OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2022-12-31-accounts

Introduction

The PCC’s accounts for the year ending 31[st] December 2022 have been prepared in the usual way on a Receipts and Payments basis using the “Cash Book” program provided by the Diocese of Gloucester.

These accounts have been reviewed and signed-off by a Chartered Accountant, Andrew Matson; we are extremely grateful to him for carrying out this essential task, free of any charge to the PCC.

In this report, please note:

Detailed figures showing the receipts and payments are shown in Table 1. A visual pie-graph is shown in Figure 1.

The main numbers in this text are shown in bold type, these have been rounded to the nearest £100 for clarity and can largely be traced to the figures in Table 1 by their respective paragraph numbers. The 2021 equivalent numbers are shown in parenthesis after each figure and in the final column of Table 1.

This report excludes any financial account of the £20,000 grant received in 2021 from ECLAS (Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science). This grant has now been fully used by Petra and Rob Crofton for the purpose it was intended. Full accounts for this project have been supplied to ECLAS for its use and review. An independent review of these, via the PCC, has not been carried out.

Summary of the Main Points – see Table 1

  1. Total Income – income from all sources including giving, Gift Aid tax recovery, hall rentals, and parochial fees totalled £90,000 (£86,700).

  2. Total Expenditure - including Parish Share, staff salaries, running expenses for the church, centre and churchyard, charitable giving and utility bills was £100,400 (94,700).

  3. The Shortfall over the year was therefore around £10,400 (£8,100), a moderate increase on the loss in 2021, but not dissimilar.

  4. Funding this loss – the PCC transferred £10,000 (£7,000) from its designated Music Fund, via a PCC resolution into unrestricted funds for general church use. A small sum of £300 was also redesignated from redundant designated funds that were no longer required.

  5. Investment Portfio Losses - further losses of around £10,900 (gain of £12,500) were sustained across the entire portfolio due to market conditions following the political and economic turbulence of 2022.

  6. PCC Total Reserves – these commenced the year at £109,400 and finished the year, following these losses, at £88,100 (109,400).

  7. Available Reserves – these are simply defined as those which could be used by the PCC for any purpose and, at the beginning of the year they comprised unrestricted cash of £3,900 and designated cash of £67,500 (total £71,400). By the end of the year the figures were, respectively, £5,500 and £49,000 (total £54,500).

Page 1 of 5

  1. Minimum Available Reserves Level - the PCC’s self-imposed floor of £50,000 was agreed several years ago. It was judged by the PCC, at the time, to be a suitable safety margin to keep the church functioning in an emergency for six months, i.e. it is around half of the PCC’s annual turnover. At the end of 2022 we are only £4,500 above this level but hopeful that our reserves will return to former levels of capital growth. In contrast, those reserves grew by £12,500 in 2021 and by £6,200 in 2020.

Further Detailed Points of Table 1

  1. Giving and Tax Recovery – Planned giving of £35,800 (37,500) and Tax Recovery of £9,900 (£12,000) were both below 2021 levels. But this was more than compensated by increased Collections and Other Giving to £19,300 (£8,300). It was primarily driven by donations to special appeals, especially the restricted Refugee Support Funds and some generous one-off donations by parishioners including £1,000 to a potential new post, see (23) below.

  2. Legacies - none were received in 2022 following receipt of £7,200 in 2021 from the estates of Juliet Bond and Fannie Storr.

  3. Hall Lettings and Parochial Fees - at £12,400 (£8,500) and £7,900 (£6,000) respectively, were significantly up on 2021 levels as church activities returned towards pre-Covid levels. Note that prior to Covid, hall letting income had reached nearly £18,000 pa.

  4. Interest and Dividends – at £2,400 (£2,600 ) fell by £200 as our finances had necessitated selling £10,000 of Music Fund shares, see (4) above.

  5. Donations and Grants (to other bodies) – at £900 (£3,800) fell sharply mainly as a result of a PCC decision not to give our planned £2,000 to Barnwood School as our reserves continued to decline towards our floor level. The majority of the donations we did make were from restricted funds donated for specific causes, especially Christian Aid, after-service coffee donations of £600 and donations to the Royal School of Church Music and to a poor family in the parish.

  6. Mission and Evangelism – at £4,500 (£700) increased sharply from last year as we collected and distributed the cash raised through the restricted Refugee Support Fund and with increased expenditure celebrating baptisms and Petra’s ongoing work with youth groups. More details of the work with refugees will be given later.

