To all Honorary PCC Treasurers,
Diocese of Portsmouth October, 2009
Dear Honorary Treasurers,
Quite a lot to consider this time!
At the time of writing I have now been in post around four months – or, given the part-time nature of the role, around 35 working days.
I have had the pleasure of meeting or speaking with quite a number of you and look forward to meeting you all as time goes by.
I am certainly finding the role challenging, interesting and multi-faceted, including not only routine but vital activities such as the Gift Aid tax claims but also many prospective opportunities to analyse and review data in different ways and with different emphases – albeit this in itself requires at this stage the building up of the relevant data into appropriate (spreadsheets). And for the data to be available and built on rock, so to speak – which is not always the case!
Outstanding Reports, Accounts, Independent Examiner’s Certificates and Finance Returns
Thanks to many of you for sending in copies of your 2008 Accounts (including the Annual Report and Independent Examiner’s Certificate) however some 2008 Reports, Accounts and Independent Examiner’s Certificates remain outstanding – it really would be good to receive these soon in order to comply with overall record keeping requirements. And please do remember to send in sets that incorporate original signatures in all the right places and by all the right people…….
As Addendum 1, I attach a Suggested Timetable for the Annual Accounts and Report process which most of you will have already seen and be familiar with but which may help to focus the mind for the 2009 “round” in early 2010……..
Any outstanding Finance Returns for the central statistics should also now be sent as soon as ever possible to Jane Dobbs with a copy to your deanery finance chairman, and again some remain outstanding.
We are trying to try and obtain up to date and robust information across the diocese to help us to help you and this can only be assisted by accurate data produced on a timely basis and so it really is in everyone’s interests if the 2010 round could show an improvement including on timing – and as always we very much appreciate your efforts as volunteers without which we could barely function.
Quota / Parish Share
Thank you to those of you who this year have altered your method of payment to Standing Order. This is an enormous help in enabling us to keep up to date with payments to the Church Commissioners for the stipends of ministers in our diocese.
For those making payment in other ways or to top up standing orders, please ensure all payments to be credited to your 2009 parish share reach us by the end of the first week in January 2010. Thank you for your help in assisting our shared cash flow issues in this way.
Fund raising ideas
In these difficult times the sharing of fund raising ideas has obvious potential – your ideas are very welcome so please do send them in, even if you suspect that “everybody already knows about them”.
As always, do please maximise the benefits of Gift Aid – including asking visitors to sign a “one-off” declaration as appropriate. All that is needed is the name, first line of the address plus postcode and confirmation that they are a UK taxpayer. For those PCCs that are not now registered as a Charity the Diocesan Charity Number should be used (see foot of page 1). Where collections are of a one-off nature for other Registered Charities the appropriate Charity Number should be noted on the form together with the name of the Charity being collected for.
Also, please note that the time available to make Gift Aid claims is reducing from 6 years to 4 years with effect from 1st April, 2010…….
NB also that HMRC are currently taking up to three months to process Gift Aid claims once received……
Cost savings
Please continue with your excellent work on cost saving ideas, including possible spend to save initiatives, for example upgrading or segmenting an inefficient heating system or ensuring that any maintenance agreements in place are being fulfilled. However, meanwhile please make sure that duty of care requirements are complied with, including appropriate public liability insurance.
Utility Costs
Paul Tizzard and I met with Noel Muddiman and Michael Winarick of Charity Funding Solutions Ltd earlier this month to discuss assistance to PCCs and Clergy on utility costs, primarily at this stage electricity and gas prices.
Noel and Michael have been piloting this approach across various Dioceses and have acquired significant practical expertise in utility costs and negotiations relating thereto.
A letter detailing the options open to PCCs will be sent out shortly including Michael Winarick’s contact details (01428 724038 – ).
Once you have received this letter I would recommend that PCC Honorary Treasurers contact Michael Winarick to discuss how he can advise PCCs to save costs.
The recommended supplier is the Utility Warehouse Discount Club and although this can be joined directly via an 0800 number, I feel that the benefits of working through Michael are well worth consideration as he can advise on specifics including giving notice on contracts to supply, VAT Declarations and possible options on Meter Tariffs.
If you choose to join directly then you can register as a Community Fund Raiser in which case the PCC would receive a 2% rebate from UWDC – however the benefit of Michael’s ongoing expertise would then be lost and I feel that working through Michael would lift a significant practical burden from Honorary Treasurers’ shoulders in addition to generating ongoing savings overall, even after a £2 monthly standing charge.
The choice will be for PCCs however significant savings have been made across the country, typically 20%.
If parishioners join up (via the 0800 number as it is much more straightforward for domestic users) and the PCC does in fact join via CFS Ltd but also registers as a Community Fund Raiser then although the PCC would not receive the 2% rebate on its own utility costs, in this case the PCC would receive a 2% rebate relating to the parishioner’s costs based on each and every parishioner who switches to UWDC and makes it clear that they wish for a rebate to be paid to the PCC.
Accordingly I do recommend you to contact Michael Winarick and assess whether this route is the correct one for you. Do bear in mind in this context that there will be the additional benefit of a load being lifted from the Honorary Treasurer’s shoulders in terms of monitoring contracts and comparing costs on an ongoing basis, even if the last pip is not squeezed so to speak. And the danger of exorbitant default costs or potentially unfair locked in contracts should be, perhaps gradually across the diocese, eliminated.
