1. Understand and comply with the following MAPE policies:
   a. Reimbursement Policy
   b. Donations Policy
   c. Local Checkbook Policy (if the local has a checkbook)
   d. Local Budget Policy
   e. Stipend and Recognition Policy
2. Adopt the MAPE reimbursement policy or establish a separate reimbursement policy for the local that is more restrictive.
3. Adopt the MAPE Donations Policy or establish a separate policy for the local.
4. Prepare a budget for each calendar year using the template on the MAPE website and submit to the Statewide Treasurer (Finance Committee) by January 1st once it has been approved by local membership.
5. Local expenses – Approve, complete, verify and sign required expense forms and send (via fax or email) to the MAPE Financial Specialist.
   a. Local Expense Reimbursement Request Form – Must be completed in full and include receipts and a list of meeting attendees when applicable.
   b. Expenses $500 or less – one signer, preferably the Treasurer, is needed to authorize the expense.
   c. Expenses over $500 – Two signers, the treasurer and another local officer, are need to authorize the expense.
   d. Lost Time – Treasurer or Local officer must verify and sign lost time expense reports and submit to the MAPE Financial Specialist for payment.
   e. Any expense reimbursement forms submitted by the treasurer must be signed by another local officer.
6. Maintain a checkbook type ledger to verify the local balance with MAPE’s tabulation on a monthly basis.
7. Make a report to the local concerning local income, expenses and balances at the regular meeting.
8. Provide information to a local audit committee at the beginning of each year for the previous year’s expenses.
9. Suggested retention of records is 3+ years.

Local may not engage in or expend funds on the following items:

• Purchase of alcohol.
• Paying for gambling.
• Entering into contracts on behalf of MAPE.
• Incurring indebtedness (loans) outside of MAPE Central.
• Pooling of financial resources without prior approval of the Finance Committee.
• Contributing to other union organizing activities, other than those sanctioned by the MAPE Board of Directors.
• Contributing to political individuals or organizations.
• Paying for out-of-state travel.
• Donating to any one charity in excess of $1,000 per year.
• Assessing local dues in excess of twice the amount of dues set for this purpose by the Delegate Assembly.
• Paying for attorney fees or legal settlements.

All region/local reimbursement policies must be consistent with MAPE statewide policies except where a more restrictive policy is proposed.

There are several Financial Forms Local Treasurers need to use. Below is a listing and description of these forms.

• Local Expense Reimbursement Request form – this is used to request reimbursement through MAPE central from your local account. This is generally used by locals that do not have their own checkbook. It can be used by officers and members in locals that do have checkbooks if you prefer the check be issued from Central office. This form is also used for direct vendor payment.
   
• Local Checkbook Replenishment form – this form is used to request replenishment of the checking account after a check or debit transaction has been processed. Local checking accounts have limits to reduce the risk of fraud, because of these limits replenishments must be submitted when expenses are processed through the local checking account to keep the account at the maximum limit allowed. This form is ONLY used by locals with checkbooks.
   
• Local Budget Template – this template must be completely every year by each local. The creation and approval of the local budget authorizes expenditures for the local. An approved budget must be submitted by January 1st each year to the Finance Committee through the Statewide Treasurer.
   
• Audit Committee Report – this report must be completed by a local audit committee each year by March 15th in locals that have checkbooks. This is the only time in which the local funds are audited, so it is very important to complete. Further information on completing the audit can be found below and in the Local Checkbook Policy.

These forms and more can be found on the Financial Forms webpage:  https://mape.org/financial-forms

All MAPE members or local officers seeking payment or reimbursement for expenses must complete the Local Expense Reimbursement form completely and submit to the local treasurer.

Locals with checkbooks, the local treasurer will:

• Review/approve and sign the Local Expense Reimbursement Request form. If a second signature is needed the treasurer is responsible for asking another officer to review and sign.
• Write the check for the amount of the expense.
• Capture this expense in the local checkbook ledger and the local reconciliation form.
• Complete a Local Checkbook Replenishment form and submit form and required documentation to the MAPE Financial Specialist for checkbook reimbursement.

