DOES ACCA HAVE FINANCIAL STRENGTHS?

ACCA leadership rarely informs members. At the AGMs, questions are not always answered. The official magazine is full of self-congratulations and little else.

AABA has received the document below from an unknown source. AABA does not claim any authorship of the document. The text seems to suggest that the paper is written by ACCA's finance director.

ACCA is a statutory regulator of the auditing and insolvency industry. It acts as a quasi-legislator. Under the Human Rights Act 1998, it is a 'public body'. A 'public body' should be open. Questions about its financial strengths or weaknesses are a matter of public interest. Why does the ACCA not seek approval of its budgets from its members? This way, members have a chance to influence the direction and policies of ACCA. Members should elect the leadership. Without this they will have no influence on the policies of ACCA.

We ask ACCA members to reflect upon the contents of the document and note that the document:

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 1. As well as dealing with the 2000 Budget, this paper focuses on some key financial issues which we cannot afford to ignore.  These are discussed in an ACCA-wide context.  The paper proposes action in several areas - housekeeping (especially streamlining of postage and print buying);  publication strategy; reviewing all current vacancies; and the strategy for delivering lifelong learning.  However, because it is also necessary for divisional heads to understand and own the figures for which they are responsible, the detail in Appendix 1 deals with income and costs on a divisional basis, broadly following the management reporting structure.

2. The recent budget meetings and discussions have resulted in a number of adjustments to the forecasts and plans which were being put forward.  When the resulting figures are consolidated, the result is a budget deficit for 2000 of £1.4m.  This is, quite obviously, unacceptable and balancing the budget will involve a combination of additional income, cost saving and greater efficiency,  which we should try to determine at the meeting.

3. The original indicative budget for 2000 assumed the £5 increase already agreed in the member subscription, and included an increase in examination fees of £1 per paper at all levels of the main scheme.  There is no scope for raising any more funds from members in 2000; in the student area, however, not only is there the possibility of generating a sizeable additional contribution but there are a number of factors which suggest that an increase is justified.  These include:  the huge investment (see below) which is being made in the new syllabus; the advent of the Oxford Brookes arrangements (for which, in any event, a £5 subscription increase will be required); and the investment in IT-based student services such as on-line registration, examination entry, virtual learning space and new assessment methods.  In addition, the gap between ACCA’s subscription (currently £38) and that of CIMA (£58, plus a registration fee in the first year)  is now at its widest ever.

4. I propose, therefore, that we increase all main scheme examination fees by £2 per paper from 1999 levels (rather than the £1 already assumed) and raise the student subscription by £10 (half of which will finance the Oxford Brookes ‘levy’).  Initial registration fees and subscriptions should, in any event, be equalised in order to clarify the VAT position and so this will entail an increase in the IR from £35 to £48.

5. These proposals will raise additional revenue of £1.17m - reducing the budget deficit to about £200k.  We therefore need to generate about  £500-700k of expenditure savings in order to produce a reasonable budget surplus.

6. I have no doubt that we will be able to come up with a formula which provides us with a budget for 2000 which we can live with.  Equally, however, I am in no doubt that, unless we seriously address a number of urgent issues, we will not only fail to deliver that budget, we will sow the seeds for a major financial problem in the future.  There are several areas to address:

and Housekeeping

7. There is obvious and significant waste in the area of postage, freight and couriers.  There are clear opportunities for rationalisation in the production of Accounting & Business and the Students' Newsletter and in our print buying across the organisation.  We can both improve service and save a great deal of money by paying more than lip service to co-ordination and streamlining in these areas.  Someone with appropriate expertise in, say, postage and print buying should be tasked with investigating these opportunities.  Either Finance or Resources currently have vacancies whose specifications can be modified to include the required skills; alternatively, and more radically, we can make an appointment whose remuneration is linked directly to savings achieved.  If such an appointment is to be effective, however, there must be support from the entire management team and a willingness to allow the individual to implement solutions and change business processes across divisions.

