Welcome Money Matters. This document is designed for club and society treasurers and others that are interested, and will guide you through everything you need to know about your club or society's finances.
No matter what type of club/society you are involved with, money is always involved - money which belongs to the club as a whole not to the individuals concerned. The person who looks after the financial affairs of the club, the Treasurer, wants to do what is in the best interest of the present and future club members.
The Treasurer can receive real satisfaction from handling the Club money effectively. Like any other group activity, there are a few rules and procedures to follow. That's what this factsheet is about - how to handle the financial affairs of your club in a business-like way.
By the time you've finished reading these pages, you should feel confident in knowing:
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 The ways in which you can generate money
 How your committee team can spend your club or society's money
 How to order goods or services, and reclaim money spent on behalf of the club/society
How to budget for the future
What your Committee ID card is and how to use it
Record transactions and monitor your accounts
The trustees of Worcester Students’ Union are responsible for ensuring that the Union’s money and resources are used to represent and further the interests of Worcester students.
Clubs/Societies are an integral part of the Union therefore their finances are subject to regulations and procedures to ensure that their money is spent correctly and that all transactions are recorded accurately. This ensures transparency and accountability to the membership of your club/society and the entire Union.
Overall responsibility lies with the Trustees of the Union, but the Treasurer of each club and society is delegated the responsibility for ensuring transparency and accountability for their individual club or society. The regulations and procedures are not designed to hinder Society activity. However, it is essential that you follow the financial procedures laid out in this booklet for a few simple reasons:-
1. WSU is bound by the 1994 Education Act. This means that the Union can only use its resources to further its charitable objectives, laid out in its Constitution. In very simple terms the Union can only use its resources to represent and further the interests of Worcester students.
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2. These regulations are in place not only to ensure that both your members money but any money that is given by the Union is spent correctly but so that the Sabbatical
Officers, as elected Trustees of the Union, can prove it is spent correctly to internal and external auditors. The Sabbatical Officers have a responsibility to the Union’s membership - all Worcester students, to run the Union and use its resources in a transparent manner.
Trustees must ensure that transactions are recorded accurately so members can scrutinise them. This is identical to your responsibility as a treasurer to the members of your Society.
3. The Union is subject to an external audit on an annual basis and many of the regulations relating to how you run your club/society finances have been set by the Union, the Inland Revenue and other legislative bodies.
Responsibilities
As a club or society treasurer you are responsible for running the accounts of your club/society. You will be in charge of:
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Liaising with and maintaining a working relationship with all SU staff, VP Student
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Activities, and relevant University Staff
Maintaining an up to date knowledge of the society’s financial situation by keeping detailed records
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Signing all forms for payments, money requests and orders
 Keeping your committee informed of your club or society's financial position
Work with the chair and liaise with the incoming committee to produce an annual
 budget
 Attending specific, relevant training sessions
Ensuring all members have paid up
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Ensuring your club or society does not get into debt
 Be included in the planning of all events
Ensure all monies are paid into the account as soon as possible after receipt
 Produce a Statement of Accounts at the AGM
IMPORTANT
Do not be afraid to say no to your committee if you don’t think your society can afford something
The way that you can use your club or society's money is governed not only by your constitution and Union, but also rules that come from the University and from British law.
Keeping these in mind, your club or society's money cannot be used for:
 Political activity that can't be considered educational (e.g. supporting a trade union strike)
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Anything outside the general aims of your club or society
 Any illegal activity
Making a donation to an outside body
If you are unsure about a particular way that you're looking to spend club or society money, email h.chenneour-cocking@worc.ac.uk
(Sports Coordinator), a.wager@worc.ac.uk
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(Societies Coordinator) or b.hooper@worc.ac.uk
(Finance Manager) and they will advise you appropriately.
The Students’ Union is a registered charity and therefore is not permitted to raise funds for any other charity except via RAG.
In order to collect money for charity The RAG Society will provide you with the advice and you need to help carry out fundraising activities, whilst also ensuring that your activities are legal. We can then also get a better idea of how much money students are collecting for charity so we can shout about our achievements!
