The question usually comes at the first committee meeting after a handover. Someone asks whether the books are CASC-ready. The outgoing treasurer says they think so, the chair nods, and nobody writes down what the phrase means. Six months later the new treasurer is still guessing.
This guide is for the volunteer who now holds that role. It is about the accounting records you keep and what you can show when someone asks. It does not cover whether your club qualifies. That is a question for current HMRC guidance and the Sport England guidance that applies to your club.
This is general information for volunteer treasurers, not tax advice. Check current HMRC guidance on community amateur sports clubs (CASCs) before you rely on anything here, and take advice from an adviser if your club's position is unclear.
Check what the current guidance expects
Start with the rules themselves, not with last year's spreadsheet. Read the current HMRC guidance on CASCs and note the points that touch your books: how the club's income is described, what must be kept, and what HMRC may ask for. Then read the Sport England material that applies to your club, because it sets out what a sports club is expected to show about its activities and its members.
Write down the date you checked each source and the name of the person who checked it. The next treasurer will want to know which version you were working from.
The records to keep through the year
The cash book is the spine of everything else. Every movement of money should appear in it once, with a date, a description, a category and a reference to a receipt or invoice where one exists. Bank reconciliation should happen monthly, not once a year. If the cash book and the bank statement disagree by a few pounds in March, the gap will be much harder to find in December.
Keep receipts in one place. A labelled box works, provided each item is numbered and the number is written in the cash book. Save bank statements and any online payment reports alongside them.
Separate your income streams from the start. Subscriptions, bar takings, event income, donations and grants should each have their own category. Bar and event income are often mixed into one 'sundries' line. That makes it hard to answer a simple question at the AGM about where the money came from, and it makes the year-end harder too.
Keeping restricted funds and grants visible
Some money comes with conditions. A grant for new equipment can only be spent on that equipment. A donation given for a specific junior programme is not general money. Deposits for pitch hire or kit orders may be committed before the bill arrives.
Keep a simple fund list. Each fund needs a name, a source, a balance, any conditions, and a note of anything already promised. The Free plan on Vasker gives you a starter cash book with one fund, which is enough to see the principle working. If your club has grants or several restricted pots, Standard covers full books, members and reports across more than one fund.
When the committee asks what money is free to spend, the answer should come from the fund list, not from the bank balance.
Membership subscriptions and Gift Aid
Subscriptions are the income line most often misunderstood. A membership fee does not always qualify as a donation for Gift Aid. Where a member receives a benefit in return, such as access to facilities, the amount may need to be split, and in some cases the whole fee may not qualify. HMRC's current rules on membership benefits set out how this works, and they change from time to time, so check them before you assume.
If your club does claim Gift Aid on any part of its income, keep the declarations and the list of donations they relate to. Write down how you decided what qualifies and why. An examiner or HMRC will ask how the figure was reached, and 'we always did it this way' is not an answer.
For donations that are genuinely separate from membership, the Gift Aid gap calculator at https://vasker.co.uk/gift-aid-gap-calculator/ gives a rough planning figure. It is free and needs no account, but it is an estimate for planning, not a claim.
Year-end for a CASC
The year-end pack is where the cash book either helps you or lets you down. Prepare an income and expenditure account with the prior year beside it. The committee will ask why a line has moved, and the prior-year column answers most of those questions before anyone asks them.
For the annual return figures, use the same categories as the cash book so the numbers can be traced. Keep a note of any adjustment you made and why.
When an independent examiner or auditor asks for documents, expect to provide:
- the cash book for the full year, exported or printed
- bank statements and the signed reconciliation for each month
- the receipts index, with numbers matched to cash book entries
- the fund list and any grant conditions or letters
- Gift Aid declarations and the donations they relate to, if you claim
- the minutes where the committee agreed the budget and the accounts
No tool can promise an examination with no findings. What it can do is make sure the answers are in one place.
Handover note: where the rules, logins and decisions live
The handover is the part most often left until the last week. Write one document that the next treasurer can open without you in the room. Include where the cash book lives, where the receipts are, how the bank reconciliation is done, and which categories mean what.
Record who holds each login, such as online banking, Charities Online and HMRC accounts, and how access is recovered. Do not put passwords in the handover note itself. Note who can reset them and where the recovery details are kept.
Also keep a short decisions log: why a category was created, how a borderline subscription was treated, and what the committee agreed. Vasker's Treasurer handover ZIP on the year-end pack brings the cash book, fund list and notes together for the next volunteer. Plus claims are sent using the organisation's own Government Gateway login, typed at submission, and Vasker does not store that password.
Checklist for the next committee meeting
Take this list with you and tick what is true for your club:
- We have checked the current HMRC guidance on CASCs and noted the date.
- We have checked the Sport England guidance that applies to our club.
- The cash book is reconciled to the bank every month.
- Every receipt has a number that appears in the cash book.
- Income is split into subscriptions, bar and events, donations and grants.
- Restricted funds and committed money are listed with their conditions.
- We know which subscriptions, if any, are claimed for Gift Aid and why.
- The prior-year comparison is ready for the income and expenditure account.
- The handover note says where the rules, logins and decisions are kept.
If most of these boxes are ticked, the books are in a state the committee can understand. If not, start with the cash book and the reconciliation. Those two make everything else easier to answer.
Create your free account and start a clean cash book with one fund, or keep your current spreadsheet and move the checklist into it this week.