Procedures At Meetings

Finance Committee Duties

One of the key sub committees in a club is the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee should meet regularly, preferably weekly to ensure that the key controls operated by the club are kept under close scrutiny. The duties of a Finance Committee will vary from club to club but the checks it undertakes should include the following. These checks if performed properly will help prevent many of the financial losses suffered by clubs.

1. INCOME

• All records of monies received should be examined and checked into the Cash book or if computerized the report for summary of receipts. These subsidiary records will include:
  –  Steward’s Bar Takings Book
  –  Subscription Receipts
  –  Telephone, Gaming Machine, Entertainment Door Money, etc.  This record should be signed by a minimum of two of the people counting the cash.
• From the cash book the Finance Committee should ensure that all these cash receipts have been banked promptly and in full.
• Any payments into the bank which have not, at the date of the meeting, been credited by the bank in the Bank Statement are substantiated by bank paying in slips properly stamped on behalf of the bank.
• The Finance Committee must review the club’s bank statements to ensure all receipts are banked regularly.  The Committee must enquire into any gaps in the banking pattern.

2. EXPENDITURE

Duties in relation to the payment of monies out of club funds are equally important.

• All payment requests are substantiated by a statement from the supplier concerned, together with the supporting invoices and delivery notes.  All statements, invoices and delivery notes passed for payment must be marked that payment has been made.
• No payment has been made by the club without full authority.
• Ensure that gas, electric and water readings are read on a regular basis, in some cases monthly.  The supplier should then be notified of the reading.  This procedure should ensure clubs are not invoiced for large debts they are unable to pay.
• Petty Cash expenditure is of a proper nature.

3. WAGES

Since the introduction of the minimum wage and further employment legislation wage costs are becoming an increasingly larger expense to clubs, and overpayment of wages can be very costly.  The weekly computerized payroll summaries should be reviewed to ensure they have been properly completed.   Bar staff names, hours and wage rates should be checked to ensure staff are receiving the correct amount of gross pay.  Employees will always complain about underpayment of wages but complaints about the overpayment of wages are less frequent.

The overall cost of the weekly gross bar wage costs (including national insurance) should be compared to the gross weekly bar takings.  Ideally this percentage should be less than 24%.  If the percentage is greater than this it would indicated that bar staff are not being fully utilized,  if percentage are below this it may be an indication of other problems, for example, members are waiting to be served.  There may be valid reasons why the percentages will be outside these ranges but the key is to ensure the percentage is not increasing.

Another key ratio is that total wage costs including cleaners and committee should not exceed 65% of the gross profit recorded by the stock report and annual accounts.  If the ratio is above 65% it usually means the club is suffering a loss because there remains insufficient income after wage costs  to cover the other running expenses of the club.

STOCK REPORTS

The Finance Committee should review and check the stock report prepared by the club’s stocktaker.  The committee should review and make enquires into:-

• Surpluses, all deficits must be investigated
• Review reasonableness of allowances for waste and line cleaning
• Check Gross profit margins, overall and for individual stock lines, no stock item should have a negative gross profit margin.
• Ensure that the stocktaker has used the correct selling and cost prices.  If the selling prices are incorrect the surplus has been incorrectly calculated.  If the cost price is incorrect the stocktaker should be informed as the profit percentage is inaccurate.
• Check number of day’s stock held to ensure there are no out of date items or excessive stock levels.

The stock sheet allowance book should be scrutinised.  Items in this book can be varied in nature, ranging from line cleaning, waste, breakers, raffle prizes, brewery credits, checks etc.   The Committee should examine this book, to ensure that items claimed are authorized and that claims for waste are not excessive.

5. GOODS RECEIVED BOOK

All resalable goods, including free stock given by suppliers, must be recorded in the goods received book by the Steward from the supplier’s delivery notes.  This book detail is then used by the Stocktaker to assess purchases made during the stock period.

The Committee should check entries in the Goods Received Book against suppliers statements and invoices at least monthly to ensure that:

• The Steward has correctly entered details of all goods received and
• The supplier is charging the club for exactly what has been received

Please note this test is of little use if the check is against delivery notes only.  This is because it is important to check that all payments for goods for resale are entered in the goods received book and this will not be picked up if delivery notes have been omitted.

Finally remember:-

• Do not accept verbal excuses for unexplained differences.
• No excuse should be accepted for the non-production of records.
• Never leave the weekly checking over until the following week.  Once the routine has fallen into arrear it will be difficult to pick up the threads.
• Any correspondence from ourselves should be discussed by the Finance Committee.