One Easy Way to Decrease Reporting Errors

ElectaFile Short Summary: You can demystify campaign reporting if you think of your report as a balance sheet of pluses and minuses. The form itself helps you check your own work (so the State Board pros won’t have to!).

Today we’re writing about “Cash on Hand” and how it appears in three specific instances on two reports. Think of these three specific instances as safety valves for quality control.

Safety Valve No. 1: Every report you file—from Organizational Report to Final Report, as “Cash on Hand at Start…” or some other line entry to reflect the amount of “Cash on Hand” your committee has at the conclusion of a specific time period.

Here’s the screenshot of the blank on Form CRO-1100, “Detailed Summary…”

Remember that this Form is the same for nearly every report you file. This means that if you’re filing an Organizational Report, a Quarterly Report, an End of Year Report, regardless, you will have a line item for Cash on Hand at Start.

Here’s how the State Board’s form instructions put it (the blank space is Line 4):

Thus, your typical committee begins its reporting life with an Organizational Report where the above blank is zero dollars. That’s right. It should start at zero. You then add your pluses and minuses of money going into and coming out of the committee so (hopefully for your political aspirations…) your $0.00 turns into a positive dollar figure.

Safety Valve No. 2: Every report you file is going to have incoming and outgoing $$$$ that are reported as receipts and expenditures. This is not profound. You all know this, but it’s helpful to associate the concepts with the worksheet to set up Safety Valve No. 3.

Every dollar coming into and out of your committee has to be accounted for. You do this using the various data entry points best illustrated by the lines on Form CRO-1100 that act as summaries for other forms that you will be prompted to file. Think about how the IRS 1040 form references and relates to various more specific forms.

Here’s a screenshot of the ledger of receipts:

Here’s a screenshot of the ledger of expenditures:

Safety Valve No. 3: Your report comes into port, so to speak, with Line 19’s “Cash on Hand at End…” which should—if you’re doing it right—track the “Cash on Hand at Start” plus the receipts and minus the expenditures. This is intuitive. However, if you’re filing with paper, you need to verify your math. If you’re using software like ElectaFile, our software does the math for you.

Safety Valve No. 4 (the “Ultimate…”). Here’s the key point…Your cash on hand at Start on a report should match to the penny the cash on hand at end on the prior report. Those two numbers should be identical. This makes sense because your duty under the law is to report a continuous flow of funds from the birth, life, and death of your committee. There should be no gaps. If the numbers don’t match, you’ve done something wrong.

Key Point: Matching “cash on hand at start” and “cash on hand at end’ is a rapid test for whether your reports are on track. If your 2023 EYSA report filed shows cash on hand at end of $1,255, and your 2024 1Q Plus Report shows cash on hand at start of $1,450, something is wrong. And you need to re-check your work. These numbers should be twins…

Key Point BONUS: Politics isn’t beanbag as we know. Your political opponents and shrewd observers can quickly look at Detailed Summaries from multiple reports, and if the line of numbers don’t match, they know quickly something isn’t right. This is a feature of the State Board’s excellent public information website. You can use this to your advantage as quick way to quality control your report.

Go get’em!

We can help you. Check us out at ElectaFile.com 

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. 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.