CAI-NJ July 2022

FINANCIALS... from page 34.

ing money from this account. Even when there is no fraud, you can have situations with boards where the origi nal signers on the account have either moved or died. This results in the new board being unable to access their money until they fill out a lot of paperwork and have to go through

numerous phone calls and meetings with the bank for over 9 months! Plus, fewer bank accounts make the financial reports easier to read and may cost you less to have someone prepare. Best Practice: it is recommended to close old bank accounts. Checks and Balances: another embezzlement case involved a board president who had the community checkbook. They wrote out checks, forged a second board member’s signature, and pocketed the money. Even having two signers required for checks did not work. Best Practice: systematize your AP. It is recommended to use an online system where the manager and or two board members have unique logins to review and approve bills before a payment gets processed. This also increases the board’s con trol over expenses and reduces sur prises when reviewing the monthly financial reports. Debit, Credit Cards, and Petty Cash: one onsite manager had a debit card and withdrew money from the ATM at a casino! The board did not have access to the bank informa tion, and this went unnoticed for several years. Best Practice: For debit cards, the best practice is to set up a separate account and then limit the amount of money in that account to say $1,000. Otherwise, someone could withdraw the daily limit every day and that can add up. Credit cards are a better option since you can put a cap on them. However, make

Old Bank Accounts: in some cases, board members turned over, and an old bank account was not reported on the financial reports and a former board member was spend

tech touch value LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO STREAMLINE COMMUNICATION, OPERATIONS AND REPORTING. CULTIVATING RELATIONSHIPS TO ENSURE HIGHLY SATISFIED ASSOCIATION RESIDENTS AND STAKEHOLDERS. PRESERVING AND ENHANCING VALUE THROUGH BEST-IN-CLASS SERVICES.

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Financial services Management services Communication services Construction & maintenance management Transition management services Emergency management Consulting Community Association Management

To learn more, visit IntegraMgtCorp.com or call Edward San George, MPA, PCAM at 973.770.1500 .

Corporate Office:

South Jersey Office:

364 North Main Street (Route 9), Suite 5 Manahawkin, NJ 08050 T (609) 660-0208

200 Valley Road, Suite 203 Mt. Arlington, NJ 07856 T (973) 770-1500

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