Avoiding the Most Common Error for Old and New Political Committees...

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ElectaFile Short Summary: Our review of audit memos from the SBOE tells us that the most common error we see is under-reporting the details of contributions. Make data-chasing and error proofing part of your practice!

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The most direct feedback your committee will get on your campaign finance reports is something called an audit memo from a State Board professional. This is distinct and much more substantive than the confirmation you get back when you e-file. Although, the timing of audits can appear confusing, suffice to say that most audits occur less frequently. For starters, though, to better understand you should read the State Board’s publicly available “playbook” for how its professionals conduct audits. It’s called the Campaign Finance Examination Policy. Here’s the link.

Audit memos are the tools whereby the State Board professional shows “his or her work” on reviewing your filed campaign finance reports for compliance with the law. The correspondence between the SBOE and individual campaigns is publicly available and searchable for all at this link.

We will get into how audits work on another post, but, for today, we want to flag what we think is the biggest noted error on campaign finance reports and what you can do to avoid it. We’re no rocket scientists—we’ve just read a ton of these memos and unscientifically tallied the feedback.

The most common and avoidable error is…(drum roll please)…under reporting contributor data. Every. single. time. Here’s a screenshot from a recent audit memo:

Here’s another example, this time in the context of “Don’t Say Retired…”

So what gives? Why is it that multiple contributions are regularly under-reported as to donor data? Our theory is the problem of volume, speed, and time. First, small dollar donors means a ton of volume. Second, when the sun is shining and committees are making hay in the form of contributions, speed wins as to booking the contribution with a name associated with it. Sometimes chasing donors for their job descriptions can feel awkward—especially if the donor has already given funds. And data entry can be slow and tedious. Finally, as with most things, there’s always more time for this work later. In the long reporting period of the odd years, you have months to quality control your dataset for reporting.

There’s also a misconception out there about contributions totaling less than $50. It’s true those can be cash. It’s also true that the report need not disclose the usual battery of donor data when reporting that less than $50 contribution. However, treasurers still must retain that data to keep track of the donor’s total cycle contributions. It could be that folks are not getting data up front on the less than $50 contributor and then forget if the donor later contributes over that threshold.

Here’s the State Board’s Campaign Finance Manual’s word on the $50 contribution nuance on Page 52:

Get Full Data on Contributors!

Here’s what we recommend: insist on the practice of getting full contributor datasets when the dollars come in the door. Make it a habit! For campaign workers and volunteers young and old!

Chase donors early so it’s not so awkward. Develop a simple and easy platform to manage that data—even if you’re a small dollar committee. One excellent treasurer we know recommends taking a picture of or copying checks on the front end and asking in-person donors for business cards to snap a photo to go with the check. You can also just paperclip the check and the business card together for quick data entry.

Over at ElectaFile, we encourage our users to log in to their committee dashboard from a Mac or PC with an internet connection on a two-week or monthly basis to catch up data entry. ElectaFile helps by error proofing data fields that are missing required information.

That’s all for today. Go get’em.

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What is ElectaFile.com? ElectaFile offers easy and affordable electronic "click to file" services with the NC State Board and County Boards. ElectaFile is web-based and accessible from Macs and PCs with an internet connection. ElectaFile is transactionally-priced so you only pay a small fee if you file using ElectaFile. If you need a free consultation on your situation, please let us know. If ElectaFile can help, it will. We are not your treasurer or your lawyer. If you need a professional treasurer or an attorney, ElectaFile regularly refers folks to professionals on all sides of the aisle.