Finance Report 2018
Excerpt from Board Annual Report 2018:
FINANCE REPORT Our financial year ends on 5th April, so this report is split between last financial year (which is now complete) and this financial year (which is about halfway through).
Review of the year ending 5th April 2018
We had a total income of £40,439, of which £37,731 was from individual donations. This included £6,400 from our very generous anonymous sponsor, £1,000 from a group volunteer, a £2,500 anonymous donation, and around £7,000 from being featured on Ebay's 'Give At Checkout' in November 2017. The remainder included £761 from Give As You Live, £1,000 in Waste Prevention Grants from Cumbria County Council, and £947 from advertising.
Our expenditure was £42,366. IT costs were £22,128 and we spent £19,072 on media, publicity, volunteer support and fundraising, £610 on the Cumbria Waste Prevention project, £392 on public liability insurance, and £164 on administration. This resulted in a deficit for the year of £1,927, but we had a surplus brought forward from last year of £30,037 so are left with reserves of £28,110, of which £1,894 are restricted for specific costs, and £26,216 are unrestricted.
Review of the year ending 5th April 2019
This financial year, for the five months to 5th September 2018, we have had income of £28,750. This includes £9,700 of advertising revenue, £13,500 via paypal/paypal giving and £3,000 from our anonymous sponsor. Expenditure for the same period was £22,600 - mainly £11.500 on platform maintenance, development and other IT costs and £9,000 on national media work (incl expenses). This means we have generated a surplus of £6,100 and now have reserves of over £34,000.
ACCOUNTS
The accounts for year ending 5th April 2018 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2XP7XMm5yLiY1YtVmJ3Q3ZGQ2l5dmFCbG1WVkU0Ykh4aENV/view?usp=sharing
AUDIT
Request from the Board of Freegle:
The Board would like the AGM to approve the disapplication for a full audit for the Freegle Ltd accounts 2017/18 and and instead accept Independent Examination from a qualified accountant. This would be in line with procedure used previously.
The reason we are asking for disapplication of audit is due to the level of expense for an external auditor and time required from the volunteer Treasurer required for a full audit.
Under the laws governing Industrial and Provident Societies you must have a full audit if you are a charitable society type IPS and have a turnover of over £250,000 or assets in excess of £2,800,000. As we don't get anywhere close to these figures the expense and time for a full audit seems excessive when our transparency is confirmed by a qualified accountant through Independent Examination.
More information can be found in plain English from the Co-op here:
An Audit Tale | Co-operatives UK http://www.uk.coop/blog/lindabarlow/2013-04-29/audit-tale
...and in the legal explanatory note here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/14/section/84
