Financial Policy and Procedures

Financial Policy

1. The Management Committee, as a whole, is responsible for:

· Safeguarding the assets, financial and material, of the organisation

· Deciding how the funds will be spent

· Preventing misuse of funds

· Investigation, mitigation and future avoidance of mistakes where these have been identified.

· Keeping financial records in accordance with the governing document and relevant legislation

· Ensuring that the treasurer (or in their unavoidable absence, the Chair) prepares the Annual Accounts in accordance with the governing document and relevant legislation.

2. To enable the Committee to carry out these responsibilities, the Financial Procedures contained herein must be followed at all times by all Committee members and volunteers.

3. A copy of this policy and procedures will be given to all Committee members on their election/appointment to the committee.

4. The policy and procedures will be reviewed annually by the Committee and revised as necessary.

Financial Procedures

1. Organisational Information

a) The Financial Year of the organisation runs from 1st April to 31st March each year.

b) The designated Bankers will be the Co-op Bank Birmingham, PO Box 250, Delf House, Southway, Skelmersdale, WN8 6WT

c) An accredited Independent Examiner is to be appointed at the Annual General Meeting to examine and certify our accounts.

2. Bank Accounts

a) All bank accounts must be held in the name of the organisation.

b) New accounts may only be opened by a majority decision of a quorate Management Committee, duly minuted.

c) Cheques and payment authorisation forms for funds sent via bank transfer to be signed by any two of the four authorised signatories as follows:

Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary

d) Changes to the bank mandate may only be made by a majority decision of a quorate Management Committee, duly minuted.

e) Cheques and payment authorisations, must be signed by two authorised signatories.

f) The Treasurer is responsible for ensuring that claims and accompanying receipts/purchase invoices are complete and accurate and the claim is a valid one in accordance with the Finance Policy and associated guidelines.

g) The signatories are responsible for examining the claim and associated documentation (purchase invoice/receipts etc.) prior to signing the cheque or authorising an Internet Transfer.

h) Blank cheques must never be signed.

3. Signatories to the accounts:

i) Role/Job Title: ……Chair

ii) Role/Job Title: … Vice Chair

iii) Role/Job Title: ……Treasurer

iv) Role/Job Title:………Secretary

4. Annual Budget

a) An annual budget, setting out the organisation’s financial plan for the year, will be prepared for the Management Committee to approve (by a majority vote) before the start of each financial year.

b) The draft budget will be prepared by the following three personnel:

· Chair or Vice Chair

· Head of Fundraising

· Treasurer

5. Financial Reports

a) A financial report will be prepared for every Management Committee meeting by the Treasurer.

b) The financial report will consist of:

· Income and Expenditure to be itemised

· Current balances

· Comparison with budget/ forward forecast

c) Each Financial Report will be circulated to all Management Committee members with the agenda papers for discussion, at least 24 hours before the Management Committee meeting.

6. Accounting and other financial records

a) The organisation will maintain a computerised accounting system with information kept for at least seven years, passed to subsequent treasurers. Essential information must also be kept as paper files which record:

· Cheques and cash received and banked

· Cheque payments, Internet Banking Transfers and other amounts paid from the bank accounts

b) Every transaction will be entered into the appropriate computerised accounts and will include:

· The date of the transaction

· The name of the payee or recipient (in the case of unidentified or cash donations the amount donated or event and date when the monies were raised)

· The amount received.

· If money was donated, grant-aided or raised for a specific purpose a brief description of the purpose for which money was received, secured through grant application or the fundraising appeal/event

· Large donations from identified individuals, groups, organisations, etc. should be acknowledged within a reasonable time-span by the Treasurer.

· Each amount received/paid out should be recorded under its relevant budget heading(s), split accordingly where appropriate to multiple budget headings.

c) A backup copy of all transactions must be made fortnightly by the Treasurer or designated individual. The backup copy will also be transferred electronically to the Chairperson for safe keeping.