  7. Parish Share – this was paid in full at £56,000 (£56,200) – a marginal reduction on 2021. The PCC agreed to delay a small proportion of these regular payments in August until later in the year once we could see our way forward financially and to avoid breaching our reserves floor.

  8. Church, Centre (Cost of Raising Funds) and Churchyard Running Costs - totalled £10,900 (£15,000). This primarily arises from reductions in church centre running costs in 2022 along with reductions in Churchyard maintenance costs and the removal of the majority of music costs into Staff Costs see (17) below.

  9. Administration and Staff Costs – at £21,200 (£14,600) showed a significant increase on 2021 primarily due to the inclusion of the Director of Music’s stipend, see (16) above, staff salary increases, increased normal working hours for Angela from 9 hrs to 12 hrs/week and full payment of holidays whether taken or not for the members of staff with hourly contracts and holiday entitlement.

Page 2 of 5

  1. Repairs to Church Buildings – of £1,800 were the full cost of extending the WiFi into the church via an underground cable; it was funded from the restricted Warren bequest.

Other Points of Interest

  1. Refugee Support Fund – the PCC set up a restricted fund to provide mission and outreach to refugees temporarily resident in the Barnwood area. It collected £3,000 by the end of the year with a further £1,300 collected (both sums include Gift Aid) to provide Christmas presents and lunches for our refugee friends along with members of our church, including Bishop Rachael. To date a total of £3,400 has been spent on items such as cash Christmas presents of £100 to each person, bicycles, helmets and lights, several laptops, baby equipment, travel assistance, mobile phones, drawing equipment and other diverse items for everyday living. The two funds were combined at the end of the year with a total of £1,000 remaining including a hangover of Gift Aid from the final quarter of the year.

  2. Staff Salaries – we raised salaries to all four staff members by 5% from 1[st] April 2022 in line with HMG Living Wage recommendations. Our lowest paid worker was paid £9.98/hr and differentials were maintained.

  3. Card Giving – there has been a gradual take-up of this transaction method. Our SumUp card reader has taken £2,600 this year with around half of this paying for one of the big weddings booked for 2023 with a 1.5% surcharge to cover the card companies’ processing fees.

  4. Easy Fund Raising – this scheme, enables online retailers to donate a small proportion of their sales to good causes if buyers have signed up to the EFR scheme. It raised just £150 this year, a similar sum to 2021. It may not be helped by its bombardment of shoppers with continuous offers once they sign-up to this well-meaning scheme.

  5. Sylvanus Lyson’s Fund – a grant of £17,000 has been agreed from this fund to support the employment of an outreach and communications officer to work alongside the Parish Administrator (Angela) for a three-year period to further the mission of the Church. No suitable applicant has been appointed yet, but one payment of the grant of £600 and a donation from a parishioner towards this post of £1,000 have been received to date. The total of £1,600 is maintained in the PCC’s restricted funds, until required. A second parishioner has offered to donate a further £1,000 per year to further support this new post.

In Conclusion

  1. Overall the PCC’s finances were put under severe strain in 2022, largely due to the Covid pandemic and its effect on congregation attendance and their giving combined with a large fall in the value of investments on world-wide markets. Fortunately, the PCC was able to meet the majority of its financial commitments to its parishioners, its staff, suppliers and the Diocese. Its only exception was that it could no longer donate £2,000 to Barnwood School, or any other charities from its own funds. Some donations were possible from special collections, mainly to Christian Aid from after-service coffee in the customary manner.

Page 3 of 5

  1. Help for Refugees - on the upside, our congregation provided much support to fellow Christians from Iran with a substantial financial support package on their arrival in Barnwood to assist with their work, childcare, travel and leisure activities.

  2. Reserves - the financial consequences of such a tough year is that the PCC’s available funds ended the year uncomfortably close to the £50,000 floor set by the PCC a few years ago.

  3. A budget for 2023 – was presented, discussed and agreed with the PCC by the end of 2022 with the aim to reduce the annual deficit as the economic climate recovers. Its key points are presented below.

The 2023 Budget

  1. Procedure – in the usual manner, the PCC was presented with a draft budget at its November 2022 meeting based on the previous 12 months of actual data with modifications to reflect the anticipated needs of 2023 at its time of preparation. The PCC reviewed and finalised this, with results given in the following paragraphs. It is judged that these figures represent a realistic central scenario. Taking item-by-item they include the following changes.

