1. What the treasurer actually does
The treasurer is the person who:
- Holds the club's debit card
- Knows exactly how much is in the account at any time
- Chases or collects subs from parents
- Pays the league fees, the ref fees, the pitch hire
- Keeps the accounts (a spreadsheet is fine; nothing fancy)
- Presents the annual financial report at the AGM
- Signs off on anything over a threshold (typically £100) jointly with the chair
It's about 2–3 hours a week in season, more in August (setup) and June (AGM). The job rewards organised people who don't mind email and spreadsheets. It's not a job for someone who's also coaching the team — too many cross-purposes.
2. The five things to set up before the season starts
- A club bank account. Community-account products from Lloyds, NatWest, Metro, or one of the credit unions all work. You'll need: your constitution, two signatories (treasurer + chair), and proof of ID for both. Allow 2–4 weeks to open.
- A Direct Debit collection setup. GoCardless or Stripe. Sign-up is online, takes a week to verify. See the subs collection guide for the full how-to.
- An accounting spreadsheet (or club admin tool that does this). Income on one tab, expenses on another, monthly summary on a third. Don't overcomplicate.
- A purchasing rule. Anything over £100 needs two signatories. Anything over £500 needs a committee vote. Anything over £1000 needs an AGM mandate.
- A simple expenses-claim form. Volunteers buying kit bags or ref-fees out of pocket need a way to claim back. A Google Form attached to a receipts folder works fine.
3. The treasurer's year, month by month
A typical UK grassroots season runs September to May. Here's what each month looks like:
August The setup month
- Confirm sub levels with the committee + parents
- Send DD mandate links to every returning + new parent
- Pay county FA affiliation fees
- Pay league entry fees
- Order pre-season kit (if club-supplied)
- Renew insurance (usually via the county FA's preferred partner)
September First payments
- First sub collection runs (DD or standing order)
- Chase up any mandates that didn't get set up
- Pay ref fees for opening fixtures (usually weekly, in cash or via league app)
- Pay first month's pitch hire
- Reconcile: check incoming + outgoing matches the spreadsheet
Oct–Apr The plateau
- Monthly sub collection (automatic if DD)
- Weekly ref fees
- Monthly pitch hire
- Occasional kit / equipment top-ups
- Monthly committee update: "we are X in the black/red"
- Watch for failed payments + chase quickly (see the subs guide)
May Season close
- Final fixtures + final pitch payments
- Tournament fees if entered
- End-of-season trophies + presentation (often club-funded)
- Start drafting the AGM finance report
June AGM
- Present accounts to AGM (see section 5)
- Get sign-off on next year's sub levels
- Get sign-off on any planned big spends (new kit, tournament travel)
- Volunteer-of-the-year sponsors usually paid out around now
July The break (mostly)
- Account quiet
- Sub collection paused (kids don't pay through summer)
- Renew DBS / coach quals where needed (small admin spend)
- Catch up on records
4. Four traps to avoid in year one
Coach takes £20 cash from a parent at training, puts it in their pocket, intends to bank it Monday. Forgets. Goes through the wash. Repeats for ten parents. Three weeks later, treasurer has no idea who's paid. Don't do this. Direct Debit everything, or bank transfer with a reference. Cash is a paperwork nightmare and a safeguarding flag.
To seem accessible, the new committee sets subs 30% too low. Year one ends £800 in the red. Committee panics; raises subs 60% in year two. Half the parents leave. Better to charge what you actually need from day one, with a hardship policy for genuine cases (see the subs guide).
The kit supplier wants paying up front; parents pay subs monthly. The gap is real and predictable. Plan for it by keeping ~£1500 in reserves before ordering kit. New clubs sometimes hit this in year one and have to ask a parent to lend the club money — awkward and avoidable.
By March the treasurer's spreadsheet doesn't match the bank statement by £300 and they don't know why. Reconcile every month, even if it takes 20 minutes. A small drift caught early is fixable; a large drift in April is panic territory and gets raised at AGM as a governance problem.
5. The AGM presentation
The annual finance presentation is the one thing every grassroots treasurer must deliver in person. It's also where new treasurers overthink it. The audience (parents, mostly) wants:
- The number. “We started the year with £X, we ended with £Y, that's a [surplus/deficit] of £Z.”
- Where the money came in. Sub income, sponsorship, fundraising, kit-shop margin.
- Where it went out. Pitch hire, ref fees, kit, insurance, league fees, FA affiliation, trophies, hardship subsidies.
- The headline ask. “We need subs to go from £X to £Y next year because of [reason].”
- The questions invitation. “Any questions?” — and answer honestly.
Total runtime: 5–8 minutes. Don't read out every line item. A single-page PDF circulated in advance, with categories not transactions, is more useful than a 20-page accounts breakdown nobody reads.
6. Handing over to the next treasurer
Every treasurer leaves eventually. Make the handover smooth:
- Shared Drive folder with all financial docs from year-one. Not on one person's laptop.
- Bank signatory updated the day after the AGM
- DD provider login handed over (change the password, share via a secure mechanism)
- One overlap month where the outgoing treasurer is on hand for “what does this transaction mean?” questions
Clubs that fold after 2–3 years usually do so on a treasurer handover that didn't happen. The job is the spine of the club's continuity; treat the handover like one.
GrassrootsFC's Collections wraps GoCardless so you can run the whole sub flow without a spreadsheet — enrol players, send mandate links, watch payments tick in. See it →
The treasurer's life, made easier
GrassrootsFC includes Collections (DD subs), an income/expense dashboard, and a parent portal — designed for the volunteer doing this on a Tuesday evening.
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