Finance 

Bank

Xero

Invoices Payable

Airtable

Pensions

Bank

We check the bank account throughout the day to reconcile incoming and outgoing payments. All bank transactions automatically feed into Xero and are reconciled there.

Metro Bank is used to make all outgoing payments, including salaries, and covers a few automated monthly payments. It is therefore important that there is a minimum balance of £10,000 available at any given time.

Finance will monitor cashflow and request funds to be transferred into Metro Bank from the CEO as and when needed. Transfers take up to 2 working days. 

The following directors hold account cards and will be responsible for forwarding relevant receipts for reconciliation to Finance: Aidan Neill, Craig Mytton, Jake Kalliath

Xero

Buyer invoices

Finance is copied into all booking confirmations. The booking confirmation should be used to add a draft Invoice into Xero Invoices. We send invoices out to buyers on the last day of the campaign start month. Example: Campaign Start Date 15th of July; Invoice Date 31st of July

On the last day of the month, we go through invoices to be issued with the CRO to ensure nothing has been missed and all is accurate.

Seller invoices

As we enter draft buyer invoices into Xero, we should match these with seller invoices we will expect to come through based on confirmed bookings. We use the buyer invoice date as the start date of Media Owner Invoices. To follow the earlier example, if you had raised an invoice on 31st of July to a buyer, you will enter draft invoices to Media Owners with the start date 31st of July, regardless of the actual date this came through. This is to help match incoming with outgoing accurately. Please refer to the Airtable guide below on how to get an accurate view of the expected invoice amounts. 

As and when the relevant invoices are received, they will be compared with what we expect and, if matching, approved for payment. Payment terms with Media Owners are always 60 days. (Exception Primesight 45 days) 

International Buyers

We do not charge VAT to international buyers based outside of the UK. However, we must add following statements to our invoices to them to be able to reclaim VAT.

The following wording should be noted on the actual invoice if the buyer is within the EU: 

"This supply is subject to the reverse charge under Chapter 3 of Directive 2006/112/EC." 

Invoices to a client outside the EU, no VAT should be charged but the wording to be used on the invoice is again slightly different: 

"This is a service supplied where received under paragraph 16, Sch 4A of VATA 1994."

Reconciliation

Finance will reconcile transactions on the Metro Bank account via Xero. Where VAT has been paid by Bitposter, the invoice or receipt should be added to reconciliation. 

For payments where no VAT is applicable please select Zero Rated Expense. Excluding payments for Salaries, HMRC, Bank Charges, Capital Payments and transfers. Please select No VAT for these types of payments.

Some invoices are issued in another currency, typically USD. For VAT purposes, we must match the GBP VAT amount with the invoice. Xero is unable to match this exactly. You will therefore have to update the unit price to reflect the correct VAT and add another line for the left over amount as balancing. Example below.

Invoices - Payable

We receive invoices by post and email. Media Owner invoices should be cross referenced with draft section on Xero and Airtable. If matching, they should be approved by Finance on Xero. 

Media Owner invoices

It is important that the start date of Media Owner invoices always matches the date of the matching buyer invoice. The due date should reflect 60 days from date of invoice.

Supplier Invoices

Suppliers may send invoices to individuals directly by email or post. We should only approve invoices where a service or product has been confirmed by a director. Please refer to a list of reoccurring approved invoices in the Human Resources Drive -> Finances -> Suppliers. 

Airtable

In addition to Xero, we also record all campaign bookings in Airtable in a base named 'Financial Reconcile'. This helps us understand our revenue and has good filters to go into specifics, such as revenue by Financial Year or Commission specific by quarters. 

Right at the top, you will find 4 tabs. Please only update tabs 'Buyer' and 'Seller'. 

Buyer

We add all new buyer bookings into the buyer tab. The base is grouped by Buyers so you can add a new record anywhere and once you add a Buyer Name it will filter into the right group. 

You will also add 

- Invoice # (Number) as stated on booking and invoice on Xero - this helps cross reference bookings with campaigns as some have the same name.