  2. Giving – up by £1,200 – increase at around half of the current inflation rate (i.e. 5% with inflation at 10%). Also assumes we will lose at least one giver due to moving out of area, etc and maybe more in 2023 with corresponding reduction in giving by around £100 per month. It is hoped that regular giving could improve beyond this forecast as younger members of the congregation start to join the Parish Giving Scheme or use the card giving machine which is now in regular service.

  3. Gift Aid – up by £200 – assumed to remain at the same percentage of giving levels as in 2022 of 21% at the time of preparation.

  4. Fund Raising – assumed to rise to £1,000 from a few sponsored events or similar specific fund-raising activities to be reinstated during the course of the year.

  5. Parish Fees – up by £700 and arising from the 10% rise set by the Church of England for statutory fees and knocked through to other fees which the PCC receives.

  6. Parish Centre Hire – up by £2,200 as a result of increasing all room hire rates by 10% and an assumed increase in the number of bookings by a further 10% over 2022 levels as we recover further from the Covid slump.

  7. Income from Other Church Activities – up by £700 as a result of expanding the activities associated with current monthly coffee mornings, and other social event occasions and organised by the newly-formed Community Events Team (CET).

  8. Solar Panels – new income stream of £2,000 as we receive the full benefit of solar panel generation income as the loan to the Diocese is expected to be paid-off shortly into 2023.

  9. Parish Share – no change from current level of £56,000 . And as agreed by the Diocese.

  10. Barnwood School – no change as no donation possible in 2022.

Page 4 of 5

  1. Salaries and Wages – up by 10% in April as we retain existing staff hours with an acrossthe-board pay increase in-line with the September 2022 inflation figure; the benchmark used in many annual negotiations as the new financial year begins.

  2. Administration – up by £150 with a view to the possible purchase of a refillable inkjet printer to replace the increasingly unreliable office machine. A temporary replacement has been donated for the present. A special fund may be considered in 2023 to purchase a full replacement office machine but this could cost between £1,000 and £4,000 depending on the model chosen.

  3. Churchyard Maintenance – increase by £1,000 as a result of potential extra tree maintenance likely to be required as we have spent little on this except for hedge trimming in 2022.

  4. Other Costs – up 10% or around £1,000 - they include clergy expenses, mission and evangelism, children and youth work, minor repairs, music, cost of trading and routine maintenance but not heating and lighting, see below.

  5. Heating and Lighting Costs – no change – we currently have a significant credit of around £1,000 with the energy companies and fixed price contracts for most of our energy for the rest of the year.

  6. The Results of these changes - are summarised as follows:

  7. a) An increase in income over 2022 by £7,300 (9%) to £87,600

  8. b) A corresponding increase in expenditure by a more modest £3,200 (4%) to £92,800 .

  9. c) Full payment of the requested Parish Share to the Diocese of £56,000. It is equivalent to 64% of total income and represents about one and a half times the level of our budgeted planned income.

  10. d) A forecast deficit for 2023 of around £5,000 to be met from the remainder of the PCC’s available reserves, of £4,900, see (6) above. The majority of this is held within the PCC’s music fund. Sufficient available cash must remain in the main account to accommodate month-by-month cash-flow variances in income and expenditure without breaching the reserves floor for any significant length of time.

  11. e) It is hoped that the PCC’s invested reserves will grow in capital value sufficient to maintain its available reserves above this £50,000 floor.

