Finance

Did you know you can now submit your Financial Statement online.

Record Keeping

As a recipient of public money, your group must keep financial records for the facility. This section outlines the requirements for the record keeping of facility funds at a Council facility. You must ensure all volunteers involved in record keeping read this document and understand Council’s requirements to maintain accurate records of community and recreation facilities.

Your group must establish a bank account, record income and expenditure of public money, report GST expenditure to Council, maintain a cashbook and, if you use petty cash, implement a petty cash system.

At the end of the financial year (30 June), you are required to prepare a financial statement of public money including GST information and send an annual report to Council by 1 September of that calendar year.

Financial Statements

Your group is required to produce an annual statement summarising all transactions of facility funds (including all GST information) for the past financial year July 1 to June 30. The summary should document all receipts and payments for the period.

It should set out the opening bank balance plus all receipts (categorised by type) for the year on one side of the statement and all payments (also categorised by type) and closing bank balance on the other side of the statement. This information is a summary of your cashbook for the whole of the year.

Submit your Financial Statement online
You can now submit your Financial Statement online directly to Council.

Banking Accounts

Your group must hold all facility funds in a banking account with a registered financial institution. The account must have the name of the community operating committee or incorporated association with the letters LMCC in brackets thereafter. Two (2) signatories are required, comprising two (2) executive members of the delegated authority.

Any two of the following may operate the account:

• The Secretary
• The Treasurer
• The Chairperson

When choosing a financial institution, you should consider the fees and charges on accounts for non-profit organisations and statement frequency.

In the event you relinquish or Council terminates your delegated authority, you must remit all public funds to Council immediately.

Income and Expenditure

Your group must account for all facility funds received from the hire and use of the facility. Assets purchased with public money are the property of Council and held by you on behalf of Council.

All payments or proposed payments by your group shall be passed by resolution at a meeting of the operating committee or incorporated association and minuted accordingly. You must provide Council with details of any proposal to purchase an item with facility funds that exceeds the value of $999.00.

Your group will receive monthly Debtors Accounts for goods and services received from Council.

Income (Receipts)

Your group must issue a Council receipt for all fees and charges received for the hire and/or use of the facility. You can obtain receipt books by contacting Council.

If the amount is $1000 or over, the receipt must also include the name and address or ABN of the recipient and the quantity, or extent and description of the supply. One copy of the receipt must remain in the receipt book at all times. If cancelling a receipt, retain all copies of the cancelled receipt in the receipt book.

Expenditure

Your group can make payments with facility funds by cheque, direct debit, or debit card, and petty cash. The Treasurer is to record and reconcile all transactions in the cashbook system.

A Tax Invoice for goods or services must be available for payment from facility funds. Under no circumstances may an Honorarium payment be made to an individual for services undertaken at a Council facility. Honorariums are payments of a nominal amount of money to a person or persons for services provided, where the individual presents no tax invoice for payment.

Your Cash Book

Your cashbook is to record income and expenditure on a daily basis or weekly basis, depending on the number of transactions and the amount of money your facility deals with.

It would be advisable to design your cashbook with categories for income and expenditure that suit your needs, to record income (receipts) by type, e.g. hire fees, and total the receipts to provide the bank deposit figure. You are to record the payments in date order by item e.g. advertising, printing and stationery, fees etc.

GST Reporting

After feedback from volunteers managing facilities, and ongoing discussions with Council’s Finance Department, GST reporting is now required annually as part of your Financial Statement due 01 September each year.

GST reporting is an administrative function only for Council’s financial reporting purposes and you are not required to forward the GST amount, as we reimburse the Australian Tax Office for the GST component for the facility on your behalf.

Tax Invoice

For all Hirers requiring an invoice to enable them to raise a payment from their organisation (i.e. schools), complete a Tax Invoice. Once payment has been received, issue a Council receipt from your Receipt Book.

Grants

Most, if not all, funding bodies require applicants to be Incorporated Associations. Therefore, Community Operating Committees are not eligible to apply for grants. As such, grant funds should be held in the club account, rather than the LMCC account, as Council does not hold grant funds unless it is the applicant.

As such, grant money is not to be included in annual financial reporting to Council.

How to reconcile your bank statements

Your bank reconciliation balances your cashbook with the balance on the bank statement. The Treasurer is to obtain monthly statements from the bank and keep the cashbook up to date by recording in the cashbook fees and interest charges appearing on the bank statement. A balance is then extracted (i.e. opening balance and receipts minus payments equals closing balance) and this balance should agree with the amount appearing on the bank statement for the end of the current period.

Differences could be due to deposits not recorded on the bank statement or cheques not presented for payment. It is necessary to account for un-presented cheques.

Additional user group contributions

In some cases where facility income is not sufficient to cover operating expenses, user groups may contribute funds over and above their usage fees. This information needs to be captured through annual financial reporting in both income (for example, "Contribution by name of group/club"), and expenditure.

Breakdown of revenue

Every entry on the statement must be verifiable from the cashbook and by actual receipts and dockets. After your Annual General Meeting, Council must receive all financial statements from the Secretary by 01 September of that year.

Your group can nominate a person with financial knowledge who is not a certified auditor but is independent of the operating committee to review all accounts, vouchers, receipt books, and the like, prior to submitting to Council.

Auditing

From time to time, Council may wish to conduct an audit on a committees finances, focusing on correct administration of fees and charges.

Page Last Updated: 04 Jul 2024