The treasurer's report: what the board actually needs
Here is a scene that plays out in charity board meetings every week. The treasurer circulates the bank balance, or a printout from the accounting software, or a spreadsheet with a lot of columns. They talk through it for four minutes. Nobody asks a question. The chair says "thank you, treasurer" and the meeting moves on.
Everyone leaves believing the finances have been reported. Legally, something rather different has happened: a board that is collectively responsible for the charity's finances has just failed to engage with them, and the only person who actually understands the position is the one person who already did.
This guide is about closing that gap. It is not about producing more financial information. In most small charities the fix involves producing considerably less.
The thing to be clear about first
The treasurer does not carry the charity's finances. The board does. Every trustee shares the duty to manage the charity's resources responsibly, and that duty does not transfer to whoever is good with numbers.
That matters practically, because it defines the treasurer's actual job. It is not to be the person who understands the accounts. It is to make the accounts understandable to people who are not accountants, so that the rest of the board can discharge a duty they hold whether they engage with it or not.
Read that way, a finance paper that only the treasurer can interpret is not a good paper, however accurate it is.
What belongs in the report
For most small charities, five things. On one page.
1. Where we are
Cash in the bank, and — crucially — how much of it is actually available to spend. More on that below, because it is the single most misunderstood number on a small charity board.
2. How that compares to the plan
Income and expenditure against budget, with the variances that matter explained in a sentence each. Not every line. The three that moved.
"We are £4,000 behind on fundraising income because the summer event was rained off" is a finance report. A column of figures headed "variance" is data, and data is not a report.
3. What is restricted and what is not
This is the one to get right. A charity with £40,000 in the bank, of which £32,000 is a restricted grant for a specific project, does not have £40,000 to spend. It has £8,000, and a legal obligation attached to the rest.
Boards get into real trouble here, usually with the best of intentions — a cashflow gap gets covered from whatever is in the account, and restricted funds have quietly been spent on something they were not given for. Showing the split every single time, even when it seems obvious, is what stops that happening.
4. What is coming
The forward look: known commitments, expected income, and anything on the horizon that could go wrong. If there is a point in the next twelve months where the charity might not be able to pay its bills, the board needs to hear that early, in plain words, and see it in the minutes.
5. What you need the board to do
Most finance reports end without an ask, which is why most finance items end without a decision. If you need the board to approve a budget, agree a spending limit, adopt a reserves policy or take a view on a risk, say so explicitly and say what you recommend.
How to present it
Circulate it in advance, with the papers. A finance report tabled in the meeting cannot be read and considered at the same time as it is being presented. Sending it three or four days ahead is the single biggest improvement most treasurers can make, and it costs nothing.
Keep it to one page. Attach the detail if people want it, but the paper the board reads should fit on a side. Length is not rigour.
Write the sentence, not just the number. Every figure that matters should have a plain-English line next to it saying what it means. Trustees who feel they ought to already understand will not ask.
Say what you are worried about. The treasurer's instinct is genuinely the most valuable thing in the paper and it is the thing most often left out of it. "I am uneasy about how dependent we now are on one funder" belongs in the report, not in the car park afterwards.
Getting it into the minutes properly
Whatever the board decides on finance needs recording as a decision, not as a summary of the discussion. "The board noted the finance report" is close to worthless if a question arises two years later.
What protects everyone is the specific version: that the board received the report, considered the position, and resolved to do a particular thing — approve the budget, agree the reserves target, authorise the spend up to a stated limit. Where the board decided not to act on something you flagged, that belongs in the minutes too. It is not a hostile act to record it; it is the record doing its job.
Our free minutes template has a decision log built in for exactly this.
A note on the treasurer who does everything
In a lot of small charities the treasurer holds the bank access, makes the payments, does the bookkeeping, prepares the accounts and presents them. That happens because someone has to, and because they are usually the only volunteer willing.
It is worth naming as a risk anyway, and not because anyone suspects the treasurer of anything. A single person controlling a transaction from start to finish means there is no second pair of eyes if a genuine mistake is made, and no independent evidence if an allegation is ever made. Dual authorisation on payments and a second trustee with view-only access to the bank account protect the treasurer more than they protect anybody else. Our free financial controls policy is a starting point your board can adopt in a single meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a treasurer at all?
Not necessarily as a formal office — it depends on your governing document. Many charities appoint one because concentrating financial oversight in a named role works well, but the legal responsibility sits with the whole board either way. Some larger charities use a finance sub-committee instead.
Does the treasurer have to be a qualified accountant?
No, and most are not. What the role needs is someone numerate, organised and willing to ask awkward questions. Where technical expertise is needed — on accounts preparation, SORP or examination — that is what your independent examiner or accountant is for.
How often should the board see finances?
At every meeting, in some form, even if it is brief. A board that only sees the numbers annually is not overseeing them. What the report contains can flex — a full budget review once a year, a lighter position update in between.
What if the board simply does not engage with the numbers?
Try shortening the report before you try explaining it again. Then put one specific question to the board in the paper — "do we accept the risk of relying on this funder for 60% of income?" A direct question is much harder to nod past than a set of figures.
What do we do if we find something wrong?
Raise it with the board promptly and get it minuted. Errors found and corrected by a board are an ordinary part of running a charity; the serious problems are the ones that were spotted and not reported. Where something may be a serious incident, the Charity Commission's reporting guidance sets out what needs telling and when.
This guide is general information for trustees and committee members, not legal, accounting or financial advice, and every charity is different. Rules can change, so always confirm the current position with the relevant regulator or a suitably qualified adviser before acting. Last reviewed September 2026.
The other paperwork the treasurer ends up holding
If the minutes have landed on you as well as the numbers, that is a poor use of the one person watching the finances. The Committee Room drafts board-ready minutes from your recording — £19 a meeting, back within two working days.
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