The form asks for last year's income and expenditure by Friday
It is the email that arrives on a Tuesday with a deadline ten days out. The application form wants last year's income and expenditure, split into the headings the funder uses, and a figure for what your club or charity is putting towards the project. You are the one who has to produce it, probably in the evening, probably with a cash book that was last tidied in March.
Most small grant forms ask for the same handful of things: a summary of the last financial year, the current balance, the amount requested, and whether other money is already in place. Read the guidance notes before you start. Funders often say which year they mean, whether they want figures before or after any restricted money, and whether they want a copy of your latest accounts attached. Those details decide which numbers you pull.
Pulling the figures from the cash book, with the prior-year comparison
Start with the cash book, not your memory and not the bank app alone. Income and expenditure is only as good as the records behind it. Each line should match a receipt, an invoice, a bank entry or a membership record. If the bank reconciliation for the year is not finished, finish it first. A funder who sees a balance that does not agree with the bank statement will ask questions, and you will spend a month of evenings answering them.
Group the lines under the headings the funder uses, and keep a note of anything you moved between headings. Many funders ask for a comparison with the year before, so a prior-year column helps. It shows whether income has been steady, whether one large event carried the year, or whether a gap is a one-off. Give the figures in whole pounds, label the year clearly, and check that the totals add up to the closing balance you will quote elsewhere on the form.
Keep the working. If you had to estimate a figure, write down how you got it. If a donation arrived late, or a grant was paid in two parts, add a line in the notes. The person who checks the application, or the chair who signs it, may ask where a number came from. A short note answers that in a minute, where a missing note can take an evening to reconstruct.
If your books are in Vasker, the income and expenditure report can show the prior year alongside the current one, so you are not building that comparison by hand. Check the figures against your bank statement before you use them, all the same.
Showing match funding honestly
Many small grants ask whether you can match the award, in cash or in kind. Match funding means money or support you have committed from another source, and the funder will want to see it. Be precise about what is confirmed and what is hoped for. A pledge agreed at a committee meeting is different from a sponsor who has said they might help, and both are different from volunteer time. Put each in its own line, with a status: confirmed, pending or in kind.
Do not add in money you have not got. Do not count the same money twice, for instance a sponsor's donation that is also the thing you are asking the funder to match. If your match is volunteer time, state the hours and how you worked them out, and keep a log as you go. The funder decides whether to accept in-kind support. Your job is to describe it truthfully and with enough detail that someone else can follow it.
Grant matching is where the spreadsheet tends to break. There are several sources, several confirmation dates, and a funder who wants a total at the bottom of the page. Vasker's Standard plan, at £59 a year, includes grant and funding match tools, so you can record each source against the project and see the total before you type it into the form. Whether any of it helps your application is a matter for the funder, not for the software.
Keeping a record of the award as a restricted fund
If the grant is awarded, set it up as a restricted fund straight away. A restricted fund is money that can only be spent on the purpose the funder gave it for. Keeping it separate means the cash book shows what is left for that project and what is free for everything else. It also stops the grant being spent on the Christmas raffle prizes by accident, which happens more often than anyone admits.
Record the award with the funder's name, the amount, the date you received it, the purpose as written in the grant letter, and any conditions. Some grants are paid in instalments, and some require spending by a set date or a report at a set point. Put those dates in the fund details now, not in your head. Check the grant letter and the funder's terms for what can and cannot be spent on. If the rules are unclear, ask the funder in writing and keep the reply.
Vasker's free plan includes a starter cash book with one fund, which is enough for a single small grant if that is the only restricted money you hold. Once you have more than one fund open at a time, you will want the fuller cash book. The principles are the same either way. The money is in the account, it has a stated purpose, and every spend line can be traced back to that purpose.
Reporting back without a second spreadsheet
Most funders want to hear how the money was spent, usually at the end of the project or on an agreed date. You can avoid building a second spreadsheet by writing the report from the restricted fund you already keep. Give each spend line a short description and a purpose, so the report becomes a filter on the cash book rather than a rebuild from memory.
Keep receipts with the lines they support. Note any changes to the plan as they happen, and tell the funder early if the project has moved. Funders generally prefer an honest update to a surprise at the end. If the grant is not fully spent by the date set, ask the funder what happens to the unspent balance rather than assuming it can roll over.
When the role changes hands, the fund record is what the next treasurer needs most. A clear list of what was awarded, what has been spent, what is left and what is still owed to the funder saves the handover conversation from starting with a shoebox. It is the same kind of handover pack you would give the committee at year-end, pointed at one project.
If your books are still in a spreadsheet, you can start free at https://vasker.co.uk, set up your cash book and create a restricted fund for the award. Move to Standard when you need grant matching alongside the full books.
This is general information for volunteer treasurers, not legal or tax advice. Check the funder's own terms, and the guidance from the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI for your organisation. Vasker cannot guarantee that any application will succeed.