Advice for Secretaries

Advice for Secretaries

FOREWORD

All items of income and expenditure must be recorded as a basis of maintaining proper records and for this purpose, listed hereunder are the various books etc which need to be kept, together with a narrative explaining the function thereof.

GOODS RECEIVED BOOK

All resaleable goods, including free stock given by suppliers, must be recorded in this book by the Steward from the suppliers delivery notes. This book detail is then used by the Stocktaker to assess purchases made during the stock period.
The Committee should also check entries in the Goods Received Book against suppliers invoices at least monthly to ensure that
a) The Steward has correctly entered details of all goods received and
b) That what the supplier is charging you is exactly what has been received

STOCK SHEET ALLOWANCES BOOK

Items in this book can be varied in nature, details ranging from line cleaning, waste, breakers, raffle prizes, brewery credits, checks etc and the Committee should examine this book, at least monthly, to ensure that items claimed are those authorised by them and that claims for waste are not excessive.

BAR TAKINGS BOOK

Takings must be entered therein on a daily basis and at the end of each week Till “Z” readings must be taken by the Steward and handed to the Secretary so that the total bar takings for the week can be authenticated and any difference to the total entered in the bar takings book can be investigated.
The till “Z” readings need to be filed and retained for a minimum of three years to be available should they be asked for at any H M Revenue & Customs VAT inspection.

SUNDRY INCOME

There is a need for all Sundry Income to be recorded in some form of primary book or form designed for that purpose and the entry should be signed by those persons assisting in the emptying and counting of monies. It will be seen that this procedure will eliminate any possible accusations of funds being misappropriated.
Items of sundry income falling into the above categories are:- Fruit Machines, Juke Boxes, Telephone Coin Boxes, Pool Tables, Snooker Clocks, Lottery Machines, whilst other Sundry Income such as Bingo Entrance Fees, Concert Admission, Open the Box, Bingo Tote and Weekly Tote etc are usually covered by consecutively numbered tickets which, invariably can be controlled by recording opening and closing numbers.

MAINTAINING A CASH BOOK

A cash book should be maintained in which all the financial transactions of the club are entered and which forms the basis from which the clubs accounts are prepared. On the INCOME side receipts from varying sources need to be entered in the designated catagories On the PAYMENTS side cheque payments should be entered in chronological and allocated to the correct catagory for which expense was incurred.
It is good practice to keep the cash book entered up each week, which, when done will not be a time consuming job.
With Making Tax Digital (MTD) VAT records have to be maintained digitally.

BANK STATEMENTS

Bank statements are consecutively numbered and arrangements should be made with your Banker’s to see that they are issued, preferably on a weekly basis and certainly no longer than once a month at the close of the month. They can be reconciled, after taking into account any Standing Orders, Direct Debits and Bank Charges, also making any adjustments for cheques that have been issued but not yet presented to the bank and any bankings which have not been credited to your statement with the totals in the cash book.

PAYROLL

Casual staff for whom you have no coding notice should complete a form P46 which sets out their personal circumstances and the instructions contained in the form complied with. Failure to carry out the correct procedures could cost the club money at the end of the day.

GENERAL ADVICE

STOCKTAKER’S RETURNS – See separate articles.

OFFICE MANAGEMENT – Tidiness is all important; a clear desk is essential and therefore a good tip is when opening the mail, sort out the junk mail and bin it.

A further consideration is the introduction of a weekly income and expenditure sheet (specimen attached). Invariably the coinage from sundry income is either deposited with the Steward and included as part of his banking or exchanged with him for notices and passed to the Treasurer to do a separate banking. Similarly what is expended from the Steward’s Bar Takings ie wages marvic snacks and other items is reimbursed him by the issue of a club cheque.

Adopting the system of a weekly income and expenditure sheet would eliminate the need to issue a cheque to reimburse the Steward’s takings, also create the situation of one overall banking for the week.
This system could save on bank charges, perhaps not a great sum but nevertheless a saving.
Additionally a properly designed weekly income and expenditure sheet would also accommodate some of the safeguards mentioned under section other income sources.