Introduction

Your group’s finances are your income and expenditure – in essence the cash and grants that come in and the bills you have to pay out. Managing and developing your group/organisation will include managing the groups finances.

Financial management is not just about cash handling. It includes keeping day to day cash records, managing your group’s bank account(s) and ensuring that all legal requirements relating to finance are complied with. It includes setting budgets, monitoring and reporting on income and expenditure and preparing Annual Accounts.

Your committee (or board of directors if your group is incorporated) has a joint responsibility to ensure that your group remains solvent, that the bills are paid, that all legal requirements (including grant conditions) are met.

Having someone on your committee or board who has financial (or accounting) experience can help, but ultimately the committee as a whole will need to be aware of their financial duties and responsibilities.