It is a leader’s responsibility to manage unit funds and accounts.
When handling unit funds more generally, it’s important that you:
Bank any money received as soon as possible.
Keep the unit funds completely separate from your own money.
Minimise the amount of personal money you use to cover guiding costs and always claim your expenses and regularly.
Keep cash in a safe place, preferably under lock and key - unit funds will probably not be covered by your household insurance policy.
Keep your records up to date.
Keep records secure, remembering to password protect them if you store financial records electronically (GDPR).
CLAIM Gift Aid!
Draw up a budget for your unit’s year expenses.
And never:
borrow or lend money from unit funds
keep more cash in hand than you are likely to need for immediate payments
spend more money than you have.
When using a unit bank account:
Unit funds must be kept in a bank or building society account.
All accounts must be in the name of the unit, for example,1st Brownsea Guide Unit.
Cheques and withdrawals must have two signatures from people who are not family members. It is usually more convenient to have three or more signatories, so two are always available. Signatories could include the Unit Leader, a member of the Leadership Team, District/Division Commissioner or Treasurer.
It may be possible for your banking provider to set up online access to your accounts, allowing you to view your bank statement and also make payments online. Please ensure that when online access is set up that there is a dual authorisation facility included in order to make payments online.
The use of unit Debit or Credit Cards is not permitted as there is no dual authorisation procedure in place at the point that the funds are withdrawn from the bank.
End of Year Process:
Each year, the unit accounts will need to be finalised. This means:
Producing an annual accounts statement
Producing a statement of assets and liabilities
Having your accounts reviewed independently
The Unit Leader is responsible for having the unit accounts independently reviewed annually.
However, it is the role of the local Commissioner (District or Division) to ensure this is done. In many cases, a Commissioner will appoint someone to review all the accounts across their whole District or Division.
You can find out more on the Girlguiding website here.