David Membrey, Charity Finance Group
Experience is very important in charity finance: Get involved with organisations outside of your day job. Becoming a trustee/treasurer provides very useful experience of finance and governance from the other side of the fence.
Basic skills and technical knowledge are both important: The basic skills needed for finance in the charity sector are the same as anywhere else. However there is some very important specific technical knowledge. VAT is particularly complex for charities. The law around charities and trading is also particularly complex. The charity sector also has its own Standard of Recommended Practice (SORP) that explains much of the charity specific rules for financial reporting.
Qualifications are not the be-all and end-all: I would not want us to deter anybody from considering a career in charity finance because they do not have and do not want to get a formal accountancy qualification. Whilst it is undoubtedly very useful I know of many very good charity finance professionals who are not qualified accountants and have no plan to be.
Understand the whole organisation: It is all too easy for the finance person to be rather out on a limb, not seen as 'one of us' by the rest of the organisation and as a result it is very hard for them to bring the organisation with them. On top of skills gained in other parts of the organisation you need to mercilessly pick up skills from other people in similar positions.
Take care with contracts: Often you have to compromise to join a buying group or aggregator but the savings may well make it well worth it. For instance, I would recommend that any small charity takes professional advice before selecting a photocopier contract, it is well worth it as signing up for a five year contract can cripple your organisation.
Keep an eye on outsourcing: It does have a place but it is still very important that the chief executive (or somebody else on the staff) retains a high-level connection to the finances. It is too easy to assume that outsourcing means you can forget about the numbers.
Anna Williams, Birmingham Royal Ballet
Important for charities to support staff development: It's really important for charities to support staff to develop financial skills. I actually run two courses for the Theatrical Management Association (TMA) specifically aimed at introducing and developing financial skills/awareness in non financial staff.
Nigel Scott, London Southbank University (LSBU)
Chief executives can often be the weak link in finances: We recognise this by including finance modules in our management certificate. We also include Marketing in our Finance MSc. More is needed but persuading chief executives to take time out for finance training/education can be very difficult.
The new Standard of Recommended Practice (SORP) consultation is due soon: We have a new SORP coming out later this year. Measuring social value as part of impact measurement will be important in coming years even if it isn't SROI. Accounting for intangibles such as human resources and volunteers should become more important. Pensions legislation is having a major impact at the moment and will continue to do so.
Payment by Results: This is certainly becoming more popular but until it starts to happen at small levels it will continue to be something that most just watch through gritted teeth. Few, if any, charities have the balance sheet strength to cope with it without a social investor behind them taking the risk.
Tim Boyes-Watson, Mango
Improving essential financial skills in crucial for most NGOs: The biggest need is still to improve essential financial skills. Once that is sorted then the focus should be to grapple with tougher issues like financial sustainability. Internationally there needs to be a bigger focus on preventing fraud and corruption.
Strong leadership qualities are required: Being good at charity finance needs leadership skills too, as often the finance person needs to keep their head when those around them are losing theirs.
Risk management capabilities are increasingly important: The finance person is often the one who has to ask the 'what if?' question and then follow up to make sure the risks are being managed. We have recruited a range of 'risk managers' across the INGO sector in the last two years and this is interestingly an area where NGOs are looking outside the sector rather than from within.
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John Decruz-Young, MHA MacIntyre Hudson
Lack of specialist finance staff is a real challenge: This can sometimes really hinder the positive impact these organisation is trying to make. A really fundamental skill of charity finance professionals is to be able to translate the numbers and accounting language into words that non-accounting people can understand. Technical accounting skills are essential – but communication skills and the ability to relate to other people with a non-financial background are key,
A cool head is needed: The finance person quite often needs to be the calming, rational influence in organisations.
Specialist accountancy firms are a good route in: Working in an accountancy firm specialising in the charity sector can definitely be a great way of building a support network.
Check out:
- the Charity Practitioners' Forum (http://www.charitypractitioners.org.uk)
- Association of Charity Independent Examiners (http://www.acie.org.uk)
- Assocation of Church Accountants and Treasurers (www.acat.uk.com)
Qualifications are important: I think it's probably essential these days to have a recognized CCAB qualification (e.g. ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA, ICAS and Chartered Accountants Ireland), and I'm aware that a lot of charity finance recruiters look for this as a minimum for certain roles.
Understand the main accounting packages: For smaller charities, this tends to be QuickBooks and Sage, and there are many organisations that provide training with these. When I was working for a charity (ten years ago now), they paid for me to go on training course run by a local community college to learn Sage Line50 and Sage Payroll – and I still use the skills today.
Specialist recruitment companies can be valuable: There are also a handful of companies that specialise in recruitment of charity finance professionals - ones I know of include Allen Lane and Robertson Bell.
Outsourcing finance work can be a good idea: There's a strong argument that outsourcing could be the best option for some charities when it comes to doing the finance work. Rather than charity chief executives having to learn finance skills, it would be better for them to focus on their strengths, and driving the vision and mission of the organisation they lead. (But) I agree that there is also a real lack of high-quality, cost-effective outsourced solutions for charities in the UK at present.
John Maddocks, CIPFA
A useful training resource for charity finance professionals: Community Accounting Services provide a range of services geared towards charities. Some provide training, others provide one to one support. See their national network site for info: www.communityaccounting.org
The Charity Certificate and AAT routes: The Charity Certificate is one route into a professional accounting qualification as it exempts the successful candidate from three of the first level of exams for the CIPFA professional qualification. More generally I've noticed that there are now far more qualified accountants in senior roles in charities than when I started out back in the 90s.
Also, if someone is uncertain about taking the chartered accountant route but wants a qualification another option is to consider AAT which provides a very good level of technical skills and is widely respected.
Neil Jennings, Accounting for International Development
You need a bit of everything: I'd say employers are looking for it 'all'. Skills, qualifications, experience and personality. Its a very tough market for jobs and in the charity sector, where funding is becoming a big issue, employers have to be even more choosey. If you're looking to break in from another sector you have to show you have the relevant skills, the personality and importantly the commitment. If you aren't getting or demonstrating these in your current role you need to volunteer, with a local charity or even approach some of the larger charities and NGOs.
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