New community accounts service
A new accountancy service has been launched for not-for-profit organisations in Mid and South Canterbury to create greater collaboration between groups and protect them against fraud. This year marks Volunteering Mid and South Canterbury’s 10th anniversary, which was recognised on Tuesday evening in a joint event to launch its new accountancy service.
Called the Community Accounts Service, it is the first of its kind in the region, which is aimed at relieving the stress of doing the accounts for charitable organisations in South Canterbury. Volunteering Mid and South Canterbury co-ordinator Louise Billinghurst, who has been in the role since March, helped get the service off the ground with her background in chartered accountancy, before moving into the notfor-profit sector.
The creation of the service allows not-for-profit organisations the opportunity to come to Volunteering Mid and South Canterbury for a number of accountancy needs, such as filing, payslips and invoicing, managing staff leave entitlements, archiving files and creating full financial reports.
The service was not intended as a money-earner but a ’’support for the community’’, to provide closer collaboration between groups and protect them against fraud, Billinghurst said. She said fraud within not-for-profit organisations was rife.
The issue with fraud was that no-one talked about it, which left room for further ‘‘perpetuation’’ from committee members if they moved on from one organisation to another, she said.
It was important for people to talk about it to get it out into the public domain, she said.
Billinghurst likened the service to that of a treasurer’s role, which would give organisations the security of having someone doing the accounts when many often struggled to find people to fill that role.
‘‘Really what we want to achieve is to simplify the treasurer’s role, and it will protect against fraud.’’ Often groups were victims of fraud by their own committee members. This service would eliminate that risk, she said. ’’We really want to support the community and provide closer collaboration with other not-for-profit groups.
‘‘Because we all share a common goal and shared interest [to help in the community], we hope it can snowball.’’ ’’Watch this space’’, she said. The service could be tailored to the needs of each organisation on a case by case basis. ’’We can mentor existing treasurers, it really depends on what they want. We just know people say there is such a strong need for this.’’
Billinghurst would not disclose how much it would cost each organisation to use the service as it was dependent on what type of service each organisation wanted and the size of the organisation. She said it would be cheap and for some smaller not-for-profits it could be free. That would be a discussion for groups ‘‘when they come to us to use the service’’, she said.
Already the service had gained traction, with two community groups having signed up on Wednesday, Billinghurst said. Looking forward to the future of volunteering, this was one of the needs of the community, as well as the recruitment of younger volunteers, she said.
Year 13 Roncalli College student volunteer Sophie Lowen teaches inline skating and spoke about her experiences volunteering in Southeast Asia and the importance of student volunteers in the South Canterbury community. Volunteer week runs from June 18 to 24, nationwide.