Budgets & Expenditure

Budgets

The MAC is responsible for authorising the MA's annual budget. This could be compiled jointly through the Finance Sub-Committee, separately through Church Committees or a combination of the two. The MAC Trustees may delegate the preparation work but the overall responsibility and final approval remains with the Trustees.

Additional Expenditure Limits

The MAC Trustees have overall financial responsibility for the charity. The overview of budgets will enable this, but it is recognised that there are often unforeseen and unbudgeted expenses that occur from time to time.

Contracts and Services

All new contracts for employments, works and services should be authorised and signed by a Trustee of the MAC. Items approved within the MA budget can be considered as authorised by the MAC.

Individual church representatives to the MAC are also Trustees of the MAC and are therefore authorised signatories for contracts and services. The signatory should, however, check that the item is within the agreed spend limit authorised in the MA budget.

MA Working Agreement

Review of policies and procedures within the MA will need to be undertaken so that common working practices can be adopted throughout the MA, e.g. in relation to expenses of office, management of gift aid claims, employment contracts etc.

Relevant reviews may be referred to the Finance sub-committee to explore and make recommendation to the MAC. These will then be formed into a MA Working Agreement so that all Trustees and Churches are aware of the expectations and agreed procedures within the MA.

A template Working Agreement will be provided to the MAC for their consideration. The Finance sub-committee should be aware of the content of the Working Agreement, in order to reference it in their work.

Thinking about the future...

In addition to monitoring the financial health and operations of the MA, The Finance Sub-Committee may consider more strategic, long-term financial matters on behalf of, and for recommendation to, the MAC, e.g.

• Are there items that may be consolidated to ease the administrative burden e.g. liquidation of small assets, consolidation of investments, consolidation of standard expenses through one MA bank account?
• Are there items that could be consolidated to achieve greater savings e.g. consumables expenditure?
• Are long-term investments held in such a way that the risk vs return trade-off is acceptable to the MAC?
• What level of expenditure is covered by income from planned giving and day-to-day generosity? Is this sufficient?
• Should more people be encouraged to give in a planned way?
• Are there new ways of generating income, e.g. Sum Up donation points?
• Are the current processes managed in line with regulatory requirements and best practices?
• Are suitable financial controls in place to safeguard against fraud?