Club treasurer: the year's tasks and a good handover

The treasurer is often the board member who puts in the most hours, and the post that's hardest to fill. That's rarely because the job is hard, but because it isn't written down. Here's the treasurer's year in a typical club whose financial year is the calendar year, and how to make sure the next treasurer can take over.

The treasurer's year

The dates depend on your statutes, your financial year and your municipality. Use the list as a template and adjust it.

• January: close the year. Finish last year's bookkeeping, reconcile the bank account at 31 December, and report member numbers to CFR by 31 January,¹ if yours is a sports club that has to report to CFR, the register DIF, DGI and Dansk Firmaidræt run together.² Also check whether your municipality has a deadline for member grants in January.
• February: accounts and audit. Draw up the annual accounts and send them to the club's auditors well before the AGM.
• February to March: the AGM. Present the audited accounts and a budget with a proposed fee. Usually it's the AGM that approves the accounts. Check your statutes.
• March to April: grants. Check when your municipality's deadlines for grant accounts and premises grants fall.
• Season start: dues. Send the charges and start reminders, for example 14 days after the due date and again a week later.
• Ongoing: bookkeeping. Book every month, and keep a receipt for every income and expense.
• Autumn: budget. Draft next year's budget so the board can see whether the fee needs to change.

Dues and reminders

For many clubs, dues are the biggest income. What makes the biggest difference isn't the rate but that everyone pays. Give every charge a unique payment reference, so payments can be reconciled without guessing, and have a fixed reminder schedule. Read more in What should your membership fee be?.

Bookkeeping and receipts

An ordinary Danish club (a non-profit association without business activity) is, as a starting point, not covered by the Danish Bookkeeping Act. According to the Danish Business Authority, that changes if the club runs business activity beyond its usual activities, and then the act applies to that part, or if it has to report accounts as a condition of grants directly from the state or the EU. Grants through a national or umbrella organisation don't count, and municipal grants don't bring a club under the act on their own.³

Even when the act doesn't apply, you have to be able to account for every krone to the AGM, the auditors and the municipality. Good practice is:

• One receipt per entry, with date, amount and what it covers.
• The club's money in the club's account. Never in a private account.
• Two people on payments above a set amount, if your bank can set that up.
• Receipts kept for five years from the end of the financial year, as the Bookkeeping Act requires for those it covers.³

Accounts and audit

The statutes decide how the accounts are audited. If the club gets grants under the Danish Act on Popular Education (folkeoplysningsloven), the statutes must also describe the accounting and financial arrangements and how the auditor is elected.⁴ Auditors are usually elected by the AGM from among the members. Give them the accounts, bank statements and receipts, and agree on a date so the audit isn't done the night before the AGM.

Grants and CFR

If the club gets municipal grants under the Act on Popular Education, it has to produce grant accounts each year under the municipality's rules. From 1 January 2026, they must at least be signed by the board members who can sign for the club.⁵ Before, the whole board had to sign. The municipality sets the accounting period and the deadline, and can set rules on the form of the accounts and the audit.⁶ See Premises grants and activity grants.

The CFR member count is used to document the size of Danish sport to municipalities, foundations and decision-makers.¹ It counts active members who are enrolled and have paid dues, and who were enrolled for at least three months of the calendar year.² See CFR member count.

Handing over to the next treasurer

The most expensive part of a treasurer change is whatever only existed in the old treasurer's head. Do the handover while both are around:

1. Bank access. Get the new treasurer on the account, and remove the old one's access when the handover is done. The bank will usually want minutes from the AGM or the board's first meeting.
2. Other agreements. MobilePay, insurance, federations, the municipality's grant portal, CFR and the membership system. Change the contact person and access everywhere.
3. The treasurer's calendar. Deadlines for dues, CFR, grants and accounts, written down.
4. Receipts and accounts. At least the last five years, kept in one place that belongs to the club, not to a person.
5. Open items. Arrears, unpaid bills and grants waiting for an answer.

Make the handover an item on the board's first meeting after the AGM, so it actually happens.

With Clubroom

In Clubroom, dues charges and reminders send themselves, bank transfers are matched on the reference, and the CFR count follows the three-month rule. Access belongs to the club, not to a person, so a new treasurer is simply made an administrator. See Collect membership fees and Hand over the club.

This is a general overview, not legal or accounting advice.