club, at 2026/27 rates (re-checked each 1 July).

The AGM and lodging steps that follow are in Treasurer: Annual Obligations.

Where this comes from

1. Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Qld), s.59: keeping financial records
2. s.59A: the yearly financial statement
3. s.59AA: audits for large associations, and s.59AA(1) for audits other laws require
4. s.59AB: verification statements for small and medium associations; s.59AB(3)(b) for the wording
5. Office of Fair Trading, Keeping your association's records: 7 years
6. Queensland Government, Previous law changes for incorporated associations: the size thresholds from 1 July 2023