At the start of the year, you went to your athletic booster club office to start preparing your previous year tax documents. However, you quickly realized that the accounting information you needed was scattered across dozens of spreadsheets stored in a variety of locations.
Does this scenario sound all too familiar? If so, it’s time to ditch your spreadsheet-based accounting strategy for a more modern approach.
Dangers of Spreadsheet-Based Accounting
Before we reveal how you can get your finances in order, let’s zoom in a bit on the dangers of spreadsheet-based accounting.
The biggest issue with this approach is that it can lead to errors in your tax documents. If you fill inaccurate reports with the IRS, they’ll call foul — and may even dish out a hefty penalty in the process.
Furthermore, spreadsheet-based accounting is inefficient. Even if you manage to find the documents you need and get your tax forms filed by the set deadlines, you’re going to waste a lot of time in the process. Wouldn’t that time be better spent volunteering or planning fundraisers? Of course it would.
The good news is you can break the cycle by investing in some affordable and efficient tech.
Getting Your Financials in Order
When it comes to managing your athletic booster clubs finances using digital methods, you have two choices:
Standalone Accounting Software
If your booster club is an incorporated non-profit, your club should be using some type of accounting platform to manage its finances. The most basic approach is standalone accounting software, which is affordable and helps you consolidate all of your financial data in one place.
That said, there are two shortcomings associated with this approach. First, while your financial data will be unified, you’ll still have to track all of your booster club's other activities outside the platform. As a result, you’ll be using at least two or three different applications to manage your club. If that sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is.
More importantly, basic accounting software is designed for a single entity. If your athletic booster club manages the finances of multiple teams and groups, things can get messy in a hurry. Fortunately, there’s a better option that was built specifically for athletic booster clubs.
The Better Option: BoosterHub Pro
BoosterHub Pro was purpose-built with athletic booster clubs in mind. It boasts a streamlined accounting system that includes various built-in checks and balances so you can accurately track your finances and stay compliant with IRS requirements.
As an added benefit, you can manage all of your other activities within the BoosterHub Pro platform. That’s right — you can communicate with parents and volunteers, create calendars, process payments, and much more. You can even create a separate database for each team or group.
When you’re ready to revamp your athletic booster club’s accounting playbook, consider supporting your efforts with an innovative app. A solution like BoosterHub Pro will turn you into your club’s accounting MVP and help you avoid being caught out of bounds come tax time.
