TREASURER REPORT 2017
The profit and loss report attached is only a guide. The accounts are with the accountant and they will produce a more accurate report.
Bank
Reserve Account Balance 28/2/17 £49656.04
Current Account Balance 28/2/17 £32301.57
Income
The income from the levy is £46,549.84 this year. When comparing this with last year there are a few things to remember. In 2015 the Levy was paid late towards the end of our financial year, hence the figure only shows 11 monthly levy payments and therefore there were 13 monthly payments in 2016. Also the NHS made an error in September 2015 and paid us twice. We therefore have an extra £4000.I did try to return this but was unsuccessful. I thought they would contact me about it but they never did.
Sponsorship
Angela is doing a great job at getting sponsorship and the companies are generally good at paying us. However I think we are still outstanding one payment from last year.
Internet Banking
All our banking is now on-line. This has made everything considerably easier for Bruce and myself. It also means that we can both check the account regularly. I am not aware of any problems with the new system of payment.
NHS
I did have problems receiving the levy payments last year so for a few months we did not receive any payments. Fortunately we had enough savings to keep us going. It is now sorted and we are receiving payments regularly again.
Expenditure
In South Bucks we are having problems finding a meeting room. The Holiday Inn has had a change and we are unable to meet in the same place. We are looking at a few options and will make a final decision soon but it looks like we will have to pay to hire a room in future. Also Bruce has advised me that the committee would like to meet more frequently which will also increase our expenditure.
LOCSU have raised their fees to 0.5%.
Constitution
The new constitution has a few minor changes to it regarding Finance. I have made some enquiries about the new wording as apparently, according to the accountants the wording is not correct. The constitution mentions ’the presentation of inspected accounts’. Our last constitution referred to ‘inspected’ as ‘reviewed.’ Apparently Accountants use the wording ‘examination.’ The Accountants suspect it does mean all the same thing but they are not totally sure and wanted clarification. I have contacted Jacque at LOCSU about this and she was not able to answer my query fully. However LOCSU did say that the accounts do not need to be inspected by an accountant but could be inspected by someone from a different LOC. I think this is not new and we decided it would be better to still get the accounts looked at by an Accountant. Last year the Accountants have not charged us for this.
Levy
I will not need to raise the levy at this point in time and suggest that the levy remains unchanged. However as previously explained, our expenditure will increase this year so I would like the ability (as with previous years) to be able to increase the levy if I need to over the next financial year. As the accounts are with the accountants it is difficult for me to work out figures accurately but I estimate that we will spend approximately an extra £3000 for two extra meetings per year, and the increase in LOSCUs fees is costing us an extra £4000. As long as the NHS sight test numbers do not fall we will be able to afford the extra meetings. Fortunately the sponsorship money does cover the bulk of the cost of our educational evenings.