Edited 6 Jan 2014 to reflect payments for 2013 expenses 0n or after 1 Jan 2014
We haven't gotten our official date of incorporation from Registry of Societies yet, but we are starting the financial year according to the calendar year as of now.
In 2013 many of you have given to various Funds, but some of the Funds (especially Operations and Sterilisation) have seen more expenditure than income, and are in the red. (In total for 2013 we have 5 Funds: Boarding, Veterinary, Stray Cat, Sterilisation, Operations).
For a clean start therefore, we are using the total balance of cash in bank and petty cash and dividing it equally across the 5 Funds. Stray Cat Fund is being renamed as Emergency Response Fund. We will share more about the ER Fund in a later post.
Bank Balance as at 1 Jan 2014: $1581.85
Petty Cash Balance as at 1 Jan 2014: $649.00
Total Balance less payments cleared after 1 Jan 2014: $1842.09Opening Balance per Fund (Boarding, Veterinary, ER, Sterilisation, Operations) =$368.42
As per normal, Operations Fund should not have spending more than 30% of total expenditure. Even though we had to move some of your donations slated for other Funds to start the new year with each fund at the same balance, rest assured that when it comes to Operations expenses such as advertisments, transport and volunteer management, they will not ever exceed 30% of total expenses for a financial year.
We did not manage to recruit a steady Accounts Volunteer till the end of last year, and thus reporting was limited to a sporadic nature. We deeply regret this, because financial transparency has always been a strong belief of ours from when we were founded in 2009. The daily runnings of our rescue work started to overwhelm us and it became increasingly difficult to publish proper financial reports.
This year however, our new Accounts Volunteer, Soya, will change all that and give all of you cat angels an even more transparent look into our spending. Donation protocols will also see an improvement, as will the reporting of the balances for each Fund, to guide us even more precisely in our fundraising measures. We will have a new bank account soon once ROS incorporation is completed, but the existing one will remain until we can transit donors' standing instructions smoothly to the new account.
Every year we raise the bar in working to love cats better, 2014 is no different. To all the cat angels: THANK YOU. For joining us in our work, for believing in us, for saying things like, "Use the funds as you see fit, where the need is," showing us you believe in our financial prudence. We are humbled by your trust, and hope 2014 will strengthen your belief in us as we love the cats in our lives and neighbourhoods.
