Meeting the obligations of the audit, together with the statutory preparation of form AR21 for the certification officer, is used to appraise the efficiency of a union's accounting system and the strengths and weaknesses of its financial reporting procedures.

We are then in a position to comment on the financial implications of proposed changes to an accounting and financial reporting system.

If you need any assistance on a regular basis or in an emergency with the preparation of budgets/cashflows or require bookkeeping, management accounting, VAT returns, payroll and financial planning, our experienced advisers are always available to help, enabling you to concentrate on the running of the organisation. believe that we offer an additional extra dimension, by always being available and willing to go that extra mile to ensure that we deliver the quality of service our clients expect.

In an advisory role we are able to offer a range of services both strategic and operational. For example organisational and departmental reviews, advice on systems procurement and implementation and project management. The following are examples of our advisory work.

We advised a union client on the introduction of new membership and finance systems. The legacy membership system was no longer suited to the union's present requirements and future aspirations to support services to members. The challenge was to provide better online services to members, provide comprehensive facilities for branch operations and also improve the routine membership processing functions.

We carried out a full review of the operation of the finance section within a major union. The aim was to streamline and improve the processes within the department, by utilising technology more effectively to improve the service and provide better value for members. Our review tackled both the staffing issues and the systems and processes. The aim was to support the streamlining of the finance function, process transactions efficiently and improve on control and reconciliation of membership financial transactions.

The VAT treatment of Trade Unions is complex. Over the last few years HMRC have negotiated charges that worsen union's VAT position. HMRC policy changes have led to less advantageous membership subscription apportionments in relation to publications reducing a union's VAT recovery.

In practice it is often possible for unions to better their VAT position. Chantrey Vellacott DFK have been successful in improving the VAT position of a number of Unions and membership organisations by:

• Negotiating more generous subscription apportionments
• Improving the VAT recovery position of branches
• Improving Partial Exemption direct attributions
• Ensuring that unions do not overpay under the Capital Goods Scheme
• Obtaining the most beneficial VAT liability for supplies such as affinity credit card commissions.

We cannot guarantee that we can improve your VAT position but many opportunities do exist. If you would like an initial no obligation discussion please call Peter Ladanyi on 020 7509 9490 or email pladanyi@cvdfk.com

All trade unions have the onerous responsibilities of an employer with regard to tax and national insurance matters. It is essential to have adequate systems and procedures in place for expenses to avoid the possibility of substantial penalties.

Pension deficits remain a significant cause for concern.

There is an increased awareness amongst members of schemes that their pensions depend very much upon the ability and willingness of sponsoring employers to meet their pension promises. The Trade Union movement is doing good work to ensure that those employers who can afford to pay do not avoid their commitments.

At Chantrey Vellacott DFK, we are also active in advising trustees of schemes on how much employers can afford to pay, and assisting them in negotiating recovery plans for elimination of the deficit.

We are advising a number of clients on the implications of their pensions deficits and on strategies for resolving the conflict between the trustees' desire to see the deficit eliminated as soon as possible and the realities of the employer's ability to pay.

We have a multi-disciplinary pensions group which co-ordinates a wide range of services to Trustees of occupational pension schemes. Assurance services are the bedrock of the group and all of the pensions team have experience of this work ensuring that our audits are conducted efficiently with minimum disruption to Trustees and their advisors.

We have a number of merger specialists who can work with you to formalise your decisions and help ensure that the most suitable and efficient structures are achieved for the merged union going forward.

This advice can involve due diligence on the target union as well as valuation and synergy reviews. The process of combining both organisations after the official merger is often a difficult time for staff. Having help and assistance to hand enables management to ensure that the process is as painless as possible, adheres to the overall merger plan and allows them to focus on the running of the union.

We have worked with a wide range of membership organisations and have a wide network of contacts available who can provide legal advice and systems integration services to ensure the smooth running of the merged entity going forward.

Corporate governance is a major issue for many organisations. In particular trade unions can have very specific methods and requirements for governance. Our specialists have worked with clients to review governance structures and decision-making processes and provide recommendations for the operation of internal audit procedures.

For example, we delivered an internal audit service to the Association of Accounting Technicians and established this as a management activity. Once we had fully established the function, we worked with the client to move responsibility for the activity to internal resource.

In the unfortunate event of a fraud being discovered, we have police accredited fraud investigators who can undertake confidential investigations. We have designed a fraud management plan for a major charity (income £30m) working with trustees, executive directors and heads of department. To help embed an anti-fraud culture, we ran a series of seminars for trustees and staff and we are the appointed independent whistleblower contact for the organisation.

Tax represents both a potential threat and an opportunity. The threat is posed by an increasingly demanding regulatory regime as seen by the move to corporate self-assessment. The opportunity is to reduce or eliminate corporate liabilities through practical and effective tax planning. This drives our approach and ensures that the tax compliance and planning requirements are comprehensively met.

'At Unity Trust Bank we actively encourage our clients to continually invest in financial training for their budget holders and financial staff. The financial awareness training provided by Chantrey Vellacott DFK has dramatically improved the efficiency and integrity and the financial information monitored and prepared by the Trade Unions they have presented to.'
Laurie Bell
Development Manager
Unity Trust Bank plc

'The course was extremely user friendly for Union officers and budget holders. The benefits in providing better understanding of the budget processes have proved invaluable in improving our financial management across the Union.'
Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary
CWU

We recently made a presentation at a TUC meeting of unions on the issue of modernising financial structures and practices

'The TUC are keen to support unions in managing their finances in the most professional and effective way. This is also one of the aims of the UMF. There are several excellent accountancy firms with experience of working with unions, including Chantrey Vellacott DFK.'
Tom Wilson
Head, Organisation and Services Department (OSD) Responsible for the Strategic Management of the Department