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All campaign finance activity by a depository candidate or committee must be conducted through
a depository checking account. Deposits and expenditures are recorded by the bank as they
enter and leave the account, and this financial activity is disclosed to OCPF at least monthly.
In addition to the balance in the checking account, however, a candidate or committee may hold
funds in one or more savings instruments, such as an interest-bearing savings account or a
certificate of deposit. Funds held in such accounts are not subject to the same disclosure
requirements as the candidate or committee's checking account and are therefore not reflected
in the ending balance of the monthly bank reports.
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Depository candidates and committees are only required to disclose their savings account
activity (the savings account transactions and the total amount of funds in savings) once a
year, in their year-end (D102) campaign finance reports, due on Jan. 20. You can access these
reports by clicking on the "Periodic Reports" tab on a candidate or committee's
report page.
Because savings accounts are reported only once a year, it is not possible to determine with
complete accuracy throughout the year the exact amount maintained in depository filers’
separate savings accounts, and therefore their total funds on hand. The closest method of
estimating a savings balance is to take the last year-end savings total, then determine subsequent
additions to and subtractions from savings by reviewing the contribution and expenditure information
from the monthly bank reports since any transfers into and out of savings are reported by the
bank. You should be aware, however, that this method does not take into account interest that
may have accrued on the savings or CDs.
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Step 1: Get the most recent savings information.
Click on the "Periodic Reports" tab on the filer's report page. Select the most
recent year-end (D102) report. If the filer has any funds in savings, a "Total
Savings" line item will appear at the bottom of the cover sheet stating the total amount in
savings, as of December 31st of that year.
(Savings accounts are itemized on Schedule S of the D102 report.
Click on the "Savings" tab to view detailed information about the savings accounts.)
Step 2: Get the most recent savings account activity.
To estimate a depository filer's total funds in savings, you will have to look for any transfers
between the savings account(s) and the depository checking account. The easiest way to do this
is to use the "Search Contributions" and "Search Expenditures" features to look
for transfers to and from savings.
- Transfers FROM savings: These are funds being transferred into the depository
filer's checking account.
- Go to the "Search Contributions" page;
- Fill in the "Received Date-(From)" and the "Received Date-(To)" fields
to cover the reporting period you are interested in reviewing;
- Fill in the Filer's name or CPF ID number;
- Sort by "Contribution Amount, descending order"; and
- Click on the "Search" button. The search results page will be displayed.
- Go through the list. Subtract each savings transfer list item from the savings
total you got from the year-end (D102) report.
- Transfers TO savings: These are funds being transferred out of the depository
filer's checking account.
- Go to the "Search Expenditures" page;
- Fill in the "Date-(From)" and the "Date-(To)" fields
to cover the reporting period you are interested in reviewing;
- Fill in the Filer's name or CPF ID number;
- Sort by "Expenditure Amount, descending order"; and
- Click on the "Search" button. The search results page will be displayed.
- Go through the list. Add each savings transfer list item from the savings
total you got from the year-end (D102) report.
You should now have the net total funds in savings.
Step 3: Get the most recent checking account balance.
Find the most recently filed Bank Report for the depository candidate or committee. Click on
the date link to view the front page of the report. The ending balance appears as the last
list item on the Cover Sheet.
Step 4: Calculate the total funds on hand.
Add the net savings total you calculated in Step 2 to the ending balance you found in Step 3.
This is the depository filer's current estimated cash-on-hand (not
including any interest that may have already accrued in the savings account). If
you are unsure if you have correctly estimated a depository filer'’s cash on hand, you should
contact OCPF for further assistance.
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| Depository candidates and committees may transfer campaign funds into savings accounts and CDs,
then use the savings and accrued interest for their future political activities. All
activity, such as fundraising and expenditures, however, must be done through the candidate or
committee's depository checking account. A depository filer may not, for example,
raise funds directly into a CD or make an expenditure directly from a savings account. |
