The six main duties of charity trustees are:

• Ensure your charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit

• Comply with your charity's governing document and the law

• Act in your charity's best interests

• Manage your charity's resources responsibly

• Act with reasonable care and skill

• Ensure your charity is accountable

We will be using each of these to link to a particular aspect of your financial duties as a trustee.

Additional resources:

If you need a general refresher on the duties of charity trustees (not just the finances) the government website contains useful guidance.

The first responsibility of charity trustees is to ensure that their charity is carrying out its purposes for public benefit.

From a financial point of view this links to the importance of budgeting, and considering the way funds are spent and recorded.

You should consider what the benefits of creating a budget are.

The key purposes of your budget are:

• Planning

• Responsibility

• Integration

• Motivation

• Evaluation

How you budget will reflect the size and complexity of the work of your charity and how it is funded.

In addition to your annual budget, it is important to consider a financial strategy for your organisation which looks further ahead.

The second responsibility of charity trustees is to comply with the charity's governing document and the law.

From a financial point of view this particularly links to the reporting requirements of the Charity Commission, tax rules and potentially Companies House.

All charities need to comply with the Charity Commission's requirements around their annual return.

Exactly what you need to include depends on your size and the legal status of your charity. (This is covered in more detail in my other course 'Get to grips with your charity finances').

It is worth reviewing your own charity's most recent annual return to familiarise yourself with this, although remember what you need to submit may change from year to year.

Charities that are also companies need to comply with the requirements of Companies House to submit their confirmation statement and their annual accounts. Make sure you know whether your charity is also a company.

Charities also need to ensure they comply with HMRC's requirements around tax. Many charities will need to submit payroll related taxes and to consider the VAT situation. Some charities may need to submit a Corporation Tax return and pay corporation tax on some forms of income.

As a charity trustee a key duty is to operate in the best interests of your charity.

There are two particular areas of financial responsibility that we should consider here.

The first is having the financial information to make balanced and informed decisions:

Avoiding conflicts of interest applies more widely than just the finances but it is particularly important for the financial areas.

Make sure you are clear about the rules around conflict of interest (see below) but also consider what you can do to ensure that you avoid the substantial issue of potential conflicts and the appearance of conflicts of interest.

As a charity trustee you are expected to manage your resources responsibly. Here I explain what that means with two examples of practical tools you can use to manage your resources.

Managing resources means ensuring that you take a balanced approach. Prudence should balance avoiding unnecessary or undue risks with ensuring you still fulfil the objective of your charity.

One important tool for this is your risk register. The financial section of this should consider things that may impact your income, your cost base and the assets you hold.

Another really important tool is an equipment register. This records the physical items your charity holds. Larger charities may have one of these as part of their accountancy systems, but even very small charities should consider a simple one.

The sixth responsibility of charity trustees is ensuring your charity is accountable. This links to some of the other topics we've already looked at but its particularly relevant for the issue of restricted and unrestricted funds.

As part of being accountable there are some types of income and spending that you are required to report on separately.

Unrestricted funds are funds that can be spent on any of the charity's purposes - as long as it is in line with the law and the governing document.

Restricted funds have been given to the charity for a particular purpose and the charity is likely to be required to report back to the funder how they have been spent and must also be reported on separately in your annual return.

In addition to the minimum requirements you should consider how you can provide more information to help people understand how your charity is funded and uses its funds - for example by showing some unrestricted funds separately.

One of the aspects of compliance that is relevant for many charities is the Independent Examination.

If your charity has an Independent Examination watch this optional video for my thoughts as an Independent Examiner on how you may be involved - and benefit - as a trustee.

Your Independent Examiner should be a really useful partner in your charity's financial management as well as providing an external check.

As this course will have demonstrated the Treasurer of an organisation can't work in isolation so here are a few tips to help you support your Treasurer:

Well done on completing this course. Make sure you check your learning and take action to help use it to benefit your charity.

A quiz to check your learning - if you don't get all of this right do go back and review the content

Now you've completed this mini-course you may want to consider what to do next.

• The Charity Commission website has a range of useful guides

• Your local Voluntary Action or VCSO can be a really useful source of help and advice

• Consider taking a more in depth training course

• Talk to your Independent Examiner, Accountant or Auditor

Most importantly remember that as a charity trustee you are doing a really valuable and vital job, so make sure you use the resources you need to fulfil your role and good luck.