Locals without checkbooks, the local treasurer will:

• Review/approve and sign the Local Expense Reimbursement Request form. If a second signature is needed the treasurer is responsible for asking another officer to sign.
• Capture this expense in the local reconciliation form.
• Submit completed form and required documentation to the MAPE Financial Specialist who will create the check and mail to the proper location (member or business).

To complete the Local Checkbook Replenishment form:

*All amount fields must have a value, enter 0.00 in any open fields and then press F9 to calculate electronically.

• Please print or electronically complete the top portion of the form:

  • Local Treasurer’s
    -- Name
    -- Daytime phone
    -- Local #
    -- Work email
    -- Home email
• List of checks issued including
  -- Place of meeting
  -- Date of meeting
  -- Check number
  -- Who the check was paid to
  -- A description of the expense, such as food or gift cards
  -- Amount
• Complete the signature portion of the form
  -- Local treasurer (required)
  -- Local officer if over $500
  -- Submission date

To complete the Local Expense Reimbursement Request form:

*All amount fields must have a value, enter 0.00 in any open fields and then press F9 to calculate electronically.

• The person requesting the reimbursement should complete the top portion of the form with their:
  -- Name
  -- Daytime phone
  -- Address
  -- Work and home email
  -- Place and date of meeting
  -- Local #

• The treasurer may need to assist in entering the amount next to the correct category

• Complete the signature portion of the form
  -- Requester (required)
  -- Treasurer (required)
  -- Local officer if over $500

NOTE: No person should sign an expense form in more than one place. If the local treasurer is completing the expense form as the recipient of the reimbursement, another officer should sign the approval line(s).

All MAPE members or local officers seeking payment of hourly wages for work done on behalf of MAPE must complete the Lost Time Expense Report completely and submit to the local treasurer.

More information related to Lost Time, including an FAQ, can be found on this Financial Forms webpage.

ALL Locals:

• Review/approve and sign the lost time expense form.
• Submit completed form to the MAPE Financial Specialist.
• MAPE Financial Specialist will process the payroll request and create the check to send to the member directly.
• Local treasurers will need to reference their next MAPE Financial Statement to capture the amount for wages and taxes that were paid.

NOTE: All lost time request must be processed at MAPE central for tax purposes.

To complete the Lost Time Expense Report:

• Complete the left side of the form
  -- Name
  -- Address
  -- Phone
  -- Date, Place & Time of meeting (if applicable)
  -- Committee Name – Enter your local number here
• Complete the right side of the form – this must be completed in full to receive your payment. Helpful tools to find this information are the contract and the employee self-serve website
  -- Rate of Pay
  -- Lost Hours/Travel Hours
  -- Lost hours cannot exceed the number of regularly worked hours per day.
  -- Travel hours can only be claimed if you spent more than your regular work schedule doing MAPE business and had to travel more than 100 miles round trip (50 miles or more one way).
  -- Travel hours are figured using your mileage traveled divided by 55 (miles per hour)
  -- Gross pay – the number of lost hours + travel hours multiplied by your hourly wage
  -- Indicate if you flex the day you are claiming lost time, i.e. flex day working 9 or 10 hours, flex day off
  -- Indicate the type of leave that is being used on the State Payroll timesheet – this is important for determining if someone is eligible for additional reimbursement in lieu of leave accruals
  -- MSRS deduction – Check to request MAPE deduct the employee contribution amount from your MAPE lost time. If you are using vacation time from your job, you do not need this because that will already be covered through your state payroll.
  -- Check if you have attached or already completed a W-4 (NOTE: All members claiming lost time must fill this out to have on file. Your lost time will not be paid without it)
  -- Sign and date the bottom certifying the information on the form

Every Local Treasurer must create and submit a budget to the Statewide Treasurer (Finance Committee) by January 1st. It should be presented and approved by local membership prior to submission. 

