AGM Treasurers Report - 15 Feb 07

For year ended 31 Dec 06

Year end Financial Report

I have prepared the year end Income and Expenditure and bank accounts for both the general current accounts and the Local Action Funds (LAF), of which you should all have copies, and which were also provided to the Auditors. You will see that all the accounts are in balance and that the main operating account shows an excess of income over expenditure of £19,547, which is comparable to the previous year. Included in the accounts are costs relating to the JE and Pensions campaigns, approximately £35k, which have been met from the current account.

The only differences that will occur between the Income and Expenditure accounts presented here, and those that will be submitted to HQ in March of this year, will be adjustments for debtors and creditors, of which there are few, and which are not traditionally included in an I & E account. Honoraria payments, whilst approved for 2006, are not classed traditionally as a creditor and will be included as 2007 costs.

Treasurers General Report

Firstly, I must comment, that only the establishing of a good working routine with all the office staff, branch officers and the committee members has enabled me and us as a branch to maintain up to date and accurate financial responsibilities, and I thank them for that.

One of the first things I undertook when taking up this post in 2006 was to establish a format for the financial records, including a cash book on an Excel spreadsheet, and templates for other financial reports which require monthly monitoring by the F & GP and to be ratified by the Exec Committee. These reports include I & E accounts, bank accounts and reconciliations and cash flow reports, all of which are fundamental to prudent financial monitoring. Whilst, I have to admit, it took some considerable time to set all the records up, I am happy to report that these reports are in place and submitted as expected. I was not, unfortunately, able to take advantage of previous annual and year end records, as due to unfortunate circumstances, these were not available.

A second important task was to respond to the Auditors recommendations and suggestions. We needed to establish stronger financial controls, such as setting up of delegated authorisations and monetary limits for such things as orders and payments, nominated budget holders with defined levels of authority, provide a separation of duties for vulnerable officers and the setting and approval of an annual budget for the upcoming year.

All of the above have been addressed. As Treasurer, I designed an authorisation document, which details out not only who can authorise specific areas and budget holders, but also includes monetary limits. Bearing in mind, of course, that limits have to be practical, provide a separation of duties and enable the branch office to function effectively. This document has been approved and is in operation.

In addition, considerable work has been done by the F & GP Committee and myself as Treasurer to set a realistic budget for 2007, aligned with a cash flow, for monitoring purposes, and again, this has been approved. It is based on expected fixed overhead expenditure and anticipated expenditure based on officers knowledge and experience of future undertakings. I understand, from discussion with branch officers, and the auditors, that whilst the annual accounts are presented and approved at the AGM, this will be the first time that a specific budget has been set for the next year.

The Income & Expenditure accounts (opens in a new window) along with the approved budget for 2007 (opens in a new window), are attached to this report for your consideration. They all make for stronger internal controls and provide a framework of clearly identified roles and responsibilities for admin and finance.

We experienced, in the early part of this year, some small delays in the payment of member's claims. These delays were caused quite simply by the changing of bank and cheque authorised signatories required due to the changes in branch officers, all of which were addressed as a matter of priority.

As a matter of course, monthly financial reports and a written summary report are submitted to the F & GP to ensure that they have the most up to date and accurate information on the branch finances to enable them to take informed decisions on future spending.

I have had in-depth discussions with the appointed Auditors over their expectations of financial information presented to them to enable them to undertake a full audit of the branch finances. All of the financial records for 2006, including year end I & E accounts, were submitted to the Auditors in January of this year. I had anticipated a good number of their requirements based on the fact that I have spent over 20 years working as both an accountant and an auditor, and there were therefore, happily, no surprises for me in their requests.

Lastly, let me say, I have thoroughly enjoyed this last year working as the branch Treasurer, and hope to continue for the foreseeable future.

Yvonne Warner