CERT Ltd

Money Matters Plus

The Money Matters Plus project is funded by the Big Lottery and was launched by CERT in August 2009. The project is an important initiative that could benefit many Voluntary and Community Organisations (VCOs) in the Humber region by helping them improve their financial management skills.

This is a key area in meeting the challenge of sustainability – especially as we enter a period of increasing financial pressures on the Third Sector.

How We Can Help

Our free Financial Assistance Service can help VCOs in a number of ways:

Simple money management, including:-

  • Ways to record income and expenses
  • The types of records to keep
  • Straightforward management reports
  • Keeping records for annual reports
  • Reports for funders
  • Records to help bid for more funds

Particular topics, including:-

  • Employing and paying workers
  • Claiming Gift Aid to boost donated income
  • Structured accounts and annual returns
  • Cash control and bank reconciliations
  • Tax and VAT reliefs
  • Using spreadsheets to record, analyse and present information
  • Full Cost Recovery
  • Trading through your group

And in other ways too:-

  • Helping build on the skills and resources already available in the organisation.
  • Linking them with other organisations that can provide practical help and advice.
  • Providing general advice, information, and pointers to other useful resources.

We can do this on a one-to-one basis, or organise friendly and convenient workshops for several groups to get together and work through common problems.

A further aim of the project is to link private sector companies with VCO groups not only to increase the financial expertise of the latter but also foster better connections between the sectors.