Downloadable 44 page .pdf (652kb) produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. The document looks at why financial management is important and covers a range of topics, including developing a financial strategy, budgets and cash flow management, book keeping and financial accounting. It also looks at tax and at financial management and governance. It includes good practice advice, examples and templates for advisers and groups to use.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations have a finance section on their ‘Ask NVCO’ website. It includes sections on finance strategy, budgeting, accounting, audit, funding earning and costing, managing resources, investment, risk, tax and an interactive service, ‘Ask us a Finance Question’.

A network of community accountancy services across the UK. The website has a directory to link voluntary and community organisations to local community accountancy services.

CASHFACTS is a series of useful information sheets from Community Accountancy Self Help (CASH), a London-based community accountancy project.

Mango is a UK registered charity. They aim to strengthen the financial management of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Their resources are mostly free but you do have to register to access them. Resources available through the site include financial accounting tools and discussion of the wider issues involved in being accountable and developing relationships with funders.

Charity Accounts: The framework (2007) sets out the revised accounting requirements for different sizes and types of charities. It includes guidance on preparing accounts and the annual report as well as factors that determine the need for an audit or other external scrutiny. It also lists other useful Charity Commission publications.

Registered companies need to complete this Annual return. It includes guidance notes.

This is the regulator for Community Interest Companies and it provides guidance on the forms of accounts and annual returns for CICs.

The Charities Evaluation Service helps members of voluntary and community organisations develop their own approaches to improving quality of their services: establishing self-evaluation and quality systems and improving the management of their organisations.

Several downloads of information sheets including:
First Steps in Monitoring and Evaluation
Key Terms and Definitions
Your Project and its Outcomes

Monitoring and Evaluation is an information sheet .pdf from Voluntary Action Sheffield that gives a practical guide to monitoring and evaluating, including a section on performance indicators.

The Big Lottery Fund provides guidance to explain the difference your project makes. The BLF uses the term ‘outcomes’ to describe this and this guide explains their approach to recording, assessing and reporting on the achievements of projects they fund.

Good governance is key to the health and success of an organisation. It is high on the agenda in all sectors. As voluntary and community organisations working for public benefit, we are increasingly held accountable for our outcomes and expected to demonstrate how well we are governed. The Governance Hub is working to champion good governance.

This guidance is aimed primarily at charity trustees and sets out what charities are required to do, in terms of preparing Annual Reports, accounts, and Annual Returns. It also signposts trustees to other helpful information. This guidance incorporates the changes introduced by the Charities Act 2006 and changes, for charitable companies, brought into effect by the Companies Act 2006 with effect for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2008.

A further update to this guidance will be issued when the outcome of the thresholds review being carried out by the Office of the Third Sector is known so keep a look out. Recent reports sugggest that the new thresholds for unincorporated charities will be:
Charities with an annual income below £25,000 will no longer have to submit their annual accounts to the Charity Commission under plans approved by the regulator. The threshold is currently £10,000. However, the commission intends to introduce random checks for those below the £25,000 threshold.
The threshold for preparing accruals accounts for unincorporated charities will also be raised from £100,000 to £250,000.

Charity Commission guidance on financial controls for charities.

Downloadable pdf (87kb) version of CC8 - Charity Commission guidance on financial controls for charities.

CC16 - Receipts and Payments Accounts Pack based on SORP 2005 for non company charities with income up to £100,000

Downloadable pdf (59kb) of explanatory notes for Receipts and Payments Accounts from the Charity Commission.

Guidance on what charities are required to do by law, in terms of preparing Annual Reports, Accounts and Annual Returns for financial years starting before 27 February 2007.

Downloadable .pdf (224kb) explaining the requirements for an Independent Examination – a less onerous form of scrutiny than a full audit, which may be adequate for smaller groups. The legal threshold for this form of scrutiny is non-company charities with an annual income of less than £500,000. However, some funders will require a full audit even where the gross income is less than this.

A summary guide from HM Treasury containing good practice for funders on issues such as full cost recovery, contract length and payment details. It’s useful for voluntary and community organisations to understand the Government’s vision of good practice for funders.