The Treasurer is responsible, with the help of their Group Committee (particularly the Events Officer), for preparing an Annual Budget showing the Group’s projected income and expenditure. The Group budgets form part of Icon’s overall budget and it is therefore important that they are submitted on time so that Icon can plan for all the activities the Institute aims to carry out over the course of the year.
Icon’s financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March. Your budget should be submitted to [email protected] by 31 January each year to show the expected income and expenditure for the forthcoming financial year. Note that until the budget is agreed, the Group cannot make any expenditure commitments.
Your Group must cover your expenditure for the year with your income for the year. Income generated from activities such as events, training or publications sales and provided by Icon centrally should be sufficient to cover expenditure on non-revenue generating activities such as committee travel and office expenses. We encourage Groups to aim to make a surplus each year and you need to at least break even. Neither surpluses nor deficits are carried forward.
If your Group estimates that their expenditure will be greater than income over the course of the financial year, they should first discuss their plans with the Groups and Public Programme Lead who may in turn refer to the Chief Executive and the Finance Committee.
If your Group plans to generate a surplus during the course of one financial year to fund a specific activity which falls into the next financial year, you should also discuss your plans with the Groups and Public Programme Lead. For example, your Group may plan a conference and receive conference fees during 2026-27; you may also plan to produce post-prints of the conference, but the production of post-prints falls into the 2027-28 financial year.
The Group Annual Budget Template should be used to prepare the budget. We realise that at the start of the year, plans may be uncertain and hard to cost, so the budget is your estimate, details may change. It would be helpful if you let us know about any major change happening in the year.
- You must budget the gross cost including VAT at 20%.
- In the Revenues section, list the total income you expect to receive for each of the budget lines during the next financial year (April to March). The spreadsheet will add up the income for each budget line to produce a figure for total income.
- In the Expenditure section list the total expenditure for each budget line projected for the next financial year (April to March). The spreadsheet will add up the expenditure to produce a figure for total expenditure.
- The spreadsheet will subtract the Total Expenditure figure from the Total Income figure to establish the projected Net Revenue/Expenditure for the year.
If you have any questions about preparing a budget, please do not hesitate to contact the Groups and Public Programme Lead.
