Notes to financial Statement for the year ended 31March 2023
1. General Accounting Policies.
a. Accounts are prepared in a simplified format, in accordance with the FRS 102 SORP.
- b. Individual Items valued at over £1,000 are recorded as assets.
2. Fund Accounting
a. All funds held by the charity at the end of the financial year are unrestricted funds for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.
b. The Trustees have not designated any funds for particular purposes.
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Accounting standards
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a. The reporting Period is from 1/4/2022 to 31/3/2023.
b. The accounts are prepared on an accruals basis in line with the SORP. The trustees are not aware of any material departure from the recommendations of this SORP.
4. Statement of Financial Activities
a. Incoming Resources: The incoming funds to the charity are in the following forms.
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Membership fees paid by responders.
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Profits on response operations.
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Donations from various sources.
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A very small profit on the sale of branded clothing to responders1
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b. Incoming from response operations is accounted on an accrual basis from the time the response is occurred.
5. Recognition of Income
a. Under the terms of the SORP, the majority of our income is from exchange transactions (membership, response services, and sale of branded goods) as defined in section 5.5
b. We receive additional income from non-exchange transactions as defined in section 5.6 of the SORP.
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c. Income is only recognised if it is either
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i. Received during the financial year.
Note 1 The trustees feel that subsidizing the purchase of branded clothing is not an appropriate use of charity funds. However, since our responders pay a
membership fee, we do not wish to make a profit from these activities. This is separate from the provision of ‘hi-vis’ clothing/jackets and other PPE as opportunities arise.
ii. Accrued income from generated invoices during the financial year.
d. The trustees are not aware of any restrictions such as performance related conditions, donor imposed conditions, or time related conditions, to any funding not spent during the year.
e. No incoming during this period is from legacies, donated goods, facilities or services.
f. We classify income from our response activities as incoming from contracts for the supply of goods and services in the SORP.
g. Membership subscriptions (and any associated Gift Aid or other tax refund) is recognised as income from charitable activities, since we provide insurance cover and other benefits to members.
h. Investment income is identified as such in the accounts.
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i. There are no insurance claims or other disclosures to be reported.
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Donated goods, facilities and services.
a. Where a member donates their reimbursement for expenses back to the charity, this is accounted as a reimbursement and separate donation.
b. There were no donations other than unrestricted cash during the accounting period.
c. We do not account for time donated my members or trustees in support of the charity as the fair value would be unrealistic. This is in accordance with the SORP. We rely on these activities to deliver our objectives.
d. No other goods, facilities or services were donated to the charity.
- Recognition of expenditure
a. In general, our expenditure is in two areas. The first we classify as operational expenditure, which covers the expenses of operating the charity if no calls are made on our services. The second, which we classify as response expenditure, is expenditure made to respond to an incident. In general, we aim to recover response expenditure plus a profit from the user service, but at the trustee’s discretion we may find this from charity funds if it is within line with our objectives.
b. Other than identified accounts payable, the trustees are not aware of any liabilities to the charity.
- Allocation of costs by activity.
a. The SoFA clearly defines the distinction between response operations and other costs.
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Trustee and Staff Remuneration
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a. We do not employ any full time staff.
b. No remuneration was paid to trustees or members acting on their behalf during 2021-22.
c. No transactions require disclosure under SORP rules.
d. No audit or independent examination or other financial service fees were incurred, other than payment processing charges via PayPal or our bank. We are registered with PayPal as a charity and pay lower fees as a result. Independent examination costs will be accounted for next year.
e. There are no staff costs, emoluments, or ex-gratia payments made during the reporting period.
10. Assets and Liabilities
a. Historically we have shied away from larger asset purchases. However, during 2020-21 we purchased and refurbish an ambulance to use as an Incident Support Vehicle (ISV). This is the only material asset we have and which we are depreciating this asset on a basis of 20% per annum. We have also invested in an Off Road Training site and whilst we do not own the site, have ensured that it supports our training needs.
b. Due to the relatively small sums held, our cash balance is held in a single account. We have reviewed this decision since our cash balance held exceeded £10,000, but feel that maintaining a separate account would generate little additional income given current interest rates.
11. Resources Expended
a. Our membership income, unsolicited donations, and profit on response operations means that we have not spent any money on generating additional income during the financial year.
b. Our charitable expenditure has been more than offset by compensation from the organizations supported.
c. Governance costs are minimal. We will require an independent examination of our accounts for this year, but the costs for this are expected to be minimal.
