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You can access the online version here Winter 2018 Newsletter
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All organisations have a goal which they want to ultimately achieve, but to have any sense of achievement, along the way your organisation needs to assess its progress in manageable chunks called objectives.
Fundamental to any plan is the need to set clear objectives or targets for the organisation against which future service delivery and progress can be monitored.
These objectives should be SMART:
Specific – the situation required should be clearly and precisely
specified
Measurable – standards should be set against which progress can be
measured
Agreed – all Management Committee members, staff and volunteers
should agree to, and be fully committed to, these
objectives
Realistic – objectives must be realistic i.e. achievable but not too easy
or too challenging
Time-bound – the organisation must specify a time for completion
The following objectives are clear, precise and measurable:
“We will relocate our services to Derby by moving to suitable premises costing no more than £2,500 p.a. and we will complete the move in six months’ time”
“We will increase the number of Service Users by 15% during the next year”
Ted Cassidy started up CAS here in Derby in 1991, and he worked as Community Accountant until he retired in 1997.
Since then he has continued his links with DCAS in the background, acting as our Independent Examiner, and continuing to offer great support to the service whenever it has been needed.
Ted has now announced his retirement from this role, and we wish both him and his wife Una a long and happy retirement.
In recognition of the important roles that Ted has held in support of DCAS, supported by Una, the Trustees have announced that they intend to appointed them Honorary Presidents of Derby Community Accountancy Service.
To be a charity your organisation must have charitable purposes only. It cannot have some purposes that are charitable and some that are not (legal requirement)
The Charities Act 2011 defines a charitable purpose, explicitly, as one that falls within 13 descriptions of purposes and is for the public benefit.
There is no automatic presumption that an organisation with a stated aim that falls within one of the descriptions of purposes is charitable. This has to be demonstrated in each case.
Purposes that cannot be charitable purposes
Your organisation’s purpose cannot be a charitable purpose if it does not fall within the descriptions of purposes and is not for the public benefit, including if it is:
The 13 descriptions and more detailed information can be found here
National Living Wage & National Minimum Wage:
The government has set a target for the NLW to reach 60% of median earnings by 2020 (subject to sustained economic growth).
Announcements in the Budget include:
Increasing the NLW by 4.9% from £7.83 to £8.21 from April 2019, which will benefit around 2.4 million workers
Accepting recent recommendations by the Low Pay Commission to increase NMW rates from April 2019 as follows:
In order to claim Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) from their employer, a woman must provide proof of her pregnancy from a doctor or midwife. This is usually given on form MAT B1
The MAT B1 certificate:
Doctors or registered midwives must issue form MAT B1 free of charge to their pregnant patients for whom they provide clinical care.
Charity Fraud Awareness Week (22 – 26 October 2018)During fraud awareness week the Charity Commission and the Fraud Advisory Panel will be helping the charity sector become more resilient to fraud.
The main aims of the week are to:
Staff and Trustees receive the award
We were very pleased to pay a visit to this year’s winners of the Andrew Buxton Memorial Award for the best kept set of accounts.
The winners are Bakewell Town and Community Trust, and they made us very welcome at their offices in Bakewell Town Hall. The award was presented by Mrs Janet Buxton.
If you would like details of how your organisation can win next year, please contact us here
By law, if you’re an employer you need to submit an end-of-year report at the end of each tax year to HMRC for each employee you’ve provided with expenses or benefits.
Examples of expenses and benefits include:
There are different rules for what you have to report and pay, depending on the type of expense or benefit that you provide.
More details can be found by clicking here
Use form P11D to send the report to HMRC for each employee and director.
You should not complete a P11D if there are no taxable expenses payments or benefits to be returned for an individual, or if the expenses and benefits have been taxed through your payroll
Employing people – a guide for new employersEmploying people seems a perfectly straightforward matter: hire them, then set them to work, but is it so easy?
Many employers find the list of legal rights and responsibilities daunting. But complying with the law and looking after your staff will make you more efficient and more profitable.
Getting the ‘people’ part of your new business wrong could cost you time, money or lost profitability through: