Guides
How to keep a small charity's books and paperwork
The same guides our charities read inside the product, written for a volunteer who took on the treasurer's job because nobody else would. Each one is short, and none of them assumes you are an accountant.
The money
How to record charity spending and keep the receipts
Every payment out, with the date on the invoice and whether the money has actually gone.
How to record charity income, grants and donations
Grants, donations, subscriptions and takings - dated by the day they reached the bank.
Choosing spending categories for a small charity
The handful of headings your accounts are added up under. They are yours to choose.
How to set a charity budget for the year
What you expect to spend and receive, line by line, and when each of it falls.
How to read a charity cashflow forecast
Your budget spread across the months, with what actually happened filled in as the year goes on.
Management accounts for a trustee meeting
One month against its budget, with the year to date beside it, and somewhere to explain the differences.
Recording cash, savings and more than one bank account
Where the money actually is, what is in each, and how to bank the cash without counting it twice.
Your charity financial year and opening balances
The two settings the whole money side runs on, and why changing them changes everything.
The paperwork
Keeping a trustee register, terms of office and DBS checks
Who the board is, when each term runs out, and keeping the safeguarding checks in date.
Where to keep charity policies, certificates and the governing document
Somewhere for the paperwork a funder asks for, with a date to look at each one again.
Trustee meetings, minutes and the action log
The agenda before, the minutes after, and what everybody agreed to do in between.
Charity compliance: renewals, deadlines and reminders
The register of things that have to be done by a date, and the insurance that must not lapse.
Grants
Tracking grant applications and reporting back to funders
Your own list of who gives money, what you asked them for, and what you promised in return.
Running a small grant-giving charity: applications and decisions
A confidential register of who has asked for help, what the trustees decided, and why.
Getting everybody in
Giving every trustee their own login
Who can sign in, what each role can do, and why sharing one login is the thing to avoid.
Try it on your own charity's figures
Everything in these guides is a screen in The Charity Office. Start free and see your own year in an afternoon.