How to run a chama treasury: ledger, reconciliation, reporting

1. Decide the rails before the first contribution

Every contribution should arrive on a rail that produces a record with a date, an amount and a sender: an M-Pesa paybill or till in the chama’s name, a group bank account, or a mobile-money number reserved for the group. Cash is fine at the table if it is counted aloud and entered in the ledger before the meeting closes. Money sent to the treasurer’s personal number is the single most common root of a later dispute.

2. Keep one ledger, and make it append-only

The ledger is a list of entries, each with a date, a member, an amount, a direction (in or out), a rail reference, and who recorded it. Nothing is ever erased. A mistake is fixed by a reversing entry and a correct one, so the history shows the mistake and the fix. Whether the ledger is a hardcover book, a spreadsheet, or an app, every member should be able to read it at any time without asking.

3. Reconcile monthly

Once a month, before the meeting, the treasurer matches three things:

• The ledger total of contributions received this month.
• The M-Pesa or bank statement for the same period.
• The list of members who were due to pay.
• Any difference becomes a named item in the report — a member in arrears, a payment not yet posted, a fee charged by the provider — not a rounding.

4. Report in the same format every month

A one-page report: opening balance, contributions in (with the arrears list), payments out (with the purpose and who approved each), fees, closing balance, and the balance on the statement. Read it at the meeting, minute that it was read, and keep it where members can find it. A report members can predict is a report they trust.

5. Separate the powers

The treasurer records; the chairperson and one other signatory approve payments; the secretary minutes the approval. No single person should be able to move money and be the only witness that it moved. For payouts above an agreed threshold, require a vote.

6. Handle arrears by the constitution, not by mood

The constitution should say what happens at 7, 30 and 60 days late — a reminder, a penalty, a suspension of the right to draw — and the treasurer applies it identically to everyone, including officers. The arrears list in the monthly report is the mechanism; the awkward conversation is the chairperson’s job.

Doing this on Tyknit

Tyknit’s treasury is this process in software: contributions post to an append-only ledger when the M-Pesa or bank provider (or the treasurer) confirms them, every member can read the ledger, monthly statements are generated from it, arrears reminders go out on schedule, and payouts above the constitution’s threshold go to a secret ballot. Tyknit never holds the money — it settles to the circle’s own account.