I’m not sure it will reduce fraud/theft. I know of one case where a CI was pocketing cash from the Sqn, this new system won’t stop that. Sqn does a bag-pack in local supermarket, ends up with 10 buckets of cash. Only 5 buckets make it to the bank account. If anything I can see some Sqns holding back cash to keep as a ‘running fund’, I get what people are saying about pre-paid debit cards etc but let’s face it, there are ‘dinosaurs’ out there and not just OC’s, Civ Coms are some of the worst with the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ malarky.
I’ve always known Wing Civ Coms to mostly be former Sqn Civ Com members or ex-Wing Staff, looking to reduce their commitment but still wanting to stay involved. Xero is a great bit of software but are we now training people how to use it, I know from my day job that if you don’t know how to use it, you can create more of a mess using it than sticking to a simple spreadsheet (I love people who do that by the way as they pay me to sort it out )
In my first Squadron as a member of staff the OC always kept a slush fund locked in their safe to buy stuff without having to go through the Committee. This was funded from the small surplus that most camps generate etc.
I’ve always done the same, with the difference that my chair/treasurer know about it and keep it ring fenced in the Squadron account rather than a desk draw.
So OC Squadron wants to buy equipment, agrees with Sqn Civ Comm to spend their ring fenced money, only to have expenditure stopped at Wing. Who has right to stop expenditure? Is it just Wing Treasurer or do they have to put through a Wing Committee
Doubt it. Actually could be opposite. Squadron Treasurers have their fingers on the finances (or should have ), add a higher level into the mix and the level of assurance of day to day transactions surely will be less.
Which is what I said I did in the second half of my post that you didn’t bother to quote or possibly even read? (What I actually did was pay it into the Squadron account as I don’t see any need for Cash to be laying about SHQ beyond the canteen).
That isn’t how it works in the ACF. Generally speaking, Coy OCs have no say in how a detachment spends their money. Some detachments have their own accounts, some are held at company level where the money is ring fenced for the detachment (though this model makes grants harder to get, so I don’t recommend it). The only hard and fast rule is that money must be spent on something that will benefit cadets.
This is the biggest negative of the suggested approach in my opinion. Unless Wing committees are going to be significantly my more active in applying for much larger grants, then the ability of individual units to fundraise effectively will be reduced. It feels like noone has actually thought about this from what I’ve read in the documents above.
I (or a combination of me and the CWC) raised many 10s of thousands of pounds for my units via grants and we had a lot of high quality equipment.
I think it’s more to do with applying for local council/MP grants which are intended for spending in their respective area of remit. If the account is for a larger entity, ie. Wing, and they see that on the application then questions may get raised around who is actually benefitting from the grant.
For some grants, they want to know how much money goes through the accounts, as they only give grants to ‘small charities’. These may not now be available as the account will have much more money going though it. Further to that, some grants are for local charities only. I think you’ll get some interesting questions asked if the money is being sent to X wing air cadets rather than the local unit.
What they said. Some grants only give to certain regions, some only if you have less than X amount of money in the bank.
What about those of us with online payment systems and card machines set up? They’ll all have to change because of this too potentially.
How do we pay cash in to the bank if the treasurers or people with paying in books aren’t local? Or if there isn’t a local branch of whichever bank the wing choose to use?
Actually the account won’t matter - if they have 30 separate accounts (they won’t, that would be madness to reconcile) they will still only submit 1 return to the charity commission - and your annual accounts which get submitted to grant makers will show all the income and expenditure of all the sqns.
That will make a difference when applying for grants though.
Certainly the last time I applied for Awards for All they wanted to know how much was in the account. If you’ve got 29 other units money in their that’s going to effect if you get accepted.
I would also suggest that if 2 units with the same bank account apply to the same funding source they are going to say no.
It’s not normally as simple as just how much is in the account. They want to know how much the charity holds. That would include all accounts. Some do it based on turnover of the last year. Again, this will be the charities total turn over, not on an account-by-account basis.
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), add a higher level into the mix and the level of assurance of day to day transactions surely will be less.