My apologies for not updating last week, things were happening that I did not know how to talk about. I shall continue to not talk about them for now but as a distraction I offer this: the
2012 Annual Report is now on the OTW website in PDF form.
I remember promising to talk a bit about Finances and I should make good on that promise. 'Finance' is not a language everyone speaks (I'm reasonably literate but don't get invited to Finance-speaking cocktail parties) so I'll try to condense pages 14-16 into something simple and accessible.
Page 14:
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION. As at Dec 31 2012 we had (this is about how much money we had at a point in time)
- $ 76,765.71 - cash in bank accounts
- $ 53,260.19 - physical assets - mostly servers
- $ 10,073.36 - 'other assets' this is what the US calls a Certificate of Deposit or COD and Australians call a Term Deposit
It adds up to $140,099.26.
Page 15:
STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES. For the 2012 calendar year we did (this is about how money moved throughout the year)
We spent money!
We received money!
As a non-profit we had a surplus! (For Profit organisations have Profits)
Page 16:
STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES. For the 2012 calendar year we did (this is the more detailed version of money moving separated by what type of expense it was, and who it was spent on / by)
Some of these are obvious:
- $80.00 of Bank Charges
- $2000.00 Insurance
- $22,023.95 of System Expenses (buying servers)
Some are more mysterious at first glance:
- $45.00 of Bank Charges to Journal (this was a wire transfer for copyright on media studies reader)
All of them are explainable. The point to financial reports is to have a way to clearly explain / demonstrate that money is being managed, and demonstrate that to the people who care (the board, our staff, volunteers and donors) and of course governments who give us tax exempt status.
Questions / comments welcome.