Bob Hinton – Treasurer to the PCC

Page 5 of 5

Table 1 - Barnwood PCC's Receipts and Payments Accounts - 2022

Notes 2022 2022 2021
Unrestricted Designated Restricted TOTAL TOTAL
£ £ £ £ £
Receipts
Voluntary income:
Planned giving
Collections, donations & other giving
Income tax recovered
Legacies
Activities for generating funds
Magazine/Bookstall sales/Hall Lettings etc
Income from other Properties
Annual Fete/events
Investment income:
Interest & dividends
Income from charitable activities:
Parochial fees
Other incoming resources:
Insurance claims
Gain on disposal of fixed assets
Loans received
Other
9. 35,637 105 70 35,812 37,476
12,558 183 6,597 19,338 8,275
9,664 - 211 9,875 11,972
10.
11.
12.		 - - - - 7,163
12,416 - - 12,416 8,540
- - - - -
387 - - 387 4,353
41 1,545 806 2,392 2,629
- - - - -
7,932 - - 7,932 6,008
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
1,122 736 - 1,858 254
Total incoming resources 1. 79,757 2,569 7,684 90,010 86,670
Payments
Charitable activities:
Donations/Grants to charities
Mission & Evangelism inc Children's Work
Parish Share
Clergy expenses
Church running expenses
Churchyard maintenance
Cost of raising funds
Running costs:
Support costs
Administration costs (inc. staff costs)
Other
Governance costs
Major expenditure
Repairs to church buildings
Repairs to other property
Capital purchases/additions
Loan repayments		 13.
14.
15.
(100) - (843) (943) (3,828)
(422) (808) (3,276) (4,506) (701)
(55,982) - - (55,982) (56,238)
(1,492) - - (1,492) (1,385)
16. (2,838) (1,035) (1,437) (5,310) (5,842)
(429) - (405) (834) (1,849)
(4,781) - - (4,781) (7,350)
17.
18.
(277) - - (277) (72)
(19,044) (1,444) (738) (21,226) (14,622)
(3,110) (156) - (3,266) (2,858)
- - - - -
- - (1,806) (1,806) -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Total resources expended 2. (88,475) (3,443) (8,505) (100,423) (94,745)
Net (outgoing)/ incoming resources 3. (8,718) (874) (821) (10,413) (8,075)
Transfers between funds 4. 10,337 (10,337) - -
Net incoming/(outgoing)resources beforegains 1,619 (11,211) (821) (10,413) (8,075)
Gains on investment assets 5. - (7,151) (3,537) (10,688) 12,465
Net movement in funds
Funds brought forward at 1 Jan 2022		 1,619 (18,362) (4,358) (21,101) 4,390
3,886 67,483 37,998 109,367 104,977
Funds carried forward at 31 Dec 2022 6. 5,505 49,121 33,640 88,266 109,367
Available Reserves 7. 54,626 Not Applicable

*produced using the Diocesan Cashbook v5

BARNWOOD PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT AND NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31[st] DECEMBER 20 ~~21~~

Basis of Accounts

The accounts for the PCC of St Lawrence Church in the parish of Barnwood have been prepared on a “Receipts and Payments” basis using the “Cash Book” accounting program provided by the Gloucester Diocesan Board of Finance for this purpose. The Version Number is V5.2 - 2 issued December 2015.

The final accounts have been independently examined by Mr Andrew Matson. These accounts and their examination are, to the best of the PCC’s knowledge, compliant with the requirements of the Charities Act 1993 and those of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), 2005 revisions.

Robert Hinton

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Treasurer)

Andrew Matson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Independent Examiner)

Approved by members of the Parochial Church Council and signed on their behalf by:

Rob Crofton

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Vicar)

Margaret Seyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Church Warden)

DATE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page No 1 of 7

1. 2021 - Overview

The PCC started the year with total cash and investment assets of nearly £105,000 following a substantial overall loss in 2020 of around £19,000 .

By the end of 2021 it had a significant deficit between income and expenditure of just over £8,000 .

This deficit was adequately financed by a growth in capital assets of nearly £13,000 .

The net effect was an increase in the PCC’s total cash and investment funds by almost £5,000 at the end of 2021 to near £110,000 .

It was helped in its endeavours by some significant upsides compared to 2020, including a reduction in Parish Share, two legacies, ~~a sponsored birdwatch, a~~ dditional hall lettings, additional Gift Aid tax recovery and a sponsored fund-raising event.

There were some downsides too, mainly as overall giving decreased with a much poorer response to the Gift Day request.

The PCC paid its full Parish Share due of over £55,000 following an agreed £9,000 subsidy from a fund known as the Diocesan Stipends Fund. We then overpaid our Parish Share by an additional £1,000 near the end of the year as the likely outturn of its finances became clearer. This reduced the level of this subsidy to £8,000 in response to the Deanery’s request to assist other local churches still struggling with their finances more than ourselves.

The PCC continued to pay its four members of staff at rates comparable with other organisations and in-line with government policy on the “Living Wage”. We also made £800 of payments to staff who could not meet their contracted working hours due to Covid. We were grateful to Robin Jones for agreeing to work outside of his contract (i.e. leading the choir and playing the organ) and took up making video recordings of services for streaming via our website.

The PCC was also able to renew its annual grant to Barnwood School in 2021 of £2,000 which had been interrupted in 2020 due to the large net deficit referred to above.

