Charities - Entertaining

TraceyD06

Hi there,
I wondered if any of you could give me some advice. I do the bookkeeping for a local rgistered charity (a toy library) and they have asked me if it is ok to use funds to pay for/towards a night out for the volunteers. It will be a meal at which they intend to discuss some toy library matters, but also a social evening. I would answer yes but just thought I would put the question on here to get some reassurance before answering them.
Does anyone know if there is a good place to get guidelines for charities bookkeeping?
Thanks in advance,
Tracey Douglass

jilt

Hi Tracey,

It all depends if they are planning to use restricted or unrestricted funds. Basically if funds are restricted then the funder has stipulated what the money is to be used for and the charity will most likely have to declare to the funder that the funds have been used for their intended purpose by way of regular statements.

If funds are unrestricted then the charity can use them for any purpose providing it's for the good of the charity. It's not unusual to thank volunteers by way of a social evening and if they are discussing charity matters as well then I would think it okay, but the trustees would have to be in agreement.

If you're wanting guidelines for charities accounts you need to check out SORP, you'll find it at www.charity-commission.gov.uk/investigations/sorp/default.asp

Hope that helps a little.

farmergiles

TraceyD06 wrote: »

Hi there,
I wondered if any of you could give me some advice. I do the bookkeeping for a local rgistered charity (a toy library) and they have asked me if it is ok to use funds to pay for/towards a night out for the volunteers. It will be a meal at which they intend to discuss some toy library matters, but also a social evening. I would answer yes but just thought I would put the question on here to get some reassurance before answering them.
Does anyone know if there is a good place to get guidelines for charities bookkeeping?
Thanks in advance,
Tracey Douglass

This could be a sticky one, because it is a charity.
If it was a ltd co then up to £150 per annum per employee could be claimed back on the accounts. Because they are all volunteers and do not receive any remuneration I would have thought the answer to be NO!.
But, if the charity books a room for the purpose of "training" its volunteers and, because of the time of day, needs to supply it's volunteers with a meal and the cost of that meal is INCLUDED in the hire of the room for the training session, then I would suggest that you can put it through. If it is a charity Ltd Co limited by guarantee then I suggest that the Directors write a minute to state that they have decided to hold a training session at "XYZ" and because of the time of day, the training will include a meal, this should hold up against the revenue. The minute must be written before the event and as a result of a special meeting of the board of directors.

Unless one of my esteemed collegues knows different.

Kind regards
Peter

jilt

Sorry Tracey, I was looking at it from the funders point of view and didn't even mention the revenue, good job someone else was awake lol

farmergiles

jilt wrote: »

Sorry Tracey, I was looking at it from the funders point of view and didn't even mention the revenue, good job someone else was awake lol

Both views are important, good job you were awake as well, I only thought of the revenue side of it.....lol

TraceyD06

Thanks for your replies.
The funds are unrestricted and therefore that is not a problem.
The people who run the charity would like to thank the existing volunteers but also we have new volunteers starting in key positions so it is a chance to discuss the way that it will be run in future and how everyone will contribute. I guess that could be called training?!?
I will ask them to speak to the trustees.
Thanks again,
Tracey
PS. thanks for the link!