When you need to sign the report, you will receive several documents that you must review. These are the documents you are signing, so it is important that you read them. If not, the board could waste valuable time that could be better spent on important and enjoyable association work.
The documents are as follows:
Constitution
Purpose and Scope Form (business scope)
Minutes
Financial statement
Checklist
Please read all of them, but pay particular attention to the following:
Ensure that the minutes and financial statement are correct – double-check that they are from the correct year and that the date and year are clearly stated.
Verify that the correct authorized signatories are listed in accordance with the bylaws. Remember, if it is not clearly stated in the bylaws who is authorized to sign for the association, all board members must be listed. Read more here.
Confirm that the correct bank accesses (authorizations) have been granted – this is a common mistake, so double-check!
Make sure the constitution of the board is correct; that the outgoing members are listed, and the new members are written in.
Check that the amounts stated in the business scope (Purpose and Scope Form) are not completely off. A frequent mistake is accidentally writing one zero too few or too many, which makes a big difference.
REMEMBER...
... the person reporting has spent a lot of time and effort completing the report. So, it’s a big help for him/her if you assist in checking whether they have included the correct information and written everything accurately, so they don’t have to carry the responsibility alone.
If the board ends up signing something that is incorrect, the bank could reject the report, and then your board will have even more work to do in correcting and re-signing it. So, it’s better to get it right the first time.
Also, REMEMBER that once the reporter and/or other board members have signed the report, no further changes can be made to it. If you open it to make changes, the previous signatures will disappear since new signatures will be required for any changes made.