Treasury Ruleset
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Treasury Scope
What is held in common — and where does the shared purse end and a personal one begin?
RCOS clauses 5.3.1, 5.5.4
Why draw a hard line around treasury funds?
Without an explicit boundary, any money flowing near the community — a founder's personal card, a side account, an informal reimbursement pool — can drift into being treated as community money, with all the obligations that entails. Naming exactly which accounts are treasury and which are not protects both the community and the individuals paying out of pocket.
How to fill this in
Name every account that is treasury (wallet, bank account, etc.) and state explicitly that personal funds operating informally are not treasury and create no community obligation.
<Define which accounts are community treasury — explicit wallet addresses, bank accounts, etc. State that any new treasury account must be declared and approved via a Strategic decision before funds are received into it. State that personal funds covering operational costs are not treasury and carry no community repayment claim.>
What to cover
- Which accounts, wallets or cash boxes are community money — named one by one?
- How is a new treasury account opened, and can money be paid into it before that is decided?
- When someone pays a community cost out of their own pocket, does that make it community money — and does the community then owe them?
- Where shared money and private resources meet — a member's land we use, or shared money spent near someone's home: which rule applies?
Examples
Our treasury is exactly two accounts: the co-op's current account and its savings account, both in the co-op's name. Any new treasury account must be approved by a Strategic decision of full members before money is paid into it. Money a member spends from their own pocket on shared costs is not treasury and creates no debt, unless the spend was approved in advance under our spending rules, in which case it is repaid from the current account. Treasury money is never spent on repairs inside private flats.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Income Sources
Where does our money come from, and what are we relying on?
RCOS clauses 5.3.2
- 5.3.2 Income sources and any external income interfaces MUST be explicitly defined.
Why route all income through one declared list?
Every income source carries strings — reporting requirements, expectations, dependency risks. If income channels can open informally, those strings get attached before the community has had a chance to weigh them. One declared list, changed only through Strategic decisions, keeps the community's obligations under its own control.
How to fill this in
Name every income source the community currently has, and reference the Internal Economy Protocol for the rule that any new income channel requires a Strategic decision.
<List current income sources, or state that there are none. Reference the External Income Interfaces section in the Internal Economy Protocol.>
What to cover
- What money comes in today — from whom, how often, and for what? If nothing yet, say so.
- What does each source expect from us in return, and when does it end?
- Which source would hurt most if it stopped?
- Who keeps this list up to date when a source ends or its terms change? (Opening a new source is its own question.)
Examples
Our income comes from three sources: monthly member contributions, fees from the two open courses we run each summer, and a three-year grant from a regional foundation that ends next spring and requires a yearly activity report. We have no loans, sponsors or investors. Losing the grant would hurt most, so we plan each year's budget without it. The finance steward updates this list whenever a source ends or its terms change.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Transparency and Reporting
Who can see the accounts, how often, and what may be held back?
RCOS clauses 5.3.4, 5.3.5, 5.6.1
- 5.3.4 Transparency MUST be the default for treasury balances, inflows, outflows, obligations, and commitments.
- 5.3.5 Any exceptions to transparency MUST be explicitly defined, justified, time-bounded, and MUST NOT prevent members from auditing compliance.
- 5.6.1 Shared resources, flows, and obligations MUST be visible to the community by default, with only limited and explicit exceptions.
Why make transparency the default, not a feature?
Opacity in a treasury compounds: one missing disclosure invites another, and before long members can no longer verify whether the community's money is being handled as they agreed. Making real-time visibility the baseline — and requiring any exception to be named, justified, and time-bounded — keeps audit within reach of every member, not just stewards.
How to fill this in
State the visibility default for each treasury account. Where direct visibility is not possible (e.g. some bank accounts), define a periodic reporting cadence with a named owner.
- <Primary treasury (e.g. Safe multi-sig): all Full Members hold at minimum read access; real-time visibility.>
- <Other declared accounts: direct multi-user read access if supported; otherwise periodic balance and transaction summary.>
- <All spending decisions reference the linked governance record (vote ID or delegated decision log).>
What to cover
- For each treasury account: who can see the balance and every transaction, and is that live or reported later?
