Voucher Approval for Associations: A Maker-Checker Guide to Expenses

At the annual general meeting, the hardest questions are about spending. "Why did the lift repair cost so much?" "Who passed this bill?" In many associations one person spends the money and the same person writes it up, which leaves even an honest treasurer open to suspicion. Voucher approval, where one person writes the entry and another checks and passes it, is the simplest fix.

What maker-checker means

Maker-checker is a two-step control:

• Maker: the person who prepares the voucher, such as the office assistant or accountant
• Checker: the person who reviews and approves it, such as the treasurer or general secretary

Until it is approved, the voucher is not final in the books, so nobody can change the accounts on their own. In Society Keeper this control is part of how vouchers work.

Which voucher for which job

Society Keeper runs full double-entry accounting, with a separate voucher type for each kind of transaction:

Member dues are recorded under "Collections" and post to the accounts by themselves, so they need no separate voucher.

Step by step: a payment voucher

Say this month's guard salaries of ৳36,000 were paid in cash.

1. Go to "Vouchers" and choose a payment voucher
2. Pick the expense head, such as "Security salaries". You can edit the chart of accounts to suit your association
3. Choose where the money came from: cash or bank
4. Enter the amount, date and a description, for example "October guard salaries, 3 guards"
5. Save. The voucher now waits for approval

The checker then opens it, compares it with the paper bill or signed acknowledgement, and approves. Only after approval does the expense show in the cash book, ledger and income and expenditure account.

Tip: Before approving, the checker should confirm three things: the right account head, the right amount, and supporting proof such as a bill or a signed receipt.

Supplier bills and paying later

Many costs aren't paid on the spot. The lift or generator maintenance bill arrives now, but payment goes out at month end. Enter it first as a supplier bill. The supplier payables report then shows how much you owe each supplier. When you pay, record the payment against that bill, which makes it much harder to pay the same bill twice.

Who makes, who checks: set the roles

In Society Keeper every user has a role with its own permissions, such as admin, manager, accountant, collector, committee or auditor. A common setup:

• Accountant or office assistant: prepares vouchers
• Treasurer: approves them
• Collector: records collections only, no vouchers
• Auditor: can view everything but change nothing

Decide which amounts need whose approval according to your constitution or a committee resolution.

Common voucher approval mistakes

A few habits weaken the control without anyone noticing:

• The same person makes and checks. If the treasurer writes and approves their own vouchers, the second pair of eyes is gone. Keep the roles apart.
• Approving in bulk at month end. Thirty vouchers approved in five minutes have not really been checked. Approve weekly instead.
• Vague descriptions. "Misc. expense ৳4,000" tells the auditor nothing. Write what was bought, for whom and why.
• No paper trail. Keep the bill or signed acknowledgement filed under the voucher number.

Reports to check at month end

Approved vouchers feed these reports without any extra work:

• Cash and bank book, day book
• Receipts and payments account
• Income and expenditure account, and monthly expense analysis
• Trial balance and balance sheet

Before a general meeting, download them from the accounting reports section.

From the same team: Somity Keeper, cooperative accounting software for Bangladesh, and Somity Keeper Lite, a savings-group app for smaller organisations.

Voucher approval in Society Keeper

In Society Keeper, voucher approval, role-based permissions and full double-entry reports work together, so for every taka spent it is clear who wrote the entry and who approved it. To try it with your own account heads, book a free demo.