Explanations of Standard Accounting Terms
Accounting Period = This means the financial year (12 month period) that you are presenting
your income and expenditure in. There are no hard and fast rules about when an accounting
period should fall and many groups choose to report their finances between the 1st of April and
the 31st of March as this is when the tax year falls. However, you can start your financial year
whenever it suits you and many groups choose the start date of their first large grant. The only
other requirement is that your financial year must begin at the beginning of a month and end at
the end of the month that falls 12 months later.
Income = all and any money that a group, organisation or project receives within its financial
year/accounting period
Expenditure = all and any money that a group, organisation or project spends in relation to
carrying out its work/objectives
Overheads = overheads generally mean anything you have to spend to run an office or project
like rent, electricity and other utility bills, phone, photocopying and the like. Overheads should
also include any insurance you have like contents insurance and public liability insurances
Other costs = this should include anything that you spend on volunteers that work with you
and includes things like travel to meetings or to sites, etc…as well as expenses for
management committee members to attend management committee meetings. This category
should also include other costs (but not including any staffing costs) such as professional fees
(paying someone to do your payroll or a book-keeper to help with your accounts, or solicitors,
etc…) and other miscellaneous items. Other smaller expenses like tea and coffee, etc… can be
listed here under Miscellaneous.
Staffing = all costs related to employing staff. These should be broken down into the persons
annual salary (and you should put a note next to an entry like this if it is a part time post) and
national insurance contributions paid by yourselves as