Treasurer Workshops

2014-2015

Submission Date

This year the last exam is the 18th May therefore the

Date for budget submission for the Academic Year 14/15 is Monday 25th May 2015 @3pm.

Budgets will not be accepted after this date. The online submissions will be closed off at 3pm sharp on this date. Hard Copies must be presented to Michelle’s office before 3pm on this date where a receipt will be issued to you. Please be warned that there will be no exceptions.

Extensions to your budget• A small number of clubs and societies are eligible for extensions and

have been availing of them for a number of years. Their extension is based on them taking part in a large amount of Summer activity. For those who wish to apply for an extension (whether or not you have been traditionally entitled) you will need to email your reasons for application to michelle.whyte@ul.ie by 1st March 2015. Application will then be considered and decided upon by CS Exec.

• Those with extensions will still need to submit hard copy & online budget up-to-date by Monday 25th May 2015 @3pm along with the rest of C&S. Your budget will be reopened to you after this deadline in order to add info from the rest of the Summer months. Please note: Any info that is added after the 25th May must be for after this date- we will be able to tell and you will be penalized!

Clubs & Societies Budgets & Finances

• The University of Limerick Students Union (ULSU) is one of the few Students’ Union in the country that receives its portion of Capitation directly to administer itself (approx. €96 per person). The Higher Education Authority (HEA) recommends that of this sum of money 2/3 should go to C&S. The full finances are discussed and approved at the Clubs & Societies Council as part of the 100% transparency of all C&S funding

Club/Society INCOME

(Fundraising/ Sponsorship/

Members Contribution

etc.)

Club/Society EXPENDITURE

(Equipment/Domestic Trips/ Foreign Trips/ Guest Speaker

Costs/ Referee Fees/ Governing Body Affiliation Fees/Subsidisation

of Development Courses/Fuel Expenses/ Promotional Material

etc.)

Your Clubs and Societies Budget Bridges the Gap between your Income and Expenditure so that participation is affordable for members. Your Club or Society will raise at least 50% of what they wish to spend. C&S subsidy will provide a further 50% of income to you.

Securing your C&S budget

There are two sections to your C&S budget

•Income and Expenditure Section•Points section

Both sections are equally important! They are symbiotic- if you do badly in one you do badly in both.

Income and Expenditure

YOUR SHORTFALL

A Very important point that many don’t take into consideration: your income needs to support your expenditure. Generally if you are able to raise approx. 50% of what you intend to spend and score above approx. 75 points you will get your shortfall.

Evidence

Your total validated income and expenditure is based on the amount of income and expenditure in your online budget that you have given evidence for in your hard copy budget. If you have not backed up with evidence it will not be validated.

• Always double check your “total validated income & expenditure” before submitting your budget.

• Above we can see that this club have shown that they can bring in 50% of their expenditure. This is the ideal ratio.

Expenditure too low If your income is too high in comparison to your expenditure it generally shows that you are not developing enough as a club/society- you are almost “self sufficient”. You are effectively not asking for a budget from ULSU.

Expenditure too high If this is a problem then you & your committee need to confer and cut down on expenditure. The budget system does not entertain exorbitant expenditure claims. Are you projecting too much? Perhaps it might be a case that

Points Section

In this section you are effectively being incentivised to run your club/society well!

Points Section READ YOUR HELP FILES!- Located to the right of each section. As with the Income and Expenditure Section; You will need to back up all claims being made in the points section. e.g. “We sent out weekly updates via email to all our members”- Print the emails making sure to Include the CC Line and add it themTo your hard copy folder.

Extra Budget Points Available

8 points for consistency !•2 points per quarter (i.e. four points in total per semester) for those updating their budget throughout the year. •Budgets will be reviewed halfway through each semester and again at the end of each semester to ensure you have been updating your income and expenditure section. •This consistency will mean your budget will be of a higher quality (not thrown together @ last minute) and will aide you in making the budget deadline

Start as you mean to go on!

There are many steps you can take RIGHT NOW ahead of your budget submission next Semester. From September you should begin filing away all receipts and bank statements you receive. Keep these together in a safe place!

The Points Section is there to direct you in developing, improving or even just improving the standards of your C/S. Read the help files for the points section now to know what is expected of you for the year ahead! It will also enlighten you as to what you need to keep for your hard copy submission in May! E.g. posters from events, details of match fixtures, a copy of your bank mandate etc. Remember

• The budget process is not entirely up to the treasurer. The entire committee have the responsibility to ensure a good quality budget has been presented to the Clubs and Societies office in May.

Communication is key! Your committee need to work with you1. Work together for the year in gaining a budget. That is:

getting income & expense to desired limits, getting points to maximum possible e.g. attending council meeting, Hustings, 2 x Recruitment drives. Publicising your events/activities/ your club and society in general.

2. Saving all evidence throughout the year so that hard copy folder can be compiled. The treasurer will not be in receipt of much of the evidentiary documentation but all of this documentation needs to be presented to the treasurers

Preparing a budget is really a very simple process. The finance section is designed for the “non-accountants” amongst us. You are guided through the points section with help files.

