If a funder asked today where last year’s restricted money went, could your trustees answer before Friday?
Charities that can answer keep the funder relationship simple and the next application straightforward. Charities that cannot spend a fortnight rebuilding last year from bank statements while the board waits. Ardein runs the finance function behind the answer, so restricted funds and trustee reports are current every month.
Three things you would know before the board meets
Answer the funder the same week, from the register
A funding register updated monthly keeps the award, the spend and the evidence in one place.
See which contract your reserves are quietly subsidising
Restricted and unrestricted money is tracked separately, so the real cost of each contract shows.
Walk into the trustee meeting with figures already read
Management information arrives on the agreed date each month, before the board papers go out.
Three decisions charities make blind, and what each one costs
Each of these turned on a figure that existed somewhere in the records and arrived too late to change anything.
- Funder
“The funder asked for a breakdown of how last year’s grant had been spent, and it took us three weeks to put together.”
The next application went in late because the same two people were rebuilding the previous year. The spend was never coded to the award at the time it happened.
- Salary
“We could not show which award paid for the project coordinator, so the post came out of reserves for a full year.”
Unrestricted money covered a salary a funder would have paid for. Payroll had never been allocated across restricted funds month by month.
- Contract
“We took on a service contract at a price that looked fine, and it ate into reserves for eighteen months.”
Supervision time and central overheads were never costed into the price. The true cost only surfaced when the year-end figures were finally prepared.
- Day 90
What it looks like when the answer is in the room
By day ninety the funding register is current, and each award shows what has been claimed and what remains. Restricted balances reconcile to the bank, so trustees read figures rather than estimates. A funder question is answered from the register in the same week it arrives. Year end and independent examination become a confirmation of records already kept.
Year-end accounts, or an answer this week: which one are your funders waiting on?
Both have a place. The question is which one the board and the funders need in front of them.
A year-end accountant
Prepares the annual accounts and the charity filings accurately, once the year has closed.
Answers questions about last year, after the records have been worked through.
Sees the organisation once a year, so a funding gap surfaces months after it opened.
Costs less each month, and for a small charity with one income stream that can be the right call.
A finance function that runs monthly
Restricted balances current each month, so trustees look at this year rather than last.
Funder questions answered from a register that is already up to date.
Payroll allocated across awards while the staff time is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Year end becomes a confirmation of records already kept, with examination readiness built in.
Eight questions a charity should be able to answer this week
Work through them as yes or no. The noes are usually where reserves are quietly going.
- 01
Do you know today how much of each restricted award is unspent?
If the figure has to be rebuilt from bank statements, it is not a figure the board can decide on.
- 02
Can you show which award pays for each salary?
Payroll allocated monthly is what stops reserves covering posts a funder had agreed to pay for.
- 03
Could you send a funder an evidence pack this week?
The evidence should already sit against the spend rather than be assembled on request.
- 04
Do you know whether your largest contract covers its full cost?
Supervision time and central overheads belong in the price before the contract is signed.
- 05
Do trustees see the figures before the meeting rather than in it?
Numbers read in advance produce decisions. Numbers handed out at the table produce questions.
- 06
Do you know what your next application can credibly ask for?
Full cost recovery is an arithmetic question, and the arithmetic comes from the monthly records.
- 07
Would an examination of your accounts find records already in order?
Records kept to a routine turn the year end into a confirmation rather than an investigation.
- 08
Do you know when current awards run out and what the shortfall will be?
The date the money stops is the date the recruitment or fundraising decision should already be made.
Ask your current accountant these three questions about restricted funds, funder claims and the next trustee meeting, and if the answers take more than a week, you have the wrong accountant
- 01Could they tell you today how much of each restricted award is still unspent?
- 02Could they produce the evidence a funder asks for within the same week?
- 03Could they show trustees which contracts are covering their full cost?
Three yeses and you’re fine. Anything else is what the review is for.
Entry 01
What a line-by-line check of your awards tends to turn up
Two findings from onboarding. Both came out of records nobody had questioned for years.
Figures as recorded in client work · names withheld
“”
What changes by day ninety, and what happens before then
A defined onboarding with dates attached, so you know what you will be able to answer and when.
You stop running the handover yourself
We agree the scope, complete due diligence and anti-money-laundering checks, and collect the records from your current accountant or bookkeeper at no separate charge.
Restricted balances trustees can rely on
Bookkeeping complete, bank reconciled, funder income matched to awards, and any gaps in the previous year written down rather than guessed at.
Claims and board papers stop being a scramble
Routines set for bookkeeping, payroll allocation, claims and reporting, with the evidence attached to the spend as it happens.
The funder question is answered from the register
The finance function runs to an agreed timetable: monthly management information, current restricted balances, and records ready for independent examination.
What we run so the answer is already there when someone asks
One finance function for the organisation, scoped to the number of funding streams and how often you report.
Bookkeeping with fund tracking and payroll
Records kept to a routine, restricted and unrestricted money kept apart, and payroll allocated across awards as it is run.
Board pack, funding register and claims evidence
Monthly management information for trustees, a funding register reviewed at each meeting, and the evidence behind every claim kept with it.
Accounts, filings and examination readiness
Year-end accounts and the statutory filings prepared from records that already reconcile, so the examiner receives a file rather than a puzzle.
Where this does not work, before either of us spends the time
We do not take on cash-handling operations, and CIS-dependent construction work sits outside what we do.
We walk away from anything falsified or reportable, and anti-money-laundering checks are completed before work starts.
New capacity is capped at four clients a month, so there is sometimes a wait for a start date.
It does not work when a chief executive cannot explain how the organisation earns, spends and reports on its money.
If you are unsure whether any of that applies to you, the review is where we find out.
Questions trustees and chief executives ask first
Is the review a sales call?
No. It is a worked review of your funding flows, restricted fund visibility and board reporting, with the priority actions written down. It carries a fixed review fee, credited in full against onboarding, and you keep the findings either way.
We already have an accountant. Is this worth doing?
Most organisations we take on already had one. The accounts were usually filed correctly and late in the year, which is a different job from telling trustees where each restricted award stands this month.
What happens with our current accountant?
We manage the handover: professional clearance, records collection, coordination with them and a transition plan agreed around your year end. There is no separate charge for it.
Are we tied in?
The engagement is monthly and the scope is agreed after we have seen the records. If it stops being useful, you say so and we hand everything over in good order.
Can you deal with our independent examiner?
Yes. We prepare and hand over the records, reconciliations and fund analysis the examiner asks for, and we answer their queries directly so your team is not chasing paperwork.
The next funder question, answered from a register you already keep
Start with the review. We look at your awards, your restricted balances and what trustees currently see, then tell you what would change in the first ninety days.