Accounting Chair Handbook

Accounting Chair Handbook

This handbook is to be used in conjunction with the Accounting Chair Financial Procedures Document. 1. Financial Overview Keeping a record and frequency of banking Keeping accurate financial records for your Relay is vital, but easy if set up in an efficient way from the outset. All income and expenditure associated with your Relay needs to be accounted for and can be recorded on your Relay Income and Expenditure Breakdown Form. Using this form will allow you to keep an up to date record of all the fundraising the committee and teams have been doing as well as monitor expenditure and online income. We ask that you bank to Cancer Research UK regularly and at a minimum, quarterly and include all accompanying paperwork with your cheque. We suggest that you maintain a balance of 500 in your account (classed as your float) but when your balance is above this we would ask that you complete the Relay Income Return form, Gift Aid form and supporting paperwork along with the cheque to Cancer Research UK. Sending money regularly to us is really important as it can be put to work right away, funding our scientists with their research into cancer. We have a record for each Relay For Life event on our computer system so when you send your cheque to us we allocate the money to your event record so we have a cumulative total for each event. Even though the fundraising for Relay is a year round process we ask that six weeks after Relay has taken place that we receive the ANNUALl Income Return form, Gift Aid form, supporting documents and cheque. Each January each committee will also be required to complete a bank declaration and send in copies of their bank statements to comply with accounting procedures. Please remember that you are legally required to keep all your accounting records for six years as you are part of Cancer Research UK. 2. Setting up your Cancer Research UK Relay For Life Bank Account All Relay Committees require a Cancer Research UK Relay For Life Bank Account. Cancer Research UK has a National bank account with NatWest and we would recommend that you also set up an account with NatWest. As you are fundraising on our behalf, Cancer Research UK must form part of the bank account name along with the name of your Relay, e.g. Cancer Research UK Relay For Life Gosport. The bank will also ask for the registered charity number (please speak to your Cancer Research UK staff contact) It is not necessary to set up a separate account if your Relay Committee is a sub committee of an existing local Cancer Research UK committee or group of friends or of another charitable organisation such as a Rag Committee or Ladies Circle. However you should use separate paying in books for your Relay fundraising and keep distinct accounts from your parent committee. Information you will need to provide 1. There need to be at least 3 signatories for the account who are not in any way related. It is suggested that 2 of the 3 signatories are to sign. 2. Proof of identity for all the bank account signatories i.e. passports, birth certificates. 3. A letter of authority from your Staff contact. Your Bank Manager may want to write to Cancer Research UK for confirmation of your fundraising. If so, they should send all correspondence to: The Company Secretary, Cancer Research UK, Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London, EC1V 4AD Will Committees be issued with a float? Cancer Research UK is unable to provide start up floats but many committees solicit donations, company sponsorship and in-kind support from the local community or organise events to get them started. Please speak to your Staff Contact should you have any concerns. Acknowledging donations and payments All donations and funds raised should be acknowledged. A receipt book is provided for this and you must keep copies of all receipts in order to keep correct accounts. As your Relay grows it s a good idea to recruit a sub- 2

committee to support you in your role. Your network of survivors may be able to help with this too, and could provide a very special thank you to your donors. To minimise paperwork it is recommended that you acknowledge team fundraising through Team Captains and use Certificates of Thanks for Team Members. 4. Types of Income Throughout our accounting forms we ask that you split your income into either charity or trading income. Charity Income is donations (e.g. personal donations, house to house collections, in memory donations, collection tins) some of which is Gift Aidable. Trading Income is income such as registration fees, raffle tickets, merchandise sales etc and is Non Gift Aidable. Defining your income into these two categories helps identify which amounts we are able to claim Gift Aid on. More information on this can be found in the Accounting Chair Financial Procedures document to be found under Tools and Resources on the website using your unique username and password (supplied by your Event Chair) Gift Aid Gift Aid is worth a lot of additional income to Cancer Research UK but our accounts must be accurate in order to make a claim. The gift aid form is used to capture the breakdown of the donations/fundraising included in the cheque amount you are sending us, details of when it was banked by you and its giro number. This allows us to have a paper trail for all donations that go in to your bank account which is essential for us to claim gift aid. More information on this can be found in the Accounting Chair and Financial Procedures Document and Gift Aid Form. Personal Donations are not subject to VAT as they are given freely without the donor receiving anything in return. It is now possible for Cancer Research UK to reclaim the tax paid on donations increasing the value of every 1 by up to 25 pence provided that the necessary steps have been followed as described in the Relay aforementioned document and Gift Aid Form*. The Gift Aid declaration is built into all Relay For Life forms where donations are requested. Only if the paperwork is correct can the claim be made. Note that the donor s full name, home address and postcode must be detailed and they must tick and date the relevant boxes that relate to Gift Aid for the claim to be made. When sending cheques to Cancer Research UK with your Relay Income Return form please complete and send the Gift Aid form detailing donations and fundraising relating to this cheque along with the supporting donation forms. Online Fundraising Your event s website and subsequent on line giving page will be set up for you by Cancer Research UK and the date this happens will be dependent on certain factors such as date/venue confirmation etc for more details please speak with your Staff rep. All Relay events use a web platform called convio and the on-line fundraising platform called TeamRaiser. Details of all on-line fundraising by your teams can be monitored via your website using your log in (provided by your Event Chair). All on-line income will be banked directly to your Cancer Research UK Relay For Life record and will be automatically credited to your Committee. The more people you can encourage to use the on-line fundraising pages, the less paperwork you will have and in addition is is more likely that Gift Aid will be able to be claimed as all the relevant data is captured direct from the donor. TAX EFFICIENT GIVING VAT Charities pay the Government large amounts in VAT. However, on some occasions a supplier is allowed to drop the VAT charge when dealing with a charity. 3