Fundraising proceeds on behalf of another charity must be raised under the banner of RAG and paid directly into the RAG Bank account via the Finance Office. The Finance Office will require the following information:
The name of charity the funds have been raised for
The name of the Club / Society organising the event raising the funds
Instructions (payee name / contact name / address) of where to send the proceeds to
All transactions must be recorded in your Club/Society book. The book can be obtained from
SU reception. The book is divided into columns to record the date, details of the transaction, amount paid out, amount paid in and the balance held in the account.
There are various ways in which your club or society can generate funds, and these will fall under different categories, explained below. Some ways you might generate money would be:
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Grants/budgets
 Membership fees
Sponsorship
 Fundraising
 Event surplus
 Other surplus from your activities
Your club/society's money is divided into two sections:
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Grant Money
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Given to you by Worcester Students Union
You submit a budget at the end of Semester 2 to apply for a budget for the following year
Used for budgeted projects, according to the allocation details
Own Money (Private)
 Membership subscriptions
 Sponsorship - please NB, some companies might be inappropriate for sponsorship, if you are unsure e-mail phil.roberts@worc.ac.uk
 Event surplus
 Any other money you generate
The money is split up into two types of account, as you'll see in the 'Your Accounts' section later on. Money in each category must be used to benefit the club/society as a whole.
As treasurer you will need to support your committee in setting annual subscription fees for the membership of your club/society. All affiliated clubs/societies are required to charge the minimum £1 subscription to all members; however each society should charge a realistic subscription which reflects the activities it aims to undertake. This can only be assessed by compiling a budget of all expected expenditure and income.
Members can either join online, this is the preferred method, or at the Sports and Activities fair. All membership fees will be collected by the SU and your account will be credited by them. You must not collect membership fees in any other way.
Before anyone can join a club or society they will have to join #TEAMWORC. The cost of this is in addition to your club/society membership; however, this fee is currently paid for by the University (subject to change)
At the end of Semester 2 you will be sent a Budget Application Pack . This will be for you to complete in order to apply for funds for the following academic year, and therefore will preferably involve both incoming and outgoing committees .
You will be requesting money for your planned projects for the next year, and for items that your club or society can benefit from in the long term. Sports Clubs must make equipment requests on a separate form to the budget, and should submit both at the same time.
Any money allocated to those projects or items will be put into your grant accounts (as mentioned on the previous page), and must be used by the end of the year it's allocated for.
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Any society officer found to have opened an external bank account will be subject to the
Union and University disciplinary procedures and the Society may be immediately deratified.
WSU will not accept any liability for Societies who operate an external bank account
Paying money in is fantastically easy. Simply take the money or cheque to the Finance Office
If you are receiving a cheque, the cheque should be payable to WSU (Worcester Students'
Union). Write your club details on the back of the cheque.
This is the most frequently used form and is used to withdraw money from your account. It is typically used when a member has purchased something for the club/ society and needs to be reimbursed, or when an individual needs to be paid (for example, after providing dance lessons).
Where members incur expenses that should be funded by the club or society an expense claim can be made using a Clubs and Societies Paid Out Form. These forms are available from the Students’ Union Welcome Desk
All claims must be:
Supported by receipts or other relevant evidence
Signed as authorised by the Club or Society Treasurer* and one other Committee member
Checked to ensure that there are sufficient funds to pay.
*Where the Treasurer is making a claim, the Club or Society Chair must authorise.
Once the expense form has been completed and authorised, the Treasurer can obtain reimbursement from the Finance Office. If the amount is over £100 either the VP Student
Activities or the Sports/Societies Co-ordinator must sign before taking the form to the
Finance Office.
Expenses will not be reimbursed if there are insufficient funds available in the club/society account.
Important: You must have receipts when claiming money from your account. No receipt =
No payment . This is to ensure the safety of your club/ society's accounts and to make sure nobody claims money for something that was never paid for.
