Treasurer

Month 2

• Contact the Dean’s office to arrange an account for the conference. Running the finances through the Dean’s office helps avoid administrative charges that your university’s financial services may otherwise charge. It also provides accountability and transparency for the conference’s financial management, and generally makes your role easier.
• Contact the previous year’s organizers to obtain their final financial report

Month 4

• Obtain final financial report from previous year’s organizers (if not already received)
• Complete first draft of budget using last year’s financial statement as a guide (download the budget template here)
• In conjunction with the Food and Venue Coordinator, confirm cost of meeting spaces. For space on campus, many universities are able to waive meeting room rental fees or provide rooms free for student use. Please view the “Room Fee Waiver Request” here letter for support in negotiating meeting room use. You may need the support of your Dean for your request
• Registration fees should cover one person’s costs for:

   

  • All food: nutrition breaks, breakfasts, lunches, banquet (you may optionally charge a separate fee for the banquet)
  • Materials provided: conference kit bag, printout of program/proceedings
  • T-shirt or other conference items (optional)

  Typically, for a 2-3 day conference, including banquet, these “hard costs” will be approximately $100-$120 per person. A “hard cost” is anything that you will have to pay for regardless of whether a registered person shows up, such as the caterer’s fee for the meal you have ordered on behalf of that participant.

  Plan to provide a discounted fee for students ($60-70) and to charge the full fee for faculty and other attendees.

  Surplus money can be used towards other optional activities and costs such as social events, entertainment for the banquet, room rental costs, travel subsidies for students travelling from Newfoundland, to further reduce registration fees for students and faculty, and to reduce the amount of funding requested from the hosting Dean’s office and Science Atlantic.

  • If ready, submit your preliminary budget to conferences@scienceatlantic.ca for review and recommendations (this should be done no later than four-six months before the conference to allow time for modifications if necessary).
  • The following tasks should be continued throughout the year:
    • Obtain quotes for all aspects of conference and refine budget as appropriate
    • Make deposits as funds are received (sponsorships and registration payments) and issue receipts
      • Note: If you are using PayPal, a receipt is automatically sent to the registrantDetermine registration fees based on estimated costs before fund raisingClick here for more information

Month 7

• Submit draft budget to conferences@scienceatlantic.ca for review and recommendations

• With Chief of Public Relations, determine how registration fees will be received

• • Options for receiving registration payments (in order of preference):

• • • Using Science Atlantic’s PayPal service (beta). Our charitable rate is 1.9% of the total paid (less than credit card companies charge) plus $0.30 per transaction.Please contact conferences@scienceatlantic.ca for more information.

• • • Online through your university’s financial services department:Note: Before committing to your university’s payment system, be sure to confirm whether there will be additional fees or HST charged. HST/administrative fees can change your registration costs by up to 15-20% and must therefore be factored in when establishing your registration fee.
      Regarding HST on registration fees, Science Atlantic is not required to charge tax on goods and services because we are considered a “small supplier” under Revenue Canada guidelines. If your university is handling your registration fees, you may provide them with this letter (download here) to explain the exemption.
      A fee of around 3% for credit card charges incurred by the university is reasonable.

• • • Cheques mailed to you and deposited to your university account:If you will not have an online fee payment option, registrants should mail cheques to you as soon as they have registered since you will be incurring costs based on their registration. See Science Atlantic’s conference registration and cancellation policy here.
      Preferably, arrange for each participating school’s Science Atlantic faculty rep or someone from the student society to collect all the registration funds and send a single cheque to you.

• • • Cheques received at the door during the event:Again, it is preferable to arrange ahead of time with the faculty contact or student society to bring one cheque from each institution to cover all registrants. As a last resort, allow individual payments at the door. For payments at the door, be sure to have a receipt book with carbon paper so you can give receipts immediately and have a carbon copy for reconciliation later (or a computer and printer to provide printed receipts and keep electronic copies as you go).

• • • Cash should be avoided if at all possible!

• Ensure this line is in the online registration form:
  “By submitting this registration form, I agree to the conditions of the Conference Registration Payment and Cancellation Policy which can be accessed here.“

• Issue invoices for registration as requested. Some schools may require an invoice before they will issue a cheque for registration fees (ongoing)
• Review Registration Payment and Cancellation Policy, which can be accessed here

Month 9

• Update budget with confirmed sponsorship and catering estimates
• • Submit updated budget and request rollover funds from Science AtlanticClick here for more information
    If you require additional funds from Science Atlantic, this request must be approved by the Chair of your Science Atlantic faculty committee and the approval must be included with your budget.
  • If using PayPal, submit PayPal Information Form, found here, to conferences@scienceatlantic.ca

1 Week Before

• If you are accepting cash payments at the registration desk, provide cash boxes and float to Chief of Public Relations

3 Days Before

• If using PayPal, submit your Registration Funds Request Form, found here, to conferences@scienceatlantic.ca

During Conference

• Collect cash and cheques from Chief of Public Relations; keep secure until you are able to deposit to your university account. Repeat on Day Two, if applicable

1 Week After

• Reconcile registration to confirm all have paid
• Follow up with conference no shows for payment (provide Conference Registration Payment and Cancellation Policy which was included in the online registration form)
• Request PayPal registration funds from Science Atlantic
• With Fundraising Coordinator, confirm whether all sponsorship funds have been received and follow up with unpaid sponsors
• Provide comments and recommendations for future organizers to Conference Chair for final report

2 Months After

• Reconcile finances, ensuring all invoices are paid and all sponsorship received

3 Months After

• Send final financial report (which can be downloaded here) to conferences@scienceatlantic.ca and next year’s coordinators

Note: If your final financial report is not submitted, Science Atlantic will contact the appropriate Dean to ensure that necessary information is provided

• Mail surplus funds by cheque to Science Atlantic to be held for next year’s conference:

Science Atlantic

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Dalhousie University

LSC Room 1376

1355 Oxford Street

PO Box 15000

Halifax, NS B3H 4R2

• Email conferences@scienceatlantic.ca when the cheque is mailed