1. Access the local budget template in Excel format on the https://mape.org/financial-forms page of the MAPE website and save to your computer.
2. Enter your local information in column B, cells 2-4. The membership number in B4 will help calculate your new income for the upcoming year.
3. Cell B8 - Using your current budget and financial reports, determine if you will have a surplus carrying over into the next budget and enter that amount. Unspent funds includes local strike funds, reserves and other unspent or unallocated funds that belong to the local.
4. Cell B10 will have your automatically calculated membership dues income estimate based on the membership numbers entered in B4.
5. Cell B11 should automatically calculate the carry over + the income. This is your total available budget.
6. Enter the estimated expenses for each line item that pertains to your local. Add detail/notes in column C if necessary and dollar amounts in column B. If there is something missing from this budget, you may add a line to the spreadsheet by inserting a row.
7. The proposed budget and estimated surplus will automatically be calculated.
8. The budget template has formulas built in to calculate the necessary amounts for you.
9. Make sure that the final budget is 0 or a positive balance, meaning, any remaining unbudgeted items would be in reserve. Not having every dollar accounted for will not cause a reduction in your income. To move funds from reserves into other budget lines in the future, it must be approved by the local membership as a budget adjustment at any time during the year. 

Contact the Statewide Treasurer or Finance Committee members for assistance.

Locals without checkbooks should keep an expense ledger similar to a checkbook register. It should have a running balance, expenses and deposits. Each month this should be compared to the MAPE Finance Report that is sent to local treasurers to ensure all expenses have been documented and the income can be documented to track the local funds available.

EXAMPLE LEDGER

Locals with checkbooks should manage a reconciliation form to manage the checkbook, expenses paid by MAPE Central and the replenishments into the account. Each month this should be compared to the MAPE Finance Report that is sent to local treasurers and your checkbook account information to ensure all expenses have been documented and replenished, and the income is documented so it is clear the local funds that are available.

Monthly the local treasurer must:

• Review the MAPE Finance Report – this is sent within the first 2 weeks of each month for the previous month.
• Review the bank statement – for locals with checkbooks.
• Compare the MAPE Finance Report and bank statement to the local expense ledger or reconciliation form.
• Send expenses to MAPE Financial Specialist for reporting or reimbursement.

Some items such as training and elections will be on your MAPE Financial Report and not on your local expense report because the expenses are processed through MAPE Central when needed. These are items you should watch for and document on your local ledger.

Yearly the local treasurer should:

• Ensure an audit committee is formed and completes an audit for the previous year, report to local membership and submit to the Statewide Treasurer (locals with checkbooks only).
• Create a budget for the following year, get approval from local membership and submit to Statewide Treasurer.
• Present an end of the year financial report to local membership.

Locals with checkbooks must complete a checkbook audit every year and submit to the Statewide Treasurer (Finance Committee) by March 15th for expenses from the previous year. Prior to the annual checkbook audit the local treasurer will provide the following to the Local Audit Committee:

a. Completed Expense Reconciliation Form.
b. Annual budget.
c. Expense forms and receipts.
d. Bank statements.
e. MAPE Reimbursement, Donations, and Local Checkbook Policies.
f. Local Audit Committee Report form.

An audit committee will need to be formed with the following criteria and instruction:

• Ask for 3 local members to volunteer to audit the checkbook activity. These cannot be officers or anyone with signatory rights on the checkbook as this is a conflict of interest.
• Audit Committee will need to review all expenses for proper signatures and that all expenses were within policy and budget.
• The specific criteria that needs to be reviewed is on the Audit Report document.
• All 3 participants of the audit committee need to complete and sign the audit report.
• Submit audit report to Statewide Treasurer (Finance Committee) no later than March 15th each year

If the local does not complete the required checkbook audit, the MAPE Finance Committee will request all local expense documentation and will complete the audit on behalf of the local. The local will be charged for the Finance Committee expenses, including lost time and travel expenses.

Local officers may receive a stipend as reimbursement for incidental expenses. This requires a vote of the membership. Locals are not allowed to offer dues reimbursement, only stipends. There is a Local Stipend Policy and Form linked in the resource section at the end of this manual. Stipends should not be given to any other position, such as stewards, negotiation representatives, or Regional Directors. These positions may receive recognitions in accordance with the policy linked below in the resources section.

MAPE financial policies can be found here:  https://mape.org/resources/mape-documents/mape-policies

Financial forms can be found here:  https://mape.org/financial-forms