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Anything over £100 will need to be agreed in writing prior to the transaction taking place, by either the VP Student Activities, or the Sports /Societies Co-ordinator or in extreme circumstances The Chief Executive.
A Purchase Order Requisition is used to place an order with a company, which the Union then orders directly for you. This is typically used to buy merchandise or where there are large quantities of money involved. All goods and services should be requested on a Purchase
Order.
A Sales Invoice Requisition is used to ask a company or external body to pay you money, typically when they have sponsored you. If you're just paying in cash or a cheque that you already have, you don't need a sales invoice, just take the deposit to the finance office. (See
Paying Money In, above)
If your society wishes to make an online purchase, please ask the Finance Office to do so on your behalf, as they can pay on credit card (which is infinitely more secure and less susceptible to scams). Appropriate forms must be completed as directed by the Finance
Manager
You will need an ID card to access the finances of the club. This card entitles you to use the following Union facilities:
Services at SU Reception: Booking rooms, photocopying & printing,
Collecting money from the SU
Access to the Club/Society finance book
There will be two cards produced for two officers of each club for the academic year. These cards are only valid for Worcester SU Society/ Club use, and if lost or stolen must be reported to the Worcester Students Union.
You will need to bring this card with you when withdrawing money.
Please note these cards are simply Identification Cards. If you do pay for goods/services please claim the money back by submitting a request form attaching any receipts or documentation relating to the payment.
These are available from the beginning of Semester 1.
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This is the time for the AGM a simple report needs to be presented showing all the income received and expenditure incurred for the year.
We understand that as it’s the end of the year AGMs have been held and new treasurers will only just be getting to grips with the job when all of these things are required. Therefore it is best if the outgoing treasurer and the new treasurer use these requirements as part of their handover, as a way for the outgoing treasurer to show the new treasurer how to handle their society’s accounts. It is the responsibility of the outgoing treasurer to make sure that the books are up-to-date and that the new treasurer is well informed when taking up the position.
The Audit
In August every year, you must submit your accounts for audit . This is a complete account of the society’s income and expenditure for this academic year. It should be simple if good accounts are kept, if not it will take longer as you have to go through and figure out your society’s income and outgoings.
Frequently the question of VAT arises. The simple answer to a complex problem is:
A club cannot claim back VAT from HMRC.
This means that whenever a price for something is requested you must make sure that it includes VAT. So for example if the quote for shorts is £10.00 per pair ex vat they will cost you £12.00 per pair (at 20% VAT). Some companies may say you don’t need to worry about
VAT as you can reclaim it – ignore them! They do not know your VAT status and that you cannot claim it back. If in doubt seek advice from the Finance Manager
The Students’ Union has various polices. As part of the general policy all kit and equipment is insured but losses caused by normal usage and wear and tear are not covered. Theft from unattended vehicles is also not covered.
The items insured need to be itemised and so it is vital that we have updated inventories of all equipment, together with replacement values. If an item is not listed it is not insured. If an item is listed for £100 but the replacement costs £500 then the maximum claim on insurance is £100. There is an excess on the policy whereby the first £50 of any claim will not be paid.
Platinum Personal Accident Policy
The Platinum Personal Accident Policy provides a fixed benefit to students when they are injured whilst participating in sports club activities. The list of benefits is available on the website:
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http://www.endsleighbusiness.co.uk/Student/Documents/BUCS/BUCSPlatinumKeyFacts270310v1.pdf
Group Personal Accident Policy
The Group Personal Accident Policy provides a fixed benefit to students if they are injured whilst participating in activities organised by the Union, this includes activities organised by societies provided the SU know about them.
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That's it! You've reached the end of the Managing Your Money. By now you should know all about how to spend your club/society's money, what you can spend it on, accessing your accounts, and all the other business that goes along with being a treasurer.
You will probably have at least one question that's come out of you reading the pages. Please do email it to the VP Student Activities or the Sports/Societies Coordinator or Finance manager (Brian – b.hooper@worc.ac.uk
), not only so that your question can be answered, but so that we can update this document for future treasurers.
Many thanks, and best of luck for the coming year
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