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.
In The Charity Office: Compliance → Compliance register → New compliance item
The two to add first
The insurance renewal and the annual return. Those two catch out more small charities than everything else put together.
Picking the kind of thing tells you where it stands legally - the annual return, for instance, is required of registered charities over £10,000 and of every CIO whatever its income, within ten months of the year end. Policy review, by contrast, is not a legal duty at all, but funders and insurers ask when a policy was last looked at.
How the warning works
Each item has "Warn me this many days before", and it defaults to thirty. An annual return wants two months; a PAT test wants a fortnight. Set it per item, because they genuinely differ.
The date that matters is whichever comes first of Next due and Next review. Overdue means that date has passed and "Last done" is not on or after it.
The "Where it stands" column is worked out from the dates, not from what you chose. Marking something In order in January does nothing once the date passes - the dates always win. The only setting that really changes anything is "Does not apply to us", which takes the item out of the reckoning altogether.
Insurance
Compliance → Insurance is a record per policy: what it covers, who with, the policy number and, required, the date it renews.
Lapsed simply means the renewal date is in the past. There is no grace period and no status field to set - if the date has gone, the cover has gone, and the menu turns red.
Recording the premium and the sum insured each year is what lets you tell next year whether the quote has gone up. Attach the schedule and you have it to hand when a funder or a landlord asks for proof.
Two records, not one
An insurance policy recorded under Insurance does not create an item on the compliance register, and a register item does not create a policy. They are separate on purpose - one is the cover, the other is the job of renewing it - but it does mean both want keeping.
Worth knowing. As well as the coloured badge on the menu, a reminder email goes out before something falls due - to the chair and the secretary for these, and to the treasurer for insurance. It only reaches people who have a login, and how far ahead it warns is set under Settings → Reminders.
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