12. Ongoing financial concerns
a. Since our founding as a CIO in 2014, we have been able to keep ongoing costs at a minimum, and membership numbers have remained relatively constant, though individual members come and go from time to time.
b. Our annual turnover is fairly unpredictable due to the vagaries of the British Weather. We supplement our service charges by charging a fee to our members. The membership fees work out to around £2,000 which is sufficient to cover our fixed operating costs. We believe our reserves policy is sufficiently conservative to cover a period where we experience both a drop in membership and a lack of income from response activities.
c. The sharp spike in income and activity due to Covid in the 2020-21 financial year has tailed off in 2021-22, stabilised in 2022-23 and we expect to remain at pre-Covid levels by 2023-24.
Statement of Public Benefit
The activities of the charity are to provide logistical and transport support to several categories of organisations. Our primary mission is to provide support to Category 1 Responders such as the Emergency Services and Local Resilience Forums where their own vehicles or capabilities are unsuitable for the weather or terrain. This typically includes getting essential staff to/from work, and working with home medical services such as hospice and home and meals on wheels. While we make a charge for this service, for our users it is cheaper and more flexible than maintaining their own capability.
Related to this, we also provide logistical and transport support to other charities and events. If this is for a commercial event we charge for our services and the profit goes towards the running costs of the charity. This helps us by giving our volunteers the opportunity to work together at events and builds camaraderie within the membership.
The public benefit we provide is in these roles ensures essential services can be more resilient at lower cost to the public purse, and improved public safety at events.
The Trustees have read the commission’s guidance believe they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the charity commission’s public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.
2023 2022
Profit and Loss
Hampshire and Berkshire 4x4 Response For the year ended 31 March 2023
Account
Turnover
| Turnover | ||
|---|---|---|
| Donations | 506.97 | 7,904.82 |
| Membership Fees | 2,175.00 | 2,590.00 |
| Merchandising and Gear | 274.00 | 665.44 |
| Other Revenue | 415.25 | 0.00 |
| Response Sales | 8,012.70 | 8,428.90 |
| Training Course Fees | 475.00 | 957.00 |
| Total Turnover | **11,858.92 ** | 20,546.16 |
| Cost of Sales | ||
|---|---|---|
| Comms and Alerting Costs | 1,008.00 | 666.58 |
| Cost of Goods Sold | 6,636.60 | 5,401.75 |
| Direct Expenses | 679.82 | 1,400.90 |
| Merchandise Purchased for Resale | 782.78 | 430.64 |
| Volunteer Training Costs | 463.50 | 549.40 |
| Total Cost of Sales | 9,570.70 | 8,449.27 |
| Gross Profit | **2,288.22 ** | 12,096.89 |
| Administrative Costs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Accounting Software Costs | 291.60 | 246.60 |
| Advertising & Marketing | 189.78 | 404.25 |
| Audting and Examination Fees | 100.00 | 100.00 |
| Bank Fees | 69.96 | 108.73 |
| DBS Check Fees | 320.00 | 248.40 |
| Expenses related to the ISV-non asset | 0.00 | 600.00 |
| Insurance | 480.34 | 480.34 |
| IT Software and Consumables | 27.52 | 0.00 |
| Postage, Freight & Courier | 119.50 | 125.98 |
| Printing & Stationery | 148.43 | 180.55 |
| Travel-National | 0.00 | 50.40 |
| Vehicle Stickers | 0.00 | 434.40 |
| Total Administrative Costs | 1,747.13 | 2,979.65 |
Operating Profit 541.09 9,117.24
Balance Sheet
Hampshire and Berkshire 4x4 Response As at 31 March 2023
Account
31 Mar 2023 31 Mar 2022
Fixed Assets
| Fixed Assets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tangible Assets | ||
| ISV Vehicle Purchase and Build | 2,400.00 | 2,400.00 |
| Total Tangible Assets | 2,400.00 | 2,400.00 |
| Total Fixed Assets | 2,400.00 | 2,400.00 |
| Current Assets | ||
| Cash at bank and in hand | ||
| Barclays Community Account | 26,389.06 | 26,238.16 |
| GBP PayPal | 1,126.08 | 1,069.33 |
| Total Cash at bank and in hand | 27,515.14 | 27,307.49 |
| Total Current Assets | 27,515.14 | 27,307.49 |
| Creditors: amounts falling due within | Creditors: amounts falling due within | one year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts Payable | 80.22 | 106.08 | |
| Rounding | (17.00) | (16.80) | |
| Total Creditors: amounts falling due | 63.22 | 89.28 | |
| Net Current Assets(Liabilities) | 27,451.92 | 27,218.21 | |
| Total Assets less Current Liabilitie | 29,851.92 | 29,618.21 | |
| Net Assets | 29,851.92 | 29,618.21 | |
| Capital and Reserves | |||
| Current Year Earnings | 233.71 | 9,117.24 | |
| Retained Earnings | 29,618.21 | 20,500.97 | |
| Total Capital and Reserves | 29,851.92 | 29,618.21 |