Frequently asked questions about finance

Clubs & Societies who receive Union sponsorship have a sponsorship account, held within the Students’ Union finance office from which you can spend the money allocated to your group in your Union Sponsorship.

Clubs & Societies are free to approach external companies to see if they can get sponsorship for their group. However, the Union must sign any agreements, not the committee. There are also some restrictions on what external companies can provide as sponsorship and what you can offer to do as a group for them. For more information on all of this and a contract template, please use our External Sponsorship Guide.

Every Club and Society also has a fundraising account, held within the Students’ Union finance office into which membership fees are paid after the membership deadline along with any funds raised for your activity throughout the year.

Every Club & Society with an account set up within the Union is allocated with a 3-digit account code. The fundraising account is denoted by the 3 digit account code plus 64 and the sponsorship account code is the 3 digit code plus 63. Please contact your key staff member if you are unsure of your code.

Your key staff member will be able to advise you how much money you have in your account or email you a full statement for the year. Alternatively this information can be obtained by visiting the Finance Window, on weekdays between 11am & 4pm. The Finance Window is located in the Union Offices above the Ember Lounge at College Road.

Each Club or Society account is the responsibility of at least 3 elected committee members of that group who act as authorised signatories. Authorised signatories must be agreed at a formal committee meeting and this decision must be recorded in the minutes. At the start of each academic year full contact details and signatures of the authorised signatories must be submitted to the Student Activities Department before any transactions can be made. This information will be used to check that transactions are authorised correctly.

Click here for further information. If you need to collect money from another organisation via an invoice, come and speak to your key staff member.

Claim forms are used to claim back money that has already been spent where the original expenditure could not be made using an order form. Examples of the correct use of a claim form would be to re-claim petrol expenses (payable at 20p per mile) or to claim back money for items purchased in a shop.

An order form must be used for all other transactions, in particular kit & equipment or transport orders payable to a company. Please do not pay for items using your own money as we can not guarantee that funds will be re-imbursed at a later date.

All claim forms must be authorised by the Student Activities Co-ordinator. Authorisation will only be made where the request is:

- To fulfil the aims & objectives of the Club or Society
- Beneficial to all members
- To pay reasonable costs (The Student Activities Co-ordinators reserve the right to request evidence that 3 quotes have been obtained to check that the most economical option has been selected)
- Submitted on a correctly completed form which is authorised & signed for by 2 authorised signatories from the Club or Society (NB the person in receipt of the money must be different to the persons authorising the transaction)
- Being drawn against sufficient cleared funds (Allow 7 working days to draw against company cheques paid into the account)

The Finance Window is open on weekdays between 11am & 4pm and is located in the Union Offices above the Ember Lounge at College Road.

The membership deadline this year is at 11:59pm on Sunday 9th October 2011. People can still sign up after this date but they won’t count towards the membership target for your group.