The Management Committee
Chair: Bishop Peter - meets quarterly.
The Subcommittees meet both on the same day, two weeks before the Management Ctee:
- The Fabric Sub Committee – (Chair: John Steyn)
- The Finance Sub Committee – (Chair: Dick Ruane)
The Sub Committees deal with all the requests from parishes for fabric or finance matters and make their recommendations to the Management Committee. All items, with supporting papers, should be submitted to the Diocesan office two weeks before the Sub Committee meetings, i.e. four weeks before the Management Committee meetings.
Parish Budgeting
Annually in January each parish should prepare a budget for the following financial year (April – March) with figures under at least these headings:
- Estimated ordinary income
- Gift Aid (i.e. tax rebate) income
- Other extraordinary income
- Routine maintenance expenditure
- Prioritised new project expenditure
- Contingencies
- Annual excess or shortfall of income relative to expenditure
Programmes of planned expenditure with supporting reasons, costing and paperwork should be prepared well in advance for submission to the sub-committees for consideration. A form is available from the diocesan office showing the criteria on which projects are selected and/or prioritised.
Authorisation for projects
When a parish has the necessary funds,
- expenditure up to £1,500 on any one project can be authorised by the Parish Priest;
- expenditure between £1,500 and £5,000 requires permission from the Dean;
- expenditure over £5,000 requires permission from the diocese through the sub- committees and the Management Committee.
(Across the diocese as a whole the cost of projects can easily reach a seven-figure sum. If they were not co-ordinated, the diocese could find itself committed beyond its means. Therefore, even when a parish has the money in its account, any project over Ł5,000 needs authorisation before it can begin.)
When a parish does not have the money in its account, the project needs authorisation and the parish must apply for a diocesan loan.
Once an approved project is underway, it is essential to monitor expenditure regularly, to guard against any overspend caused either by error or by non-approved alterations to the brief.
Loans
Diocesan Loans are interest-free, with an agreed repayment timetable. They are possible because of our system of ‘pooled’ parish accounts. Under this system, parish accounts in credit earn no interest, but the total each day of all their credit balances, while remaining untouched in their accounts, allows the diocese to make interest-free loans to other parishes. The faster the loan is repaid, the sooner another parish can have a loan. If a diocesan loan is given and then grants come from an outside body for the same project, clearly that amount must be repaid promptly against the loan.
The Levy System
Each parish pays a levy to the diocese at the same percentage of their ordinary income. This money is then recycled approximately 48% for central needs and 52% back to parishes.
The 52% which is money given back to parishes is equal for every parish in the form of Clergy Support Allowance paid direct to the parish, Transport Allowance paid direct to the parish and Priest’s Allowance paid direct to the priest.
The 48% is money used
- to meet the national levy from our diocese to the Bishops’ Conference to finance the meetings of the Conference, the Conference Secretariat, our national Commissions and the Scottish Catholic Church’s participation in international bodies. (Each diocese is levied in proportion to its Catholic population);
- to meet our own diocesan needs including: administration, maintenance of the Bishop and the Bishop’s office, education of our students for the priesthood and the diaconate, the on-going formation of our priests, deacons and catechists, our diocesan youth service.
Annual Return
The diocesan financial year (FY) ends on 31st March. Each parish should send a copy of their parish ledger sheets and/or computer printouts, together with a copy of the final bank statement and bank reconciliation to Ritsons, by 30th April.
The parish Annual Return form (which will be provided by the Diocesan Treasurer’s Office) must be returned completed to the Treasurer’s Office before 31st May.
Please note that there is no need to await receipt of your final Annual Accounts from Ritsons in order to submit this form.
Reconciliation of Parish Accounts
In order to comply with charities legislation, both existing and proposed, the diocese has to demonstrate ‘supervision and control’ over its parishes. The quarterly audits by Ritsons fulfil the diocese’s responsibilities under this part of the legislation. Each parish has one quarterly audit in each financial year.
The annual reporting by parishes to Ritsons is a different process from the audit. It will need to continue, as under new legislation which comes into effect in April 2006, the diocese will have to prepare consolidated accounts each year. ‘Consolidated’ means including transactions at parish level, not only at diocesan level. At present Ritsons carry out this task as we do not currently have the capacity in the Treasurer’s Office to undertake this task.
Mrs Shonagh Fraser, diocesan Finance Officer, intends to review the procedures for quarterly audits with Ritsons following the introduction, in 2006, of the standardised parish software. It is envisaged that parishes could e-mail their records to Ritsons. Then sample invoices/receipts could be requested by Ritsons, eliminating the need to submit the present full package.
Gift Aid
Gift Aid is a valuable source of income to parishes both from their regular parishioners and their visitors. It adds nearly 30% to collections and donations. Gift Aid administration is now being handled in the Diocesan Office, which will mean lower charges to parishes than in previous years.
Full information on Gift Aid, and help in promoting it, is available from Joyce Webster at the diocesan office.