When you are advertising your event, make sure the supplier knows that you represent a charity so you (shouldn t) get charged VAT. They may ask you for some evidence that you represent Cancer Research UK, if they do contact your Staff Contact or the Finance Helpdesk on 020 7438 5050 and they will be able to help you Donation Station Your Relay may work with your local Cancer Research UK retail shop in order to encourage teams to donate goods to the local shop. It is important to stress to teams that organising a donation station and donating goods to Cancer Research UK shops is a great additional way to support Cancer Research UK s work but does not replace the fundraising they do for the Relay. There is no monetary value associated with Donation station activity in respect of Relay fundraising. 4. Tools to support you As well as receiving training we have developed tools to support you in your role and are referred to several times throughout this handbook. These documents can be found in the Tools & Resources page on the website (username and password supplied by your Event Chair) - Accounting Chair Financial Procedures - Relay Income and Expenditure Breakdown Sheet - Charity Gift Aid and Guidance Form - Relay Income Return Form - Relay ANNUAL income Return form (and example form) - Your Relay Staff Contact 5. Top Tips Before the Relay Know your Team Captains and their individual Team Members. Your Event Chair will have access to this via the website. Track the amount banked by each Team Member in the run up to the Relay. Your Income Expenditure Breakdown sheet will help you with this. Work with your Team Chair to encourage the teams to pay in their fundraising regularly and ideally prior to the Relay to minimise the amount having to be handled and counted on the day. This can be done at team/team captain meetings and bank nights. Announce team totals at the meetings/bank nights as healthy competition between teams helps to spur them on. At meetings stress the importance of completing the donation forms accurately Keep a record of the fundraising progress of each team/individual as well as the overall total banked to date these are key figures which everyone will want to know. Please send cheques and paperwork to Cancer Research UK on a regular basis. Relay bank accounts should only maintain a float of 500. Once sent to Cancer Research UK the money you raise will start working quicker to find those treatments and cures for cancer. Liaise with your Logistics Chair to get a secure area to count and keep money at the Relay. Make arrangements to keep this money safe until the banks open for business on Monday morning. Night safe arrangements may be necessary. Discuss security and make sensible plans On the day Remember to take your documents with you so that you are able to report on totals and have a record of the teams Decorate your stand and give the Teams a great welcome Ensure you have sufficient receipt books and a safe area to count/store monies received on the day. Monies should be counted by at least TWO people in a secure area. Visit team campsites throughout the day to collect their on-the-day fundraising monies Receipt all monies received and liaise with the Candle of Hope Chair to ensure you capture Candle of Hope donations Work out the top fundraising Teams and individuals, how much the Relay has raised overall and work with the Event Chair to announce this during the closing ceremony. 4

Prepare certificates to be awarded Support the Event Chair with any fundraising awards during the ceremony. Post Relay You will be required to return data within 6 weeks of the Relay taking place so you will need to schedule in time to prepare your accounts. Keep good ongoing records income and expenditure/team and individual donations/cumulative totals Reconcile any Candle of Hope donations made on the day of the event Complete and return the Relay ANNUAL Return form and Gift Aid form along with all supporting documents Calculate the amount that is trading and that which is charity and return two cheques to Cancer Research UK. You may retain a float of 500. - Trading should be made payable to: Cancer Research UK Trading Ltd - Charity should be made payable to: Cancer Research UK Return supporting documents such as team member donation forms In January of each year each Relay is required to send in accounts and copies of bank statements. The paperwork for this will be sent to you direct from Cancer Research UK. 7. Data Protection A new law was introduced in 1998 which has implications for those of us collecting, holding and passing on personal information about individuals (either on paper or in computerised form) e.g. a list of names and addresses of participants attending a family fun day. Personal information can include opinions as well as facts about an individual. If you are keeping records on individuals it is important that you take a common sense approach to storing and maintaining the records. Below is a summary of the 8 Data Protection Principles, set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, which you should follow when dealing with information concerning others. Data Protection Principles 1. Process personal information fairly and lawfully and do not process it unless the individual has consented or it is necessary for you to do so. Extra special care is required when processing sensitive personal information and you should contact your Relay Staff Contact before doing so. 2. Only process personal information for limited purposes e.g. for a particular event. 3. Only process information concerning an individual if it is adequate, relevant and not excessive. 4. Ensure that the information which you are processing is accurate. 5. Do not keep information concerning an individual for longer than is necessary. 6. Process information in accordance with the individual s rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 this basically means that individuals need to be informed of what information concerning them that you are processing and also of the purpose for which it is being processed. 7. Ensure that the information held is kept securely. 8. Do not transfer the information to another without ensuring adequate safe guards are in place protecting the individual s rights. If you would like more information or explanation please don t hesitate to contact your Relay Staff Contact. 5

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