Date: 19th November 2015
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Re: Neil Raymond Paddock FCCA
Dear Sir/Madam
I can confirm that the above named person worked for this club on a voluntary, part time basis in the capacity as Acting Treasurer from 4th August 2015 to 9th September 2015 and was officially appointed as Club Treasurer on 10th September 2015 and is still serving in that role as at the current date above.
The routine Treasury duties performed include:
- Banking of club receipts at our local branch
- Counting and categorisation of daily and weekly takings for banking
- Production of the monthly Treasury (income and expenditure) reports
- Payment of routine club expenses
- Attendance at monthly committee meetings, general meetings and the AGM.
There are two particularly important things to note about Neil’s role at the club:
- Neil took over the books at a time when the outgoing Treasurer was struggling to keep up with the workload and Neil’s intervention at that point was timely, focused and effective.
- His response to the backlog and lack of audit trail was to design a series of new procedures and processes :
- Addressing shortfalls in the existing accounting processes (such as timely matching and banking of cash receipts and the introduction of a new petty cash float)
- Strengthening internal controls (such as restricting passwords, improving security, introducing new bank reconciliations, ledger reports and suspense accounts.
- Designing new forms and spreadsheets to be used in conjunction with a new computerised system, to improve the consistency, accuracy and transparency of the club’s accounting records.
The improvements Neil implemented allowed the introduction of a new computerised system to be selected, trialled, tested and implemented. This involved:
- Streamlining and summarising the existing excel spreadsheets and word documents formally in use to create improved monthly Treasury reports and reconciling their results to source records and cashbooks.
- Selection of a suitable low cost computerised accounting system from Xero, MYOB and Quicken. Quicken was chosen due to its low cost, suitability for the task at hand and ease of use. The adoption of this older system saves the club between $30 – $50 per month in ongoing fees.
- Replacement of the existing excel cashbooks and the transcription of records from the existing manual cashbooks over into the new computerised system (Quicken), for the 13 month period commencing 1st August 2014.
- The set up of a tailor made customised chart of accounts built especially to meet the club’s requirements designed as per the President’s guidelines.
- The manual re-creation of around 1,500 records from obsolete manual cashbooks and other sources that were uploaded or entered into Quicken.
- Introducing online payments of regular suppliers and reducing the use of manual cheques.
- Eliminating the use of excess receipts books and outmoded banking processes.
- Designing and establishing a system for recording receipts and payments for easy entry into Quicken. Working through the full implementation with the Acting Assistant Treasurer.
We know that Neil spent two months working between 60 – 90 hours a week reviewing old cashbooks, receipt books, cheque books, paying in books, spreadsheets and backup paperwork physical receipts to “vouch” (verify) the authenticity of the accounting records. He was able to resolve errors of omission and commission within the books, reclassify items and locate a series of entries completely absent from the records.
Following this extensive effort, the records were brought up to date ready for audit.
Neil has also worked through a series of administrative issues with our bank to improve the security of the accounts, setting up online access with an approval system and working consistently and building relationships with local staff to simplify and streamline our previous backing procedures, whilst teasing out persistent administrative errors. He and our Vice President (working also in the capacity of Assistant Treasurer) have worked together to deliver these improvements and to update and streamline our authority listings and administrator access, as well as evaluating and taking advantage of the most convenient paying in features.
We are most grateful to Neil for this stupendous effort which required both tenacity and attention to detail. We appreciate that he was able to maintain this effort whilst also facing external challenges. Thanks to Neil we now have a low maintenance low cost computerised system. We are benefiting from the improved accuracy and efficiency and transparency of the procedures and controls he designed and implemented for us.
In conclusion, we would have no hesitation in recommending Neil to future clients and employers, with the expectation that he will deliver as much value and benefit to them, as he was willingly contributed to our Club.
Please contact us if your require any further information.
Yours faithfully,
Marcia Dinnie
WSCC President
Ph/Fax: (08) 9405 2628
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