I was excited to take on the challenge of the treasurer s role, after the nomination at the last AGM, as I felt this is an area where I can use my accounting background to contribute to the growth of Yarraleen Cricket Club. Due to the groundwork laid by the committee and the previous two treasurers (John and Prashan), there was a distinct process in place which helped my transition in to the role. Before moving in to financials for 2014/15, I would like to sincerely thank Prashan for all his efforts in setting up the finances and for all the information, guidance and advice provided throughout the year. Due to the strides the club has made in the previous two years, I was able to start off with a relatively strong bank balance of around $3.1K with only outstanding invoice pending being for the Good Friday Appeal. Whilst the existing financial processes were reasonably sounds, I wanted to collaborate with the committee to ensure the processes in place are streamlined and inefficiencies are minimized. As I progressed with the role as the treasurer, I started to notice few areas that needed attention in order to set a solid financial foundation for the club. The main area of concern was the amount of cash sales and cash transactions that were taking place via the canteen till with limited accounting recording. Due to the hard work of the members and the endless hours they have put in we were able to create lot more transparency in canteen transactions. There were few other changes that were suggested to ensure we minimize leakage and ensure higher accounting transparency. However, due to time constraints and nature of process changes that were required, transforming club finances is not a short term action item that can be achieved during one season. But I do feel we have achieved a level of progress in this regard and the foundations have been set for continual improvements in this regard. The previous committee had established some ground rules around the collection of subscriptions, canteen stock and payments either from the till or direct deposits. However, this year the club also introduced the following changes that have been more or less implemented, albeit not always completely. Systematic maintenance & better record keeping of cash sales from morning & afternoon teas as well as any incoming cash sales. Introduction of the debit card this was introduced with an attempt to have a common payment method across committee members who usually shop for canteen stock. This was intended to minimise cash transactions as much as possible, especially the outgoings, thus making it easier for myself to collate financial data using online banking. This provides more reliability of financial data, as well as, reduces the risk of error & mismanagement of cash. This has been implemented more or less successfully, but there were still quite a lot of cash
purchases that occurred during the season. However, I am confident that over time, we will be able to achieve a 99.9% success rate wherein more than 9 out of 10 canteen purchases will be from using the debit card, thus minimising cash shopping to the bare minimum. Purchase of a till that had more options for categorizing sales. Increase in canteen prices. Limit in tabs as well as introduction of one-off game charges for those who don t play (and pay) for the whole season. This year we were once again lucky to have the continual support from high caliber sponsors which is a testament to strengthening the two-way relationship between the club and the sponsors. As the support from sponsors is increasingly becoming one of the financial pillars for the club, I would like sincerely encourage the members to support the sponsors to ensure we keep growing these relationships. Without making this report too long, I d like to highlight the key essentials of last seasons numbers as well as extra numbers & tables that formed part of my analysis. Fundamentally, the tables on the following pages represent the current financial status of the club s current situation that shall hopefully provide some insight and guidance as to the club s future direction. Statement of Financial Position Yarraleen Cricket Club Year Ended 2014 2015 Assets Cash at bank $ 3,106.53 $ 2,866.18 Stock (Alcohol) $ 1,000.00 $ 250.00 Buffalo Sports Gift voucher $ 250.00 $ - Liabilities Charity Donations $ 1,015.00 $ 817.50 NET ASSETS $ 3,341.53 $ 2,298.68
Statement of Financial Performance (P&L) Income Registrations Senior Players $5,590.00 Junior Players $3,030.00 Uniform & equipment Sales $100.00 Canteen income $20,399.60 Income from social functions $11,038.45 Ground rental income $800.00 Sponsorship $4,425.00 Total Income $45,384.05 Expenditure Canteen expenses $13,524.88 Social functions expenses $10,077.89 Balls $5,424.45 Senior & junior Affiliation fees $1,005.00 Scorebooks charged by association $292.50 Foxtel $830.00 Umpire Costs $1,840.00 Bowling Machine $1,200.00 BHRDCA Association $1,040.00 Other $855.19 Ground Rental $2,863.73 Insurances $1,110.00 Food & Liquor Licenses $462.00 Cricket Coaching $125.00 Bank Fees $530.10 Power bill $996.64 Trophies for players $1,806.75 Total Expenditure $43,984.13 Profit and Loss $1,399.92
