BUSINESS ALOA’s 2020 Financial Audit – Statement of Activities Salaries, Taxes and Benefits, this category includes Membership promotion, which is self-explanatory. Another expense type in this category is background checks, which are required as an integral part of ALOA’s membership application screening process. Office and Depreciation expense types have been explained previously. Total Supporting Services The Total Support services numbers column is the sum of the numbers listed in the various columns for each line-item cat- egory. Thus, we can see the composition of what are referred to by our auditors as Support services. Remember, these are the expenses related to administration and overhead that is neces- sary to provide support for our Program services to members. If we allocated 81% for Program services in F/Y 2020, then these Supporting services expenses must be the mathematical reciprocal (or 19%) to account for 100% of our total expenses. Here again, it’s a very respectable percentage. Total of ALL Expenses In the actual audit report documents, the Statement of Func- tional Activities is one spreadsheet whereas space limitations have required that we illustrate these numbers in two separate tables depicted as Part One and Part Two. Thus, we had to park the Total of ALL Expenses (essentially the grand total of all expenses) somewhere. You’ll notice a column on the far right that represents the sum of the two primary expense groups, Program services and Supporting services combined. Here, you can see a breakdown of ALL expenses, by category, along with a percentage of total. Again, keep in mind that some of these allocation percentages have been materially distorted because of the adverse and disruptive economic impact of the pandemic. 20 KEYNOTES SEPTEMBER 2021 Conclusion Most members of any organization are typically unwilling to donate their time as board members and thus, understandably, tend to have a limited familiarity with their organization’s inner workings and finances. Fortunately, some ALOA members exhibit a healthy level of interest and curiosity, and this is a good thing. For this reason, ALOA’s board and staff welcome legitimate questions and inquiries and strive to communicate with and educate our membership regarding the organization’s activities and finances. But of course, it’s each member’s responsibility to read and digest the information provided. If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask staff or your elected board members. Contrary to what some industry malcontents have alleged, your ALOA staff and board embrace transparency! Hopefully, ALOA’s members will find the information in this article to be educational and informative. Our next article will conduct a similar examination of a second primary financial statement, Statement of Financial Position, which is also in- cluded in ALOA’s F/Y 2020 audit. Noel Flynn is a degreed business management consultant with global senior leadership experi- ence, including more than 20 years in manufac- turing, wholesale distribution and consulting sectors of the security industry. Noel has been a senior executive, officer, board director and adviser to not-for-profit and for-profit companies in numer- ous industries worldwide. This includes being an ALOA SPAI board member since 2011, and he is also an ACE instructor, developing and teaching business management. Contact him at [email protected] WWW.ALOA.ORG
