The flip-cheque financial control system

It is well known that a major area of weakness in community based project management lies with money and financial control. Part of the reason for this is because conventional double entry bookkeeping systems require relatively sophisticated concepts to be applied which easily confuses the inexperienced committee treasurer. It was with this knowledge in mind, as well as our own financial ineptitude (especially when it comes to reading many columns of figures such as in an analysis book) that resulted in the development of a simple system that inexperienced people may use. The flip-cheque system is based upon “making easy” the recording of all details related to project financial transactions required to enable the user, or someone else, to prepare a perfectly acceptable and accurate record of all financial transactions. The value of the system is that the monthly bank statement provides an independent check on the state of the account. This paper illustrates how the system works and describes actual experiences with communities who have used it.