7. Authorisation of Expenditure and Payment

a) All purchase orders must be recorded in the electronically maintained Purchase Order record and allocated the next sequential Purchase Order Number.

b) The Purchase Order Number should be noted on all correspondence with Suppliers

c) Payments will not be authorised unless prior approval was obtained by the designated authorising officers identified in this policy.

d) Most expenditure will be planned for and identifiable within the treasurers forecast. Nevertheless, the Chair, Vice Chair and Lead Officers (the ”Officers”) may exercise discretionary powers to incur unplanned expenditure solely in pursuit of group promotional and/or other activities. This shall be generally recognised as appropriate for the group, up to the maximum stipulated amounts for each officer set out below, without requiring authorisation from the Committee. In line with other expenses, receipts must be produced and authorised by a designated authorising officer before they are reimbursed to any Officer in accordance with this policy.

The Officers Discretionary Powers for items not planned, shall be as follows:

1. Chair/Vice Chair – Up to £150 in one month independently in addition to planned expenditure. In exceptional circumstances, up to a limit of £600 subject to approval from two other executive members, or three Committee members.

2. Lead Officers – Up to £50 in one month in addition to their planned budget.

Lead Officers shall be named in each case and duly minuted at Committee meetings.

e) No Officer, Committee member or Lead person may authorise payment to themselves, their partner or relatives.

f) Contracts of any sort and funding bid applications must be approved by the Committee and documents signed by the Chair or Vice Chair.

g) All Invoices should be passed to the Treasurer without undue delay who should match them against the Purchase Order record before payment is authorised.

h) All goods received as a consequence of a Purchase Order should normally be signed for, if not signed for they must be checked for completeness before payment.

i) Once payment has been made the invoice (or other receipt) should be marked “Paid” and filed under the month paid.

j) All payments must be entered in the computerised accounting system only after being authorised.

8. Reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses

a) All Officers, Committee Members must submit an expense claim form to the Treasurer supported by relevant receipts for expenditure incurred.

b) All Volunteers’ claim forms together with any receipts should be authorised for payment by the Lead Officer, and forwarded to the Treasurer for approval and payment.

c) The Treasurer’s expenses should be authorised by the Chair or Vice Chair.

d) Receipts are generally required for all claims. The exceptions to this rule are:

1. mileage claim where the claimant must indicate mileage covered on the claim form and calculate the claimed amount at the prescribed mileage rate; and

2 sundry expenditure not exceeding £5 where a receipt could not be obtained (in which event details of the expenditure incurred shall be detailed on the claim form).

The authorising officer shall determine whether the claim is proportionate. Any dispute arising shall be referred to the Chair for final determination.

e) Officers, Committee Members and volunteers should exercise care and prudence when carrying out work on behalf of BRWR and avoid or mitigate expenses.

f) Only activities which have been duly authorised / commissioned by the Committee, can be considered for the reimbursement of expenses.

9. Insurance

a) It is Treasurer’s responsibility to ensure appropriate Insurance policies will be maintained to cover:

· Public Liability

· Trustee Liability Insurance

· Employer’s Liability Insurance

b) These policy documents will be kept by the Chair and Treasurer

10. Quorum

The Quorum set for financial approvals is under normal circumstances no fewer than seven Committee members of which at least two must be members of the Executive Committee.

Emergency quorum to prevent fraud and mismanagement in BRWR:

14 days’ notice of the date and time for a required meeting to all Committee Members should be given in writing. Should the meeting not be quorate in accordance with the above provision, then attempts should be made to contact the missing Committee Members by telephone. If this fails, then providing there are no fewer than five Committee Members present within 30 minutes of the designated start time for the meeting, the meeting shall be deemed quorate for the emergency purposes. The members then present shall be duly authorised to act in respect of the matters for which the meeting has been convened.

11. This Financial Policy, and the Financial Procedures detailed above were agreed and minuted at the Committee meeting on February 13^th 2017:

Name Mohammed Naeem Arif:………………………………………………………………………………….

Chair

Date:…………………………………………

Secretary: Alistair Waugh………………………………………………………………………

Date…………………………………………..