Financial Reviews

Every society is required to submit a financial review as part of the annual affiliation required to remain registered and affiliated with the USU. You can find the necessary templates for the Financial Review, and a checklist with more detailed instructions on how to complete it, on the Resource Library of the executive portal.

Financial Year End (FYE)

Your club’s financial year end (FYE) is described in your constitution and for almost all clubs, will be the last day of the month 2 months before your AGM Month. This means outgoing Treasurers are required to complete the financial review before the AGM and report upon it at the AGM, where as incoming Treasurers will begin their term 1-2 months after the financial year has begun. 

For this reason and more, it is vital to ensure you obtain all financial documents covering this period from previous Treasurers. Records must be maintained for at least seven years. 

What to submit:

• a completed Cashbook
  — provides an outline of the expenditure and income in the past financial period
  — describes every flow in and out of your society bank account
• Bank Statements covering the entirety of your financial period
• an Audit Executive Declaration, signed by whomever completed the Financial Review
• any sponsorship agreements for your society from the past financial year
• any receipts or invoices for expenses listed in your cashbook
  — if you do not include your receipts in your submission, the Clubs Team reserves the right to ask for these at any time.

In rare cases, clubs may have more than one bank account during a financial period. In this case, you should prepare a separate cashbook (+ bank statements) for each bank account.

Things to remember

• CASH
  Always bank cash amounts immediately after events so that you can keep track of it. Cash should not be held over from one event to provide a float at another event, or to pay for expenses.
  Cash floats must be recorded in your ledger when they are withdrawn and then deposited back. After the event, the float plus any revenue will be banked together, but record them separately in your ledger so you can see the float has been returned.
• REIMBURSEMENTS:
  Whenever a member purchases an item on behalf of the club, they must be reimbursed immediately from the club’s bank account, after supplying a valid tax invoice and requesting a refund in writing.
  Never reimburse a member using cash.
  Always reimburse according to a receipt, and it is better to reimburse one receipt at a time.
• FILL CASHBOOK REGULARLY
  It's recommended to fill out the cashbook after each bank statement, that way your society is not tackling the entire financial year after the FYE period ends.

I need assistance!

The Clubs Team is available to help you! If you need assistance with

• getting in touch with previous treasurers
• putting together your financial review
• treasurer questions throughout your term

please reach out to us by email, at [email protected] with specific questions or requests.