¶ Overview
This page outlines the various financial accounts across which the MSA's funds are distributed. It will be the responsibilty of the treasurer to maintain the appropriate balance between these accounts to ensure that funds are accessible when needed.
¶ University-Managed Accounts
University-managed accounts require transactions to be approved by university administration and therefore have longer processing times. These can be accessed via the Finances tab on the MSA callink portal. You must be a signatory in order to access this page.
¶ Resources
In addition to the information presented in this wiki page, you may visit the following pages from the LEAD Center website for additional resources and instructions.
LEAD Center: Funding Your Org Funding opportunities and timelines- LEAD Center: Manage Your Money List of frequently asked questions
¶ ASUC
This account contains the MSA's Annual Budgeting and Spaces Allocation (ABSA) funding. Historically, this is the MSA's most consistent form of funding. Carefully constructed ABSA applications each spring semester have allowed our organization's funding to steadily increase over the years. You can view how the ABSA fund is distributed across various student organizations and programs on the ASUC's website.
Funds in this account have the most restrictions. Most notably, food cannot be purchased with ABSA funds. Luckily, however, you may apply for a Senate Finance Rule Waiver to waive these restrictions. This waiver is submitted on an event-by-event basis and requires the treasurer to speak in front of the ASUC's Finance Committee (FiComm). Restrictions may be waived for up to 100% of our ABSA funding. The food restriction, however, may only be waived for up to 30% of our ABSA funding. The MEMSSA Senator may be able to help you successfully apply for a waiver.
Some examples of what the ASUC account pays for:
- Speaker honorariums
- Venue booking fees
- Website fees
- Flyers
- Prayer rugs
Funds in this account expire at the end of the spring semester (June 30). The treasurer should plan to utilize the entire fund before it expires and to prevent the MSA's ABSA fund from being reduced the following year.
¶ MISC
This account contains any funds that were deposited to the ASUC from an MSA fundraiser. This includes any cash or checks that were deposited at the LEAD Center or direct donation that were made via the ASUC's donation page. These funds contain no restrictions (other than purchasing alcohol or illegal substances). Nonetheless, processing reimbursements from this account will still require a minimum of two weeks as the university reviews your receipts and purchases.
Some examples of what the MISC account pays for:
- Food
- Gas and travel outside the Bay Area
- Everything that the ASUC account pays for when ASUC funds run low
Funds in this account carry over to the next year. There is no emphasis on utilizing the entire fund before the end of the spring semester.
¶ Grants
When awarded grant funding, the LEAD Center will create a separate account in the MSA's finance callink portal. For example, you may see a Public Service Center (PSC) account or a Technology Fund (TECHF) account. These accounts contain funding that was previously awarded to the MSA. As is true with the other university-managed accounts, processing purchase requests from these accounts will also take a minimum of two weeks. The restrictions on purchases and fund expiration dates depend on the specific grant. Visit the Grants page (linked below) for more information.
Grants How to apply & previous applications¶ Independently-Managed Accounts
Independently-managed accounts are disconnected from university administration oversight. The MSA can more easily access these funds. Processing times and restrictions vary depending on the account provider.
¶ Bank of the West
The MSA has a business checking account with the Bank of the West (BOTW). You can access this account via the BOTW website or mobile app. As with any other bank account, you can deposit and write out checks using this account. This account also comes with a debit card. A BOTW office and ATM are also conveniently located on the first floor of the MLK Student Union.
By receiving ABSA funding from the ASUC, the MSA is an ASUC-sponsored organization and has therefore waived its right to use an external financial institution other than the LEAD Center to handle money. By exception, our student organization has been allowed to continue to use this bank account for the sake of operating external services (ie. Venmo, Eventbrite) with the understanding that funds will not be left to accumulate in the BOTW account but deposited into the MSA's MISC account with the LEAD Center.
¶ Divvy
Divvy is a powerful modern credit card company that allows the MSA to issue credit cards to any number of its leadership. Divvy helps the MSA demystify budgeting, alleviate financial pressure off students, and reduce overspending. With the funds displayed in the Divvy dashboard, the treasurer may create budgets for various upcoming events, assign members to budgets, and assign spending limits to each MSA credit card. Before being issued an MSA credit card, a member must first read the Cardholder Instructions page and complete a comprehension quiz.
For ease of use and reduced risk, our Divvy account is set up as a pre-paid debit account (not a credit account that may accumulate interest). At the beginning of each month or when funds in the Divvy account run low, the treasurer may transfer funds into the Divvy account from the BOTW account. This transfer will take 4 business days to process. Visit the Managing MSA Credit Cards page for more detailed instructions.
The treasurer must learn to balance funds across a number of accounts (ASUC, MISC, BOTW, Divvy) in order to ensure that funds can be freely moved between them and allow spending whenever necessary.
¶ Venmo
As a popular technology among UC Berkeley students, the MSA also operates a Venmo account. For example, this account is used to collect donations during Charity Week, to allow members to purchase an MSA t-shirt, or buy a ticket to a bowling event. Funds that are tranferred from the Venmo account end up in the BOTW account. The treasurer can manage this account via the Venmo website but may only send funds using the Venmo app.
¶ Stripe
Some online service require a stripe account in order to connect your bank account and transfer funds. Stripe simply manages the money transfer (a place for money to stay temporarily before it is automatically deposited into our BOTW account). At the time of this writing, our Stripe account is mainly used to collect recurring monthly donations from our Donorbox account. The Stripe dashboard displays interesting statistics that quantify our donation stream. Donations processed via Stripe deduct a small processing fee and take about two business days before they are available in the BOTW account.
¶ Donorbox
The MSA uses donorbox to process recurring monthly donations as well as one time donations. These donations help sponsor the MSA's regular operations and are an important resource to care for. Donorbox allows us to embed donation forms with customizable settings on our website and sends out automatic receipts to donors. For monthly revenue of less than $1000, donorbox is free to use. Otherwise a small processing fee is deducted. Donorbox uses Stripe, however, to manage each credit card transaction which deducts a small fee at every transaction. Donorbox allows us the option to ask donors whether or not they would like to cover that fee. Sign into donorbox here.
¶ Comprehension Quiz
If you were instructed to read this page as part of an online training curriculum, you must submit this quiz and answer all questions correctly. In the case that you do not answer a question correctly, you may view which questions were incorrect and take the quiz again.
