Common Finance Mistakes
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Contents Contents
2
Introduction
2
Income
3
Expenditure
8
Invoicing
19
Introduction Time and time again the Union Finance Department encounters many similar mistakes when dealing with Club, Society & Project financial matters. This booklet provides examples of the most frequent errors so that hopefully you can avoid these mistakes.
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Income Example 1: Income Forms Submitted Late In this case, money was paid to the bank on 19 March, but the Income Form was not handed in until June.
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Income cont... Example 2: Donations When income for a donation is received it must be accompanied by a letter to confirm it is a donation, otherwise VAT will be incurred.
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Example 3: Correct Donation Letter This is a good example of letter confirming a donation.
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Income cont... Example 4: Refund of Deposits If a deposit is paid and then refunded to your Club, Society or Project as a cheque, this requires paying in to the bank. This is a good example:
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Example 5: Adding-up Cheques/Cash on Paying-in Slips Make sure that the cheques and cash being paid into the bank are added-up correctly. This is an example of what happens if this is not done correctly:
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Expenditure Example 6: Correct VAT Invoice This is a good example of a VAT invoice:
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Example 7: Ensure Claim Form Totals are Correct & Obtain Proper VAT Receipts Make sure to add the amounts correctly. In this case, the claim was not added properly hence the cheque was written out for ÂŁ25.79 instead of ÂŁ39.24.
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Expenditure cont... Also note that you should always get proper VAT receipts or invoices when you make a purchase. The ones below are not VAT receipts as they don’t have a detailed breakdown of how much money is VAT. By law, suppliers are supposed to provide VAT receipts so can always demand one if you are not automatically provided with one.
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Example 8: Two Requests for Payment A request to use the Union Credit Card and a request for a cheque for the same payment. The company would have been paid twice.
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Expenditure cont...
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Expenditure cont...
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Example 9: Correctly Filling in Forms Make sure the amounts on the Claim Forms and Invoices are the same. In this case, the cheque was written for a different amount.
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Expenditure cont... Example 10: Invoices with Purchase Orders Make sure that the Invoices received do not exceed the value of the Purchase Orders. This will be handled in the future by the eActivities PoP system.
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Expenditure cont...
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Invoicing Example 11: Contracts Make sure that sponsorship contracts are signed and that a signed copy is retained by the finance department.
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Invoicing cont...
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Invoicing cont...
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Other Example 12: Club, Society or Project Invoices Invoices should only be issued from Imperial College Union. Clubs, Societies and Projects must not create and send their own invoices.
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Example 13: Misspending Money Do not pay your tuition fees using Club, Society or Project money!
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Other cont...
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