Finance Committee/Minutes/2024-03-20
OpenStreetMap Foundation Finance Committee
Minutes of a meeting held on 20 March 2024 20:00 UTC.
Administrative Matters
Present:
Craig, Guillaume, Harrison, Roland.
Apologies:
None
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved without amendment
Agenda
Agreed - the proposed agenda for this meeting.
Monthly Reporting
Reporting Templates
Craig had circulated before the meeting a proposal for the monthly reports based on existing Xero reports.
In the meeting Harrison presented a customised monthly report template. This template is populated by importing a profit and loss by work-group report from Xero and dropping it into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet reads the P&L report data and prepares a set of standard tables for monthly reports. The meeting discussed and approved some modifications to the tables.
Agreed that the Monthly report to the Board meeting on 28 March will be based on Harrison’s template, as modified in the meeting. (Harrison)
Earlier Reconciliation
The issue of presenting up to date reports was raised. Monthly reporting should present data for the previous month. Currently reconciliation lags so the first monthly report will be for January. Presenting for the previous month requires that reconciliations should be done by the 21st day of the month to allow generating and placing the report on the Board Agenda before the agenda closes.
Agreed that Harrison will discuss the reconciliation time-frame with Michelle the book-keeper. (Harrison)
Bank Revaluations
The issue of bank revaluations was raised. As the value of our holdings of EUR and USD is quite substantial, daily changes in value against the GBP generate a small income or a loss, which is hard to track. Roland suggested that it is essentially noise on the signal, does not amount to much and should be disregarded.
Agreed. We will disregard it. (Not actionable)
Reporting on Contracts and Projects
We are looking to show more detail on the expenditure against contracts. This will highlight under-spending, slow start , overspending and possible future funding shortfalls. These are all important management tools.
Agreed that this improvement will be added after the monthly reports are tested and working well. No time-frame set. (Committee)
Versioning Monthly Reports
We discussed versioning the monthly reports. The Working Groups were one target and the Advisory Board is the other. Working groups will focus on their allocations.
The Advisory Board will be full reporting of all financial changes. The Board includes our key donors and they are the people who most need to have confidence in our financial management of the Foundation. And as an Advisory Board we want them to provide advice on our reporting and processes. We have chosen to be transparent and do not hide our financial state from our members or donors, which provides an opportunity for positive and negative feedback on our work.
Agreed that this will be done. No time-frame set. (Committee)
Outstanding Matters
- Monitoring our expenditure rate to ensure funds are channeled to necessary work. Not the same as standard monthly reporting, but should be reported monthly.
- Fundraising focus of this committee has been neglected. Call a meeting of the Fundraising team soon.
- Sarah’s draft guide to hiring contractors has to be revised to align with and eliminate overlap with Procurement policy and if possible made more compact.
- Design and implementation of Internal Controls to reduce financial risks and a review of auditing practice. To be picked up after Monthly Reports are working well.
- CiviCRM and its usefulness in tracking fundraising prospects and donors. Craig to work on learning CiviCRM.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held at 20:00 UTC, in the Finance Meeting Room, on 27 March 2024.