Your help please
Please note that it costs the Diocese £2 each time that a banked cheque from a PCC “bounces” – so please do be very careful to try and avoid this happening as it also creates additional work for all parties.
Also, please can you only make cheques payable to “Portsmouth Diocesan Board of Finance” (although “PDBF” and “Portsmouth DBF” are also accepted by our bank). This is the ONLY bank account that the Diocese operates and cheques intended to be banked in this account cannot be so banked unless this correct payee designation is used. Many thanks!
Charity Commission Registration
A further reminder please to those few remaining PCCs that need to register and have not yet completed the process. The law is that from 31st January 2009 any church in England and Wales whose gross income exceeds £100,000 must register with the Charity Commission. The Commission expects the registration process to be completed by 1st October, 2009. The responsibility is that of the individual PCCs, not the Diocese.
Thereafter, PCCs will need to complete an Annual Information Return (AIR), which will require the signed Report and Accounts (including signed Independent Examiner’s Certificate (IEC)) to be attached. (PCCs are already required to submit signed Reports and Accounts including signed IEC to the diocese as per existing practice – and no doubt this will in future include copies of the AIRs where these are relevant).
The first AIR in this context including the signed Annual Report & signed Accounts (including the signed IEC) must be sent to the Charity Commission within ten months of the financial year end – i.e. by 31st October 2010 for the 2009 Report & Accounts to 31st December 2009. Again, the responsibility is that of the individual PCCs, not the diocese.
I hope this does not sound too “heavy” however I felt it might prove helpful to be quite precise and upfront about all this, and even though in practice there may not be immediate consequences for non-compliance, if parishes are not seen to be taking their legal responsibilities seriously, it is highly probable that there will be greater interventionin the future e.g. whenthe threshold for future registrations is considered in2011.
Data Developments Autumn Training Programme and Finance Co-ordinator
Data Developments, who supply Donations Co-ordinator and Finance Co-ordinator (the intended replacement of Cashcall) are running an Autumn training programme. This is attached as an addendum to this Newsletter. I appreciate that some dates have already passed.
Support for Cashcall is being continued for the time being however the cost of support is increasing. Meanwhile Finance Co-ordinator appears to have been well received since its launch in 2008.
Special Offer – upgrade Cashcall to Finance Co-ordinator
The special reduced price offer to upgrade from Cashcall to Finance Co-ordinator has been extended to 31st January 2010 – please contact Data Developments on 01902 824044 for further information.
Training
Most Honorary Treasurers are experienced and doing very well, and your efforts are of course really very much appreciated and highly valued – as of course are those of our new Honorary Treasurers!
Meanwhile I have undertaken several “one-to-ones” to help get the ball rolling in the right direction where there has been a change of Honorary Treasurer. I am more than happy to do this so please do not hesitate to contact me as this does seem to work well and the time and effort invested by all parties does seem to pay real dividends, including for the future.
Mary Makin prepared some excellent group in-house training material last year in two main areas, the first being aimed at new Treasurers and the second for Year End Accounting, including Accruals Accounting as required for Registered Charities.
This material is still valid and if there is a genuine need and demand I should be pleased to run some courses at Penninsular House, probably in the evening.
An alternative would be for me to prepare “tweaked” versions of the existing training material aimed at individual self-study, which could then be sent out via e-mail – this could well prove not only more cost and time efficient but also more timely as it could be sent out on demand. As previously stated, I should be happy to deal with individual issues on a one-to-one basis.
This latter option would not of course preclude the running of courses as and when required.
Please let me know your thoughts on this and also on any other initiatives that you might wish to suggest.
Experienced Honorary Treasurers as “Buddies”
Further to the notes on training, there are occasions when an experienced Honorary Treasurer is happy to provide ad-hoc practical advice and guidance to a new Honorary Treasurer. This can include guidance on getting to grips with Cashcall or, more probably in the future, Finance Co-ordinator.
I believe this can prove of great practical benefit.
It may be that we could extend this very helpful and practical approach and identify more experienced Honorary Treasurers who would be prepared to act as a ”buddy” to new or inexperienced Honorary Treasurers. This would be in all our interests as we all know how difficult it can prove at times to find a new Honorary Treasurer and, in some cases, to persuade them to continue. And indeed to find a successor!
What do you think? Please let me have your thoughts and any related suggestions, and also whether you would be happy to either act as a buddy or alternatively whether you would welcome making contact with one.
ACAT
The Association of Church Treasurers (ACAT) provides a comprehensive resource for Parish Treasurers. For a very modest £12.50 per annum, membership brings a comprehensive Handbook that is regularly updated, a quarterly newsletter and a Helpline.
A number of Honorary Treasurers may already be in membership of this Association, which now has over 8,600 members of all denominations.
Full details of all that ACAT does, along with a membership Application Form, can be found on their website, or further information from their treasurer, Alan Wilson, on .
Thanks
Just to say once again that all your efforts as Honorary Treasurers, in this vital role that can at times prove more than a little onerous, are very much appreciated by all.
Best wishes.
Chris Malone, P/T Parish Finance Adviser
ADDENDUM 1
SUGGESTED 2010 TIMETABLE FOR ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR 2009
January 2010
Treasurer works on Accounts
Secretary works on Annual Report
February
Accounts to Independent Examiner
Draft Annual Report to Independent Examiner
March