- Campaign Name as stated on booking form and platform

- Type - Media, Production, Survey, Technology Fee or BP commission (for Media Owner Billing bookings)

- Medium - Print, Digital, Package

- Financial Year as per start date of campaign

- Quarter - used to help identify bookings relevant to commission quarter. Use invoice date for reference

- Start Date of campaign. Please add a new line for each campaign start date, even across one media owner

- End Date of campaign

- # Days is a formula and calculates the number of days in a campaign based on Start and End Date

- Select Media Owner. Please add a new line for each Media Owner

- Select Net £ - the next column 'incl VAT' is a formula and will add VAT automatically

- add a PO if applicable

- Status of Invoice - NOT ISSUED (due later), ISSUED (on XERO), PAID, VOIDED, Media Owner Billing

- Matched with Seller - YES if invoice from Media Owner has been received and is accurate. NO if we are still awaiting the matching invoice. PARTLY if you have received invoices but more are to be issued (typically if a campaign runs across several months)

- Invoice Date is the date the invoice was issued to the buyer

- Format and Environment of the booking are useful in establishing trends of campaigns and, whilst optional, should be kept up to date where possible

Seller

We add the matching expected Media Owner invoice information into Seller tab at the same time as adding the buyer information. You will have clarity on what invoice figures you will expect once they come through and this information is then added into Xero as a draft invoice to help financial forecasting.

You will also add

- Media Owner Name

- Commission % is preset to 10% as this is the standard fee, however, some Media Owners have a different commission structure. JCD 5%, Exterion 7% and international Media Owners would vary

- Select the Buyer Name to match the data you entered into the Buyer Tab

- Buyer Invoice - this is now preset as you have added this data in the buyer tab. Just select the matching invoice from the list here. Please also add the invoice date by double clicking on the Invoice number. This opens a form and will help look this information up faster, rather then having to go into the buyer tab to look this up.

- Campaign Name - again, you have already added this data on the buyer tab and now just need to select the right campaign here. Double click on the name to add the campaign dates.

- Type - Media, Production, Survey, Fee

- Buyer Full Price (before VAT) 

- Buyer Cost - Please add the same amount here again. You will only need to enter different amounts for international campaigns with a different exchange rate. 

- Commission is a formula field which uses the commission % you have set earlier. You can overwrite the percentage but not the commission amount.

- Media Owner Invoice is a formula and will calculate the amount we expect to be invoiced by the Media Owner

- Total incl VAT is a formula and will add VAT automatically. If no VAT is applicable, please unhide the VAT field to change the % manually. 

-  Matched Invoice - YES (Invoice received), NOT RECEIVED (invoice expected but not received), VOIDED 

- On Xero - tick to confirm you have added the expected invoice as a draft on Xero.

- Financial Year - select the financial year based on invoice date

- Comms Q select the commission quarter based on invoice date

- Comment - Open typing. I use this often to name invoice numbers where several are expected, i.e. Invoice 1 of 11, 2 of 11, etc

Pensions

Our Pensions Provider is 'The Peoples Pension'. We receive pensions contributions figures from our Accountants with the payroll file so no calculation is necessary.

These figures have to be populated into the Pensions Contributions File, saved in the HR Google Drive -> Benefits -> Pensions -> Contribution files.

You can use the last saved file named after the month of the pension upload, i.e. for July its Data-Layout-Contribution-File-JULY

The unique identifiers are single numbers and can be cross referenced with the original maintenance file which is save in the Pensions folder under 'Maintenance files' and is named Data-Layout-Maintenance-File-Payroll-Assessment ORIGINAL. 

In the contributions file you must update 'Employee Contribution' and 'Employer Contribution' according to the payroll file. You will have to update the date of contributions to 1st and last date of the contribution month, i.e. 01/07/18 - 31/07/18.

To upload, please log in to the Pensions Admin portal and select 'Submit employee data'

Choose 'Contribution file' and upload your saved excel file to the portal.

Payment will be taken by Direct Debit automatically. For any questions you can contact support@bandce.co.uk anytime.