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS SUMMARY Income Expenses Profit (loss) Family day Christmas party (includes raffle tickets sales) Pete Sav cup day (includes shirts) Presentation night (includes money made from tickets + raffle tickets as well as money spent on trophies) $340.00 $280.00 $60.00 $924.00 $1,060.75 $(136.75) $3,623.50 $1553.84 $2,069.66 $6,150.95 $7,183.30 $(1,032.35) Total $11,038.45 $10,077.89 $960.56 CANTEEN SUMMARY Income Expenses Profit (loss) Includes stock, alcohol, bbq's, morning & afternoon teas etc. - don t have any info on how much was spent on teas * $20,399.60 $13,524.88 $6,874.72 *The above excludes tabs; profit including outstanding tabs is $7,874.72 SPONSORS SUMMARY Mannigham $ 1,200.00 Barry Plant $ 1,800.00 Heathcote Winery $ 450.00 Macedon $ 375.00 High Access Group $ 600.00 $ 4,425.00
SUBSCRIPTIONS Juniors subs collected $ 5,590.00 Seniors subs collected $ 3,030.00 Total subs collected $ 8,620.00 As part of my analysis, I have in the below table, included the bare minimum mandatory costs of allowing a player to compete so that we can compare these costs against the total subscriptions collected for this season. Ideally, we would expect the subscriptions to cover this cost. However, this is not the case, as at the moment, the player subs cover just a bit over 60% of these mandatory costs. Note: The purpose of providing these numbers is not meant to advocate an increase in player subscription charges. It is solely meant to highlight that there are additional costs involved in bringing players to the ground that a lot of members in and outside the committee are probably unaware of. SUMMARY OF COSTS VS. INCOME NEEDED TO ALLOW A PLAYER TO COMPETE Balls $ 5,424.45 Senior & junior Affiliation fees $ 1,005.00 Scorebooks charged by association $ 292.50 Umpire Costs $ 1,840.00 BHRDCA Association $ 1,040.00 Ground Rental $ 2,863.73 Insurances $ 1,110.00 Trophies for players $ 1,806.75 Total costs $ 15,382.43 Total subscriptions collected (juniors & seniors) $ 8,620.00
Issues, challenges & recommendations The primary issue faced is the mismatch between numbers on the books vs. the closing bank balance for the season. As we can see from Table 2 Profit & Loss statement, we should/we have made a profit of roughly $1,400. However, this is not reflective of the closing balance of roughly $2,800. We opened the season with $3,100 & closed with $2,800. This means we don t have records for $300 based on the bank balances on top of which we should have made $1400, thus not being able to trace down $1700. On discussing this with a few committee members, we have gathered possible reasons behind this could be: - Cash income (such as from subs) being used for canteen shopping, Wednesday/Thursday night dinners & other possible expenses. If we take subs as an example, I record subs based on the receipt book as income, however, in realty this income is not hitting the bank account as it has been used for canteen/other expenses. This leads to overstatement of income on books. - Understatement of expenses. Having summarised key essentials in the tables above, I put forward the following recommendations based on a few challenges the committee & myself have faced from a financial perspective: To strictly adopt a no cash policy for canteen shopping/wednesday, Thursday night dinners or any club related expenses & switch to paying all expenses by the debit card/bank transfers. From my observation and understanding, there are 3 components that are driving the club at the moment cricket, canteen and social functions. Whilst, the latter two are integral for the survival of the club the focus on the primary activity of members playing better cricket seems to be somewhat lacking. With social functions, I do understand that the club is ultimately running for the community so losses sometimes can be incurred as long as the members and kids are having a good time. However, with canteen focused activities, I personally feel a lot of activities are not value adding from a financial perspective as well as take up a lot of club members time. Set budget targets at the start of the year. Due to financial record keeping of the last 3 years, we now have enough data to predict our costs at the start of the year. We can also predict certain income categories such as player subscriptions and sponsorship income. We can use this data to establish monetary targets for certain aspects such as social functions and canteen income to create a viable financial model. Pro-active approach to collecting subscriptions.
As a committee we need to be able to justify all of the expenditure activities. Essentially, we are a community club with the ultimate goal of providing enjoyment and maximum benefits for our members. Hence, bottom line should not be our end goal in our decision making, as incurring financial costs to provide a better experience to our members does provide non-tangible benefits that are important for the growth of the club. However, we need to have higher transparency and should be able to justify exactly how each expenditure activity is benefitting the club (in both tangible and non-tangible aspects). Conclusive note & acknowledgements I would like to thank the 2014-15 all members of the Yarraleen Cricket Club that contributed financially, morally and voluntarily who gave up their time to contribute to the success of the club. As a non-member and non-cricket player, taking on this role was challenging because all I started off with was access to the bank account, a horde of receipts and a set of excel spreadsheets, hence, once again, special mention to Prashan for his constant guidance and support without which this role would have been impossible to take on. Thank You. Treasurer 2014-15