•The key to producing a good budget is to familiarise yourself with it now at the start of your financial year- this will make you aware of what you need to work towards between now and May & what documents you will need to put aside as “evidence” during the year. Once you have done this speak to your committee @ your next meeting- you will need to relay to them what their part will be e.g. PRO to work hard at publicising all events/activities so that maximum points can be gained in the points section- same to provide evidence of all this advertising & publicity to the treasurer on a regular basis!

Start as you mean to go on!

Start as you mean to go on!

• If you do not have so already: We advise a “Treasurer’s Update” be put on the agenda for your committee meetings. Keeping your finances at the forefront will serve to have everyone educated- this should result in a successful financial year as well as a good quality (stress free) budget submitted by you in May.

• With this approach it will be a matter of sitting down for a couple of hours in May to

1. Input your info online and2. Put together your hard copy “Evidence” folder.

Income and Expenditure SectionIn Short: Input each Income item online and back up with EVIDENCE in your hard copy. When you input your income and expenditure items on the online budget a unique code will be produced. You must then write this unique reference code beside on your bank statement beside the corresponding transaction.The same applies for the expenditure Which of course will be backed up withReceipts, invoices etc.

How to input You make each entry using the “drop-down” toolbar” for Type, Category and Month. A Unique Reference number will be generated when you click the “Add Entry” button. This ref. Number is to be added to the corresponding paperwork in your hard-copy budget. The drop down menu is quite straightforward- if anything is unclear to you please email/call in & I will clarify.

Projecting NEW expenditureThe process for adding new expenditure is different to adding current expenditure. If you wish to project NEW expenditure make use of the tool bar as normal but DON’T include the amount- “add entry” WITHOUT the amount having been added. After you have pressed “add entry” you can then add the amount under the white box under the “projected” column in the main body of your budget. (If you don’t use this technique your expenditure will be effectively tagged as current expenditure which of course it is not.

Your Bank Mandate

• Every year you need to update the signatories on your bank account by completing a Change of Mandate Form (Guide & Document available under Admin Docs Tab).

• Ulster Bank can only process the Change of Mandate on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Ask to deal with either Rosie or Sinead!

• Bring two copies of your mandate to the Bank. They will keep one. Ask them to stamp your copy for you also- you will need to add it to your budget hardcopy in May!

Checklist

From this year you will need to provide a signed checklist with your budget (template will be available under admin docs tab). Budgets will not be accepted

unless all boxes have been ticked, the document has been signed by at

least three committee members and placed as the first page of your budget submission.

Checklist Contd….

• If a Club or Society presents a budget with items un-ticked on the checklist their budget will be returned to them in order for them to make the necessary edits.

• If a Club or Society’s checklist has not been completed by Budget Submission Date their budget will be automatically refused.

• Your checklist will be available to you under the “admin docs tab” shortly.

Clubs & Societies Budgets & Finances - Budget Submission (On-line & Hardcopy) Pg 57

• When preparing to submit a budget it is important to have a clear understanding of YOUR figures and entries and they MUST correspond with the paper work YOU Provide.

• REMEMBER the burden of proof is on the Committee to substantiate the financial entries and where the proof is absent, figures will be “Not approved”.

Misc Docs to be included

• Foreign Trips Proposals for the coming year (if any)• Equipment Inventory (if any) • 3 year plan (if any)• Coaching Credentials of the coach you are planning

to employ for coming year (if any) • C/S Constitution- based on C&S Consitution • C/S Safety Statement

Your Day-to-Day Finance

• Cheque Requisitions- Pink Form • Credit Card Requests- Green Form • Special Applications(unforeseen expenses)-

yellow form (updated this year) *All Available in C&S Common Room*

Cheque Requisitions

• Cheques processed on Thursdays! • Complete the form • 2 committee members to sign• Print off invoice/screenshot of online order

and attach to Cheque Req Form

Credit Card

• Complete the form • 2 committee members to sign• Print off invoice/screenshot of online order and

attach to credit card form • Can be brought in any day of the week• Paul Lee’s/ Martin Ryan’s (SU General Manager)

signatures also needed. • Drawn down form your budget or the C/S can use

credit card & reimburse union.

Special Apps • €29,000 this year. • Fund is finite. • Those already in receipt of a budget can apply for up to a

maximum of €3,000 on a 50/50 basis for unforeseen expenditure only.

• C/S entitled to a budget but fail to secure or apply can apply up to a maximum of €4,000 on a 50/50 basis for one year only.

• New clubs and societies are also entitled to the upper limit of €4,000 and may be eligible for 100%.

• All Special Apps are subject to Clubs and Societies Executive approval.

An Application does not guarantee approval.

“Cosmetic” Edits Only after submission date!!

• Traditionally, if there are edits needed on your Club/Society budget you are emailed with the details once it has been processed over the summer months and given the opportunity to edit before a certain date. This is for cosmetic/ small changes ONLY where it is obvious a small mistake has been made etc.

• This is not to facilitate a complete overall of budgets where s club/society committee left themselves short of time during the year and are relying on a “budget edits needed” email in order to perform a complete overhaul of their budget.

If you have any problems during the year with your budget don’t hesitate to email me requesting a meeting/ pop in to my office !!!!!