Maker-checker approvals: protecting association funds without slowing work down

Banks have a simple rule for anything involving money: the person who enters a transaction is never the person who approves it. It is called maker-checker, and it is one of the most effective controls a residential or social association can adopt.

Why it matters for associations

Committee members are volunteers, and most are scrupulously honest. Maker-checker is not about distrust. It protects everyone:

• Mistakes get caught. A second pair of eyes spots the wrong amount or the wrong expense head before it reaches the books.
• Volunteers are protected. When every payment was approved by someone else, nobody can later be accused of acting alone.
• Members gain confidence. “Every expense is approved by a second committee member” is a powerful sentence at an AGM.

Where to apply it

Expense vouchers

The office assistant or treasurer prepares the payment voucher — salaries, electricity bill, repair work — with the bill attached. A designated committee member reviews and approves it. Until it is approved, it does not affect the accounts.

Waivers and discounts

Waiving a late fee or reducing a widow’s service charge may be the right decision, but it should never be one person’s decision. Request by one, approval by another, with the reason recorded.

Cancelling a receipt

A collector or cashier who made a mistake can request a cancellation; someone else approves it. The original receipt stays on record, marked as cancelled.

Keeping it fast

The common objection is that approvals slow things down. In practice, three things keep it quick:

1. Approvals happen on a phone, not on paper — the approver sees the voucher, the amount and the attachment, and taps approve.
2. Clear limits. Small petty-cash expenses can be grouped into a weekly voucher.
3. Small associations can switch it off. If your association genuinely has only one active office bearer, record everything anyway and have the auditor review it periodically.

Running a savings-and-loan cooperative instead? Our sister product Somity Keeper — cooperative society software handles members, savings, loans and instalments, and small savings groups can start on mobile with Somity Keeper Lite.

What to avoid

• The same person holding both roles “just this month”.
• Approving in bulk without opening the vouchers.
• Deleting records instead of cancelling them. A cancelled entry tells a story; a deleted one creates suspicion.

Good controls are not about catching thieves. They are about making sure honest people never have to defend themselves.

In Society Keeper, written vouchers wait for a second person’s approval, the maker can never approve their own voucher, and cancelling creates a reversing entry instead of erasing history.