this is my posting in another thread I think it might be relevant here now... http://www.sajha.com/sajha/html/OpenThread.cfm?forum=2&ThreadID=22397#reply Posted on 07-09-05 9:43 PM Reply | Notify Admin just cruised through the reconcilliation available from the web. [ btw i am not an accountant or CPA but i could deduce following. MY EXPERIENCE IS BASED ON HANDLING PERSONAL BUSINESS ACCOUNT] I may have missed something pls. feel free to add on 1. it looks like they advance $10,000 to each of the convention 2. Each convention's income/expenses is handled by AN INDIVIDUAL [ or THE ADVANCED COMITTE .. cannot deduce] 3. Convention's INCOME/EXPENSE is not the responsibility of ANA [ looks like] 4. assigned INDIVIDUAL [of item 2] returns the ADVANCE [ i did not see this in phoenix ana .. may be i missed it.. for the denver it is there 10,000] 5. they include the so called income as PROCEEDS from the convention as a whole or ACCOUNT CLOSING for convention and Specify PROCEEDS. [ done for various accounting practices] my observation is they rather take a proceed in addition to advance [ inspite of including income and expense of the convention]. reason are various: a. accounting ease [ they need not save the receipts etc. because they are just mentioning proceeds... somebody else is giving them a balance i.e. profit so nobody cries foul esp. irs audit.. + other various reasons] b. if they include income and exp of the convention then they are liable for any misappropriations. [ deniability. ] c. advance is an INVESTMENT and PROCEED is the ROI. and ORIGINAL investment is RETURNED as advance back PAYMENT. [ matrix.. food for you. I think u r an expert in FINANCE and ACCOUNTING.. pls review] PS: pls. somebody with accounting expertise look at it and comment on my finding.