pickles37 Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 Hello all, Looking for advice and i am fairly confident that I am not alone in this. WE are a committee run setting and over the years the interest from parents has diminished, we have a committee of 10 and yes this sounds good, but only a couple are proactive. We have a lot going on and a lot of decisions need to be made and most of them begin or end with finances, which we seem unable to grasp and keep consistency in this area. Our current treasurer is also stepping down in August and although we have advertised and asked parents about the role, there is no interest. However I did wonder if we can pay for an accountant or bookkeeper to carry out this role? Has anyone ever done this, does it work? was it expensive? Any thoughts and advice would be very welcomed. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calicojo Posted May 8, 2018 Share Posted May 8, 2018 We have a paid person who deals with our finances and we're a committee run setting. Who is doing all this for you now? I can't imagine a committee member would be prepared to take it on, and sorry, but I have far too much else to do as the manager, although I do oversee the budget, deal with funding etc. She just gets paid min wage or slightly above, same as some other staff members. A local firm of accountants deal with the wages for her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickles37 Posted May 8, 2018 Author Share Posted May 8, 2018 Thank you for reply. We do have an administrator for 16 hours a week and she does complete some of the leg work for funding and invoicing, we also use QuickBooks (although early days). But it is the work on budgets and the other financial tasks such as purchases, reports, forecasting and budgeting. Do you have an administrator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Hi, I’d think you can pay who you want, these are my thoughts.....are you a very big setting? Is your manager completely in ratio? as I’m wondering what the Admin person does for 16hrs a week to also need a separate finance person, are they jobs the manager could do with some hours out of ratio (we use PSLA payroll, as manager I email a monthly wage adjustment, it all comes back within a couple of days, I pay wages, paye, pension from their figures and the cost is minimal compared to a weekly finance person) ...I know committee settings run very differently and it is about finding what works best for your setting, especially the cost implications. Hope you get it sorted :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 So just FYI i have an administrator who works 2 mornings in the office and the others at home. She does all the wages and pensions/ bookkeeping and bills chasing invoicing placing orders if required, deals with enquiries, writes letters for me. I sort out rotas /staffing issues/website and a few other minor bits. We work on budgetd together ... we have up to 60 children on the role (or though less since the 30 hours came in) There is no way i could do this without an administrator...she is worth her weight in gold and in the first year saved us several thousand pounds !! we have an accountant who does the end of year and charities commission stuff which costs us around £1000 per year 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickles37 Posted May 9, 2018 Author Share Posted May 9, 2018 Hi Finsleymaid, how many hours is this for per week? I am in ratio due to reductions of children in September, although increased numbers now, my hours have stayed the same as we are predicting a loss. Mouseketeer - we may not need a separate finance person we need to sort out a lot of things in our committee so that myself as manager and the team can run the setting and feedback to committee - but it's not working as they are still to involved. How does your management committee operate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 14 hours ago, finleysmaid said: So just FYI i have an administrator who works 2 mornings in the office and the others at home. She does all the wages and pensions/ bookkeeping and bills chasing invoicing placing orders if required, deals with enquiries, writes letters for me. I sort out rotas /staffing issues/website and a few other minor bits. We work on budgetd together ... and apparently this morning dealing with awkward twits parents who choose not to pay their bills when they should have paid them several weeks ago and are now trying to change their childs hours She does 15 hours a week ...i'm an on the floor manager! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 9 hours ago, pickles37 said: How does your management committee operate? In the background is probably the best way to describe their involvement 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 14 minutes ago, Mouseketeer said: In the background is probably the best way to describe their involvement sometimes the best way! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreveryoung Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 We have an admin worker who works in setting for 21 hours per week doing registers, timesheets, new starters, waiting lists, call of absence, paperwork required by staff, invoices, parents online banking, all funding, ordering, and much more. then a finance officer who works 10 hours per week from home doing banking, arranging wages, liasing with accountant, book keeping. The treasure who is a volunteer just oversees the finance officer and checks that they are doing things like submitting quartly reports. The secretary (volunteer) submits companieshouse reports and charities commision the fee for submission is 13 pounds. Then our accountant does our annual report and books for £300. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickles37 Posted May 10, 2018 Author Share Posted May 10, 2018 Thank you all for your help - Hi Foreveryoung - your comments fall inline with what we would like to do, it is just how to get it into place. Who do you use for online banking?? We are experiencing difficulties with our banking and our committee are instigating online banking, but it has taken about 18 months and still having problems with signatories. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreveryoung Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 We advertised for the finance officer role and they attend the committee meetings and also advertised for the admin role. We currently bank with Unity Trust and have so many committee members as signatories who can also authorise payments and then myself and admin can see bank, put payments on but not be the second authorising person or sign cheques. We have found though their fees are getting steep so we have a great committee member who is finance trained in his line of work he digged around and we are in the process of moving to CAF bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1403 Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 We have a paid bookkeeper and administrator. Book keeper does all our acocutns and staff wages/HMRC/payroll. However our treasurer (volunteer) does the budgeting and authorises payments. Book keeper is outsourced and we pay a £15-17 a hour and does about 6 hours a month. Administrator is employed by us at around £8 a hour and does about 20 hours a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motherclanger Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 Hi I thought that you couldn't have a paid officer on the committee? We have an admin person, and also a Book Keeper/ Accountant that does end of year accounts, PAYE etc. We are struggling to find a Treasurer too, unfortunately we can't afford to pay some one to do forecasts, budgets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C1403 Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 Our treasurer isn't paid. Our bookkeeper and administrator are but they aren't on the committee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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