Finance Forum

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Voscur is always interested to hear from Finance Workers and Treasurers who would like to join this Forum. 

These forums are designed to provide peer support and networking for finance workers and treasurers working in the vcse sector in Bristol.  Voscur holds regular half-day meetings to give you the opportunity to discuss pertinent finance issues and share good practice.

If you are interested please email Rebecca on rebecca@voscur.org

Finance Forum Meeting: Getting Your Annual Accounts Right

Tuesday 2 March 2010

There are many reasons why the annual accounts of Charities and Non-profit organisations are often wrong, and it is not uncommon for there to be serious material errors that represent a significant proportion of the organisation's assets or turnover.  This session looked at the most common reasons for such errors and focused on strategies for making them less likely.  The aims of the workshop were to:

  • De-mystify the process of preparing annual accounts and highlight the most common adjustments to your existing figures
  • Ensure a basic understanding of the principles of the Charity SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) and the common pitfalls in the translation of your figures into the SORP layout
  • Help you to know if your accountants have done their job properly
  • Give you confidence to assert the need for realistic timescales, clarity around funding agreements agreements and adherence to the SORP, all of which are essential if your accounts are to be a true and fair reflection of your organisation's financial position at the year end

Trainer: Rupert Taylor, Accounts Consultant with over 20 years of experience of working with charities and small organisations.  Rupert also acts as an Independent Examiner for small charities who do not require an audit.

Finance Forum Meeting - Thursday 17 September 2009

The subject of this meeting was insurance requirements for VCSE organisations and included a presentation from Martin Ladbrook from Ladbrook, Specialist Advisors to the voluntary sector.  This covered issues such as:

  • The reasons why VCSE organisations need to consider whether or not to take out insurance cover
  • The types of insurance cover required for various activities
  • Good practice measures in undertaking risk assessments
  • Where to obtain comprehensive insurance quotes

Useful Resources

Sayer Vincent - Made Simple Guides

Made simple guides have been produced by Sayer Vincent in conjunction with Charity Finance Directors’ Group (CFDG) and are available in print form their website. They include a range of useful guides on issues such as VAT, Risk Assessment, Reserves Policies, Trading and much more. Click here to visit the Sayer Vincent site.

 

VAT and Charities Presentation, by Alison Godfrey from GodfreyWilson