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Funds and collecting money In – A guide for section leaders

Receiving money

All cash received at weekly meetings needs to be recorded by the leaders in the section and a cash receipts record book should be maintained.  Best practice dictates that receipts should be provided to parents/guardians, sponsors, etc. The cash collected, together with the summary information, must be provided to the group treasurer on a regular timely basis to be paid into the relevant group bank account on receipt.

You may need to hold cash briefly so a good solid cash box will ensure that there is no risk of group and personal money becoming mixed up.

Always issue a receipt (and keep a copy). Your copy will act as a point of reference should you or others need to raise a query. Include sufficient details on the receipt or accompanying documents so that at the end of the year checks can be made easily. Include the receipt number against the bookkeeping entry.

Collecting money in for day trips, camps and membership subscriptions and keeping an accurate record of it all can be a logistical nightmare, but if you follow these simple steps it will become a much simpler task...

Remember – all monies you might handle are not yours but belong to someone else!

Dos

  1. Buy an account ledger book or start an Excel spreadsheet and keep a page for each event you expect to receive money for, that way you simply need to place a tick next to someone’s name, to say that they have paid.  Keep you accounts up to date according to your treasurer’s requirements
  2. Use money you receive only for the purpose it has been entrusted to you for
  3. Use your group treasurer and pay money into him/her as soon as possible after you receive it
  4. Produce a finalised account for every activity you run

Don’ts

  1. Put any monies into you or anyone else’s personal bank account
  2. Spend money thoughtlessly
  3. Leave large sums of money collected in hang around your meeting place or at home
  4. Make flippant remarks about money in front of others

 

Collecting annual membership fees

The Scout Association carries out an annual registration and census in January. It does so in order to establish the number of young people and adults in scouting – by section, group, district and county. The numbers identified in the census are used as the basis for the renewal of the group’s registration and payments of the annual membership fee.

Scout group are required to pay the annual membership subscription which, is normally during April. There is usually a discount for prompt payment. In addition to the national membership fee there traditionally a levy charge by both the district and county to cover the costs of the support they provide.

There are a few different methods that groups across the county use to collect/raise this: these include:

  1. part of a regular (weekly, monthly or termly) subscription paid by members

  2. paid annually by members

  3. raised as part of general group fundraising

The key point to remember is that the money must be paid to secure membership of The Scout Association and the corresponding benefits, such as insurance, for the coming year.