What the searcher is trying to do
It is usually a few weeks before the AGM. The bank statement is on the kitchen table, there is a shoebox of receipts, and somebody on the committee has asked whether the accounts can be "the simple sort". You have heard the phrase receipts and payments accounts. You want to know whether your charity is allowed to use one, what it has to show, and how to get from a messy year to a set of figures that will hold up at the meeting and to whoever examines them.
Most people searching this phrase are treasurers of small organisations: a village hall group, a church, a PTA, a Scout group, a community sports club that is also a charity. Few of them trained as accountants. They want a format that matches what actually happened in the bank, not a set of journal entries they have no time to understand.
The first thing to settle is whether your organisation is a registered charity at all. A PTA or sports club that is not registered is not bound by charity accounting rules, though its constitution may still ask for accounts. A community amateur sports club (CASC) is a different case again. Start from your governing document and your regulator's list, not from the format you have heard about.
The UK rules in plain English
A receipts and payments account does what it says. It lists the money that came in and the money that went out during the year, grouped in a sensible way, and shows the balances at the start and end. It does not try to match income to the year it was earned, or show debts owed and owing, in the way an accruals account does.
Whether you may use it depends on your size and where you are registered. In England and Wales, the Charity Commission's rules have allowed a receipts and payments format for smaller charities, with the cut-off set at a level that has changed over time. In Scotland, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) sets its own thresholds, and in Northern Ireland the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) has its own guidance. The thresholds, the wording of the rules and the examination requirements all vary by regulator and move from one year to the next.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Check the current guidance from your regulator and, where you claim tax relief, from HMRC. Read the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI pages for your organisation before you choose a format, and ask your independent examiner, if you have one, which format they expect to see.
Whatever format you use, the records underneath it matter. Keep bank statements, paying-in books, invoices and receipts for at least six years. If you claim Gift Aid on donations, the declarations and the record of each donation have to be kept too. Receipts and payments accounts do not change that.
One practical point: the figures in the account have to reconcile to the bank. The closing balance on your account should match what the bank says, after allowing for any cheques not yet cleared. A bank reconciliation done each month, not once in March, makes the year-end far less stressful.
How this product helps
Vasker is a cash book for unpaid treasurers. You record each receipt and payment as it happens, with a date, an amount, a description and the fund it belongs to. Over a year, that gives you a complete list of the money through the account, which is the raw material a receipts and payments account is built from.
The cash book needs a connection to the web app, so it is not an offline tool. Each account uses two-factor authentication, which is worth turning on if the login is shared by the committee.
Where you have more than one fund, such as a general account, a restricted grant or a building appeal, each transaction is assigned to a fund. That makes it easier to show the committee, and any examiner, where the money came from and where it went. The Free plan gives you a starter cash book with one fund. The Standard plan, at £59 a year, adds fuller books, reports and grant matching. The Plus plan, at £119 a year, adds Gift Aid and Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) claim tooling and examiner access tooling, for organisations that claim relief from HMRC.
Vasker does not tell you which format your regulator requires, and it does not check your figures with a regulator. The year-end tools include an income and expenditure report with a comparison to the previous year, annual return figures, and a year-end balance snapshot that leaves opening balances alone. An examiner pack and a handover pack can be exported when the year closes, so the next treasurer is not starting from a shoebox.
The honest test is whether your figures come out the same as your bank statement and whether the committee can follow them. Vasker is designed to help with that, but it does not guarantee a set of accounts will be accepted without questions.
Next step
If the receipts and payments question has landed on your desk this year, the simplest next step is to see how your own transactions look in a cash book before you commit to anything. You can create your free account from the sign-up option on vasker.co.uk, start with the Free plan and one fund, and enter a month of real figures. Check the result against your bank statement, then speak to your examiner or your regulator's guidance about which format suits your organisation.
If you are not sure yet whether you are a charity, or whether a receipts and payments account is right for you, start with your governing document and the guidance from the Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI. Then come back to the cash book once you know the answer.