Expenses

Expenses are anything that we buy or money we spend as or on behalf of the society. For example, buying refreshments from costco, or the server hosting fees for tex-drug-den. There are 4 ways we process expenses:

• Personal Expense
• External Payment
• Purchase Order
• Credit Card
• Same Day Payment

Personal expenses are unique compared to the others on this list because it is the only one where money is reimbursed to someone for something they've already paid for. For example, where a committee member has purchased items from a shop for the society, and needs to be sent the money back. These always require either a receipt, invoice or confirmation email with the details of what was purchased, who from (the company) and how much it cost. The more detailed of a receipt the better. Some places will also provide a VAT receipt by default, but not all will, so you may need to ask.

The maximum limit for a personal expense is £350 as of 13/05/2026 - note this is subject to change so check with the Guild / canvas training if you're not sure. Anything more than this will always need to be one of the other payment types. Do not attempt to split up an expense to get around the limit. You might get away with it but it's not worth the headache if you don't. If you find yourself in a situation where this is seen to be needed, you're either forgetting some of the other options below or have not planned things properly.

External payments are where money is sent directly from the Guild bank accounts to an organisation or supplier. For example, where we need to pay a photographer for the ball, they send us an invoice, and this is submitted as an external payment. The invoice will then be paid by BACS. An invoice is always required for this type of payment and will ideally be a VAT invoice where VAT is applied. These types of payments can sometimes take 2 weeks or more, and always longer during guild closed days and holidays so be very wary of this if you have a tight deadline for payment.

The maximum limit for an external payment is £1,000 as of 13/05/2026 - note this is subject to change so check with the Guild / canvas training if you're not sure. Anything more than this will always need to be either a Purchase Order or Credit Card payment.

Purchase orders are a “promise to pay” that ultimately result in a BACS payment. Every company deals with these slightly differently, and some you encounter will have never heard of them, so if you ever need to explain this it's essentially that once a purchase order is raised, the guild is obligated to pay them. Then on a specific schedule (usually once per month) the purchase order will be processed and a BACS payment is made. You can essentially see this as a delayed External Payment. Because the payment is delayed, some companies will want a credit account or credit agreement of some kind with the Guild before they agree to accept this. If this is the case, ask them for whatever they need to be filled out and send it to our coordinator who will get finance to fill it out. DO NOT fill it out or agree to or sign anything yourselves.

There is no maximum or minimum amounts for purchase orders, but typically you would only use them if the company has specifically requested it, or if the total is over £1,000 so you can't use an external payment.

Credit card payments are very rare and should only be used where absolutely necessary. The only circumstances where these are typically justified is where the total is over the personal expense limit and the company refuses to accept an external payment or purchase order. Do not rely on this for a quick payment either - as whether or not it's possible depends on several members of staff being available, and enough credit being available. If you need this urgently, toward the end of the credit cycle, it's entirely possible none of the staff will have enough credit left to actually make the payment so check with companies early and let the guild know as soon as possible if you think this might be needed. Your coordinator will likely ask you to put any expenses of this type through SGF as a PO form, just so they have a paper trail and records of committee approval so be ready to do this otherwise it could delay the payment further.

There is no maximum for this payment type, but the theoretical minimum is whatever the maximum is for personal expenses, because if you're under the personal expense limit, there's no reason to use a credit card payment - just pay for it yourself and do a personal expense.

Same day payments should be avoided at all costs and generally should never be needed unless you really fucked something planning wise. This is essentially just an external payment, but rushed to be done the same day. This incurs a fee and, similar to the credit card payment, requires several members of staff to be available to approve it. If you've planned things early, there's no reason to need this at all.