In conclusion, the PCC’s finances have survived the Covid-related difficulties of 2021 by dint of generous donations, bequests and fund-raising together with large growth in the value of its assets and a reduction by the Diocese in its Parish Share. Total assets actually grew by nearly £5,000.

We enter 2022 with optimism and in the knowledge that the PCC has enough funds available in its reserves to meet the likely budget forecast deficit of £19,000 for 2022 without breaching its self-imposed minimum level of reserves of £50,000 and in the hope that the financial climate will improve further as Covid restrictions lift.

Page No 2 of 7

2. Notes to the Accounts – Receipts and Payments

Table 1 shows the breakdown of virtually all cash that passed through the PCC’s Receipts and Payments Accounts in 2021. These notes are aimed at providing some explanation of how they arose and why they are different from 2020.

Now returning to 2021 and compared to 2020, the PCC had the benefits of:

Page No 3 of 7

However, there were some decreases in income or increases in expenditure to partially balance these upsides:

3. Notes to the Accounts – Balances and Assets

Table 2 shows the cash and investments held by the PCC at the beginning and end of the year together with their respective gains and losses. Here are the main points:

Page No 4 of 7

Music’s stipend). A further £9,000 was withdrawn and redesignated for general use to meet the shortfall between income and expenditure across-theboard. We were fortunate that the assets value of this fund grew by just over £9,000 so the balance at the end of the year was marginally higher than the opening balance.

4.Additional Points to Note

----- Start of picture text -----
Comparative Energy Usage across three consecutive years (kWh)
2021 2020 2019
Church Gas 11,300 14,600 22,600
Centre Gas 15,000 18,500 30,000
Church Power 900 750 1,850
Centre Power 3,300 3,200 4,900
----- End of picture text -----

Page No 5 of 7

----- Start of picture text -----
Method of Giving No. of Cash raised
Givers (ex Gift Aid)
Parish Giving Scheme and Employee 30 £24,862
Giving scheme
Standing Orders 9 £10,288
Gift Aid envelopes in church 5 £261
----- End of picture text -----

5.Budget for 2022

Following the second year of Covid 19 and the effects it had on PCC finances, we are anticipating some recovery in 2022. This budget has been complied by the Finance Team and agreed by the PCC. It foresees another year of difficult times ahead with few of the upsides in (2) above which kept 2021 so buoyant by the end of the year. Its assumptions include:

Income

Page No 6 of 7

Expenditure

Resulting 2022 Budget

These changes from 2021 produced another unbalanced Receipts and Payment budget account with an Income of around £81,000 and total expenditure of around £98,000 and hence a forecast deficit of around £17,000.

Still, with available reserves (unrestricted plus designated) of nearly £72,000 and the PCC’s agreed floor of such reserves of £50,000 , we have £22,000 headroom to meet a deficit of that magnitude. .

As we start 2022, the final line of Table 2 shows we have around £4,000 of unrestricted cash in these available reserves, but at a rate of loss of £1,500 per month we will shortly be drawing down from the Music Fund again.

Further upside is possible if additional fund-raising activities could be organised, including another sponsored event as in 2021. Further legacies are unpredictable in the budgeting process, but they are always welcome if people wish to consider the church in their will. They are also tax efficient. Church Centre Hall rentals may return to pre-pandemic levels faster than expected although several groups have already cancelled for 2022.

6. Templeton Foundation / ECLAS Grant

Page No 7 of 7

In addition to the usual income and expenditure streams, the Vicar, Treasurer and Church Wardens agreed to accept a grant of £20,000 into the PCC’s bank account for the purposes of funding a project of work initiated and directed by Petra Crofton with a co-director, Rob Crofton.

This grant is held in the PCC’s main cash account, but it is restricted and is not owned by the PCC. It was provided by the Templeton Foundation via a Durham University-based organisation called “Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science”. (ECLAS). It is now financing a project entitled Science, Faith and Creation Care.

The grant and its associated expenditure stream are available for inspection if required but would add unnecessary complexity to these accounts. To date the PCC has paid out £2,063 of the total grant with a balance of £17,937 remaining in the main bank account, see the bottom of Table 2 point (f). This has been stripped out of these accounts, but, for bank reconciliation purposes, it is shown at the bottom of the Balances and Assets sheet (Table 2).

It is anticipated that the majority of this grant will have been spent by the end of 2022 as laid out in the grant application by its directors. All payments from the fund are subject to the PCC’s usual approvals process via authorised signatories.

.

Prepared by Bob Hinton – PCC Treasurer

Page No 8 of 7