Financial Management of Grants
Recipients of our funding would be expected to maintain adequate financial records to ensure that the grant is used for the sole purpose intended and managed effectively.
We do realise that things may change within the grant period. If a group experience this, we encourage them to contact their Grants Officer named in grant offer email, who will guide them through the process of changing the grant purpose (where possible).
Where grants are issued in instalments, subsequent years' funding will be subject to successful monitoring / verification of the previous year.
Financial Information Required to verify your grant
1. Bank Account
- You will need a bank account into which we will pay your grant funds. We pay upfront, on an annual basis so that you should not experience any cashflow issues when running your project.
- We do not expect you to open a new bank account for this grant. However, the bank account you use must be in the name of your charity.
- We expect your bank account to have a facility for making cheque or BACS payments. You must not issue payments by cash.
2. Invoices
- Please keep original invoices for all payments made with your grant. Invoices must be dated after the start date of your grant, which is the date of your grant offer email. Retrospective payments are not acceptable. Invoices must contain date, invoice number, address of supplier, address of your charity, full details of service/product itemised and total invoice with VAT breakdown.
- It would be useful if you could write the cheque/BACS number on the invoice, so that payments can be easily reconciled.
- Where we are supporting an apportionment of overheads, you must supply your apportionment calculations.
Please note: If an invoice is supported by a number of funders, one invoice must be presented to all funders.
Please retain quotations sought for inspection, where applicable.
3. Bank Statements
- You Grants Officer will need to check payments leaving the bank. Please keep original bank statements relating to the grant period.
- It would be useful if you could mark your bank transactions relating to our grant in a specific way (some charities choose to write ‘Halifax’ beside such transactions.)
4. Salaries
We may have issued your grant towards an employee’s salary. We would expect that you keep the following records to allow us to vouch the salary:
- Payroll record for the grant period
- Payslips
- Timesheets (if supported by a number of funders)
- Bank statements showing wages leaving the bank
Please note: If the post is supported by a number of funders, one payroll record must be presented to all funders.
5. Volunteer/Staff Expenses
- Mileage claim forms must be completed for each volunteer/staff members. This must include claimant’s details, journey details, and reason for journey, miles and mileage rate. This must be signed by claimant and countersigned by an authorising signature such as a line manager/volunteer coordinator.
- Expense forms must be kept for any expenses incurred. All receipts must be attached. This must be signed by claimant and countersigned by an authorising signature such as a line manager.
- Paying flat rate expenses to volunteers is not acceptable without prior discussion with your Grants Officer, nor is payment of volunteers for work carried out.
Should you need clarification on any of the above points, please contact us at grants@halifaxfoundationni.org and a member of the grants team will get in touch with you.