- Where an account cannot be shared directly, who reports on it, how often, and in what detail?
- How do members see what we owe and what we have promised, not only what we hold?
- What may be kept private — for example a payment to someone in hardship: who decides, for how long, and why?
- Even where something is kept private, how can members still check that the rules were followed?
Examples
All full members have read-only access to the community bank account and see every transaction as it happens. The treasurer posts a monthly summary of balances, money in and out, debts and signed commitments to the members' forum within ten days of the month's end. The one exception is support paid to a member in hardship: the name stays hidden for up to 12 months, but the amount, date and approving decision are always shown, and two members chosen by lot each year may check the full details.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Reserve, Risk, and Debt Constraints
How much may we owe, and how much do we keep aside for a bad year?
RCOS clauses 5.3.6
- 5.3.6 The community MUST define reserve, risk, and liability policies, including:
Why block debt and long-term obligations by default?
Debt and recurring commitments bind the community beyond the people currently in it — future members inherit the obligations. Forbidding them unless a Strategic vote explicitly authorizes keeps long-term constraints from being entered into casually, and preserves the option to stay lightweight.
How to fill this in
State the rules on debt, recurring obligations, contingency reserves, and off-treasury financial instruments. Default to "not allowed without Strategic vote" for anything that binds the future.
- Debt: <allowed only via Strategic vote.>
- Long-term obligations: <recurring costs / contracts allowed only via Strategic vote.>
- Contingency reserve: <reserve target, or state that one is not yet defined.>
- Off-treasury instruments: <loans, investments, guarantees only via Strategic vote.>
What to cover
- May we borrow money at all — and if so, how much, from whom, and only through which decision?
- Which recurring costs or long contracts (leases, subscriptions, paid staff) need a decision before anyone signs?
- Do we keep money aside for a bad year — how much, what may it be used for, and who may draw on it? If we have no target yet, say so.
- May anyone take out loans, give guarantees or make investments on our behalf outside the treasury accounts?
Examples
We do not borrow, give guarantees or make investments unless full members approve it by a Strategic vote, and total debt may never exceed six months of our usual income. Any contract or recurring cost lasting longer than a year also needs a Strategic vote. We aim to keep three months of running costs in a separate reserve account; it may only be used for emergency repairs or lost income, and every withdrawal is reported at the next members' meeting.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Conflict-of-Interest Rules
What does someone do when a decision about money would benefit them personally?
RCOS clauses 5.4.3
- 5.4.3 Economic mechanisms MUST NOT allow members to bypass governance authority boundaries defined in Layer 2, including through purchasing influence, creating dependency, or converting economic power into informal decision authority.
Why ban self-approval outright?
Even well-intentioned people unconsciously tilt decisions toward their own interests; a rule that requires disclosure and abstention removes the judgment call and the social pressure to "trust someone." Self-approval of spending is the single most common way small governance systems quietly lose integrity, so the rule is stated bluntly.
How to fill this in
State the no-self-approval rule and the disclose-and-abstain rule for any member with a direct financial interest in a spending decision.
- <Requesters may not approve their own spending requests.>
- <Members with a direct financial interest in a spending decision must declare it and abstain.>
- <Treasury role holders may not authorize unilateral spending beyond the delegated limit.>
What to cover
- Can anyone approve a spend they asked for themselves — and if not, who approves it instead?
- What counts as a personal interest — a relative's business, a friend who supplies us, a paid role?
- When someone would gain from a payment or purchase, when do they say so, and do they step out of the discussion and the decision?
- Where are declarations recorded, and what happens to a decision if an interest was not declared?
Examples
No one may approve a spending request they made themselves; it goes to another steward instead. Any member who, or whose partner, family or business, would gain from a spending or purchasing decision must say so before discussion starts, then leaves the discussion and does not vote. Declarations are noted in the minutes. If an undeclared interest comes to light later, the decision is reviewed at the next members' meeting.
Examples, not recommendations. Your answers will be your own.
Ratification Record
- Adopted: <YYYY-MM-DD>
- Decision type: Strategic
- Version: <version>
- Decision record: <link to decision record>