The Important Stuff

[kwatt]

One of the things that really has to be done and, I’m surprised no-one’s mentioned it, is to get the accounts side of things setup.

Obviously under the umbrella of UKW the subs fund attracted VAT and we’ve been whacked with the VAT on the income as well as the corporation tax on the amount as, technically for accountancy, it shows as pure profit.

You need to decide what you want to do here.

My instinct is to hive it off as separate accounts from UKW and to use SAGE to do the accountancy as, frankly, it’s easy administratively to deal with that way.

You also need to decide whether or not to register for VAT bearing in mind that the threshold is £64K currently.

From an administration point of view the easiest way to deal with a lot of this is I ask my accountant to sort it for us and then not worry about it as, beyond that, it’s merely a case of monitoring the ins and outs really.

Sean mentioned the need to have a treasurer, I can’t see the point. If the accounts are getting handled as is and they are reported regularly to the council (for want of a better term) then I can’t see the point in burdening anyone with that title. TBH for most associations it appears to be no more than a formality really and, in any event, ultimately the person/s actually dealing with it are responsible anyways.

So here’s my suggestion, from SAGE it’s easy to print out stuff, like reams of stuff, in the form of reports, P&Ls and all that malarky to PDF or whatever so it can be dragged off whenever anyone wants it. Likewise, in about 10 minutes a complete backup can be emailed. Bank statements can be easily provided via email or whatever as well. So, I wouldn’t bother too much so long as the info is available to everyone then I can’t see the need to make any one person responsible for the moment.

However, the other points or what you want me to do about it I need some feedback on to get started.

K.

[VillageIdiot2]

Re: The Important Stuff

I personally think that we should have a Treasurer. Firstly, (IMO) There needs to be a specific person responsible for the financial side of the WTA that we all can approach (council members and members) if needed and if anything needs clarifying.

Secondly, I agree with Ken that Sage can roll off whatever report you want at any time of day or night, and I personally don’t have any issues with UKW accountants sorting things, but as we have to be seen as a ‘stand alone’ organisation, we should employ our own accountants and banking facilities 😕 .

As with VAT registration, yes, I think that the WTA should be VAT registered from the start.

Adrian 🙂

[Lawrence]

Re: The Important Stuff

kwatt wrote:My instinct is to hive it off as separate accounts from UKW and to use SAGE to do the accountancy as, frankly, it’s easy administratively to deal with that way.

I agree on both

kwatt wrote:From an administration point of view the easiest way to deal with a lot of this is I ask my accountant to sort it for us and then not worry about it as, beyond that, it’s merely a case of monitoring the ins and outs really.

Again agreed

kwatt wrote:
Sean mentioned the need to have a treasurer, I can’t see the point. If the accounts are getting handled as is and they are reported regularly to the council (for want of a better term) then I can’t see the point in burdening anyone with that title. TBH for most associations it appears to be no more than a formality really and, in any event, ultimately the person/s actually dealing with it are responsible anyways.

I agree it’s a formality but I do feel it would be good to have one person responsible ,even if only to the outside world ,Not a full blown treasurer doing the books etc.
More someone who acts as a link to outside the council on financial queries .

kwatt wrote:So here’s my suggestion, from SAGE it’s easy to print out stuff, like reams of stuff, in the form of reports, P&Ls and all that malarky to PDF or whatever so it can be dragged off whenever anyone wants it. Likewise, in about 10 minutes a complete backup can be emailed. Bank statements can be easily provided via email or whatever as well. So, I wouldn’t bother too much so long as the info is available to everyone then I can’t see the need to make any one person responsible for the moment.

see above

washdoctor wrote:I personally think that we should have a Treasurer. Firstly, (IMO) There needs to be a specific person responsible for the financial side of the WTA that we all can approach (council members and members) if needed and if anything needs clarifying.

See above

washdoctor wrote:Secondly, I agree with Ken that Sage can roll off whatever report you want at any time of day or night, and I personally don’t have any issues with UKW accountants sorting things, but as we have to be seen as a ‘stand alone’ organisation, we should employ our own accountants and banking facilities 😕 .

We spoke about independent auditors to confirm our indepenedence ,I assume the existing funds are in a separate bank account to UKW anyway ,Just a thought who are the signatories ?

washdoctor wrote:As with VAT registration, yes, I think that the WTA should be VAT registered from the start.

Agreed

Lawrence

[kwatt]

Re: The Important Stuff

Lawrence wrote:I agree it’s a formality but I do feel it would be good to have one person responsible ,even if only to the outside world ,Not a full blown treasurer doing the books etc.
More someone who acts as a link to outside the council on financial queries .

Not a problem if that’s what’s required.

My thought was only that many responsible was better than one. 😉

Lawrence wrote: We spoke about independent auditors to confirm our indepenedence ,I assume the existing funds are in a separate bank account to UKW anyway ,Just a thought who are the signatories ?

The funds are in a separate account as they always have been.

Only myself, Tracey, Sean and Dave have access to the online banking although I doubt Sean or Dave even bother to login. TBH, I pay little attention beyond the headline figure as, to me, it’s not my money so I don’t look at it.

Signatories are the UKW directors only at present but I don’t think that there’s even a chequebook for it. We pay whatever then transfer back if required.

Auditing is not a cheap thing to do externally.

K.

[iadom]

Re: The Important Stuff

I agree with Lawrence with regard to a treasurer.

Vat reg, yes.

Administration within UKW is fine by me for now at least, it is always something that can be revued if the need arises.

Jim.

[Lawrence]

Re: The Important Stuff

Just to push this on,are there any takers for acting as spokesman for the money ,I see it as if there is a query with regard to the funds instead of eight voices potentially saying slightly different things ,we have one voice saying what the eight of us agree on ,unless it’s a straight forward question like how much is in the bank ,in which case we post the balance (maybe we should do that anyway for tranasparency).
Ken ,UKW are handling the subscription / membership admin arent they ?
Lawrence

[kwatt]

Yes we are presently under a UKW account which will be hived off to a separate account shortly, like as soon as I have time to get it done.

The accountancy for this is very straightforward thankfully as there’s no salaries or anything like that.

There is total transparency on the accounts anyways, no issue there.

K.

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