The new chair asks who signed off the hall hire
The new chair has been in post for three weeks. At the committee meeting she asks who approved the hall hire for the spring fair, and whether the payment went out with anyone's agreement. You paid it in March because the invoice was in the post tray and the hall needed a deposit. You remember a conversation with the previous chair. You do not have it written down.
This happens to a lot of small groups in the middle of a year. A Scout group, a PTA or a village tennis club changes its chair, a committee member steps down, and the bank still has the old names on the account. Nobody has done anything wrong, but the books do not show who agreed what. That gap is what the next volunteer, and the examiner, will notice.
A simple approvals note for payments over a set amount
You do not need a complicated system. Pick a figure above which every payment needs a recorded approval. Your committee chooses that figure. Many groups use a round number that matches the level of spend they are comfortable with, and some use different figures for different accounts. Write it into the minutes so it is clear who set it and when.
For each payment over that figure, add a short note in the cash book. Keep it to one or two lines. A useful note records:
- the date the approval was given
- who gave it, by name and role
- how it was given, for example a committee vote with the minute reference, or an email from the chair
- the invoice or receipt reference
The note sits next to the payment, so the trail does not depend on anyone's memory. In Vasker, you can keep the payment and its note together in the cash book, which means the hall hire line and the reason it was approved are in the same place when the next treasurer opens the file.
Two signatories and what to write down
Many clubs and charities require two people to authorise a payment from the bank account, or at least for payments above a set amount. Whether your organisation needs this depends on its governing document and its own rules, so check those first. Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI guidance for your type of organisation is the place to confirm what your committee should do. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
If you do use two signatories, write down the same things each time:
- who initiated the payment
- who approved it, separately from the person who made it
- the date each person approved it
- the method of approval, such as online banking authorisation or a signed form
A common problem is that the person who pays an invoice is also the only person who approves it. That is not always avoidable in a very small group, but it is worth noting in the minutes when it happens, so that the committee can see the arrangement and agree to it.
Bank mandate changes and the handover timeline
The bank mandate is the list of people the bank accepts as signatories on your account. When a chair, treasurer or other signatory changes, the mandate usually needs to change too. The bank will have its own forms and its own identity checks, and the exact steps vary between banks, so ask your branch or check its published guidance rather than relying on this article.
A practical timeline looks something like this:
- Before the change: agree in committee who will be a new signatory and who will stop. Minute the decision.
- At the change: ask the bank for its mandate change form and start the process. Keep copies of everything you send.
- After the bank confirms: update your approvals note template and tell the committee which names now have authority.
- Afterwards: check that no payment has been made by someone who is no longer a signatory, and record any gap you find.
The point is that the change, and the date it took effect, is written down. If the examiner or a new committee member asks who could authorise payments in a given month, you can answer from the file.
What an examiner may ask to see
If your organisation has an independent examination, the examiner looks at your records in a way that suits their own process. The examiner may not ask for the same things every year, and nothing here guarantees that an examination will come back with no findings. What you can do is make the records easy to follow.
For approvals, an examiner may ask to see:
- the minutes that set the approval threshold and any signatory arrangements
- the bank mandate, and the paperwork for any change during the year
- approval notes or other evidence for payments above the threshold, especially for a sample of larger transactions
- where a payment was made without the usual approval, a note explaining why and what the committee did about it
If you keep these in the cash book alongside the transaction, pulling them together is a matter of printing a report rather than searching email. Vasker's year-end pack includes a treasurer handover file and an examiner file, which can be a useful way to pass the approval trail to the next person without rebuilding it.
Start with the next payment
You do not need to fix the whole year at once. Start with the next payment over your threshold and write the note. Then ask the committee to minute the threshold and the signatories. If you want to keep those notes next to the payments they belong to, you can start free and keep the cash book, payments and notes in one place.