8. As an indication of the scale of the problem, postage/ freight and printing/stationery costs across the organisation are collated in Appendix 2.  This shows that the total costs of these activities are £3.7m and £3.9m respectively - a total of £7.6m per year.

Publication strategy

9. A related issue is the need for us to consider the extent to which we should continue to produce certain publications in hard copy form.  As well as reducing printing and postage costs through greater efficiency and consistency, we can eliminate many of them altogether by deciding that some publications should be provided only in electronic (disk or web-based) form.  Examples which have featured in recent budget discussions are the Rulebook (which is printed and distributed once a year to all members at a cost of some £250k)  and the Student Training Record and Handbook.   I suggest that we first determine whether, as a matter of policy, it is acceptable for such reference material to be published in electronic form and - if the answer is yes - set up a cross-divisional task force (perhaps co-ordinated by the individual referred to above) to examine the business case for each major publication in turn.  Such an exercise would, of course, need to inform any future development of "totems".

Staffing
 
10. A list of all staff posts created since the original 1999 budget was agreed is set out at Appendix 3.  We can argue for the rest of the year about the detail of this list, the treatment of replacement posts and departmental transfers and which department should be shown as "responsible" when the total staff complement increases.  The inescapable fact remains, however, that the staff lists agreed by each budget holder at the latest review contain 47 more posts than the corresponding lists a year ago., with a further 12.5 posts budgeted for 2000.

 11. The result of all this recruitment is, of course, a massive increase in staff costs, as follows

                         1999     1999     1999     2000     2000
                         orig        3+9     latest     orig     budget
                         £,000     £,000   £,000    £,000    £,000

Salaries             7468       7912     7923     8605     8927
Staff cost adj     (150)      (427)    (207)     (380)    (380)
Temps and
recruitment         192         345     469         211      163
IT contractors    215         301     307         185        75
NIC                   702         749     746         816      842
Pension & BUPA655        655     725         705      770
London allowance 339      357     348         371      391
                         _____ _____ _____ _____     _____
                         9421     9892   10311    10513   10788

12. We can take some comfort from the fact that, however significant this increase may be, it does not represent a breakdown in budgetary control.  Projected salary costs (including the staff cost adjustment) for 1999 are £231k higher than when we reported to Council following the 3+9 review.  Some of this is attributable to new posts in marketing and in international offices, which were not budgeted for at 3+9.  Most of it arises, however, from lower than anticipated recruitment lag and a consequent increase in recruitment costs.

13. Nevertheless, it is clear that we cannot go on adding posts at this rate.  The additional full year cost in 2000 of the new posts created in 1999 - over and above the amount charged in 1999 - is more than £700k, exclusing the effect on pension costs.  The fact that next year's staff costs are only £480k up in total on the forecast for this year, depends on being able to deliver huge reductions in temporary staff and recruitment costs (advertising and agency fees for replacing leavers will have to be funded from recruitment lag) and in managing without any short term contractors in IT.

14. A list of posts currently vacant - with an indication of the budgeted cost for the remainder of 1999 and for 2000, is attached as Appendix 4.  I think we must look very critically now at staffing needs for 2000 - and in particular at the posts which are currently vacant.  Having done so, we must determine to operate within the agreed staff complement for the whole of the year.  If new projects come along which cannot be accommodated within existing resources, other plans will have to be postponed.  The situation cannot be fudged.

IT and web development

15. The budget assumes that the IT Department will continue to be staffed at levels which will enable all current projects to be completed and all existing hardware and software to be effectively supported.  A very big unknown at this stage is the extent of work which will be required to support the syllabus review; this analysis needs to be completed as soon as possible.    At present, I am assuming that all the development resources which are freed up as current projects complete will be needed to handle the syllabus changes.

16. Web development and web-enablement of systems is playing an increasingly central part in our IT activities; until recently, ACCA's IT staff have not had significant skill and experience in this area although several recently recruited developers do have a background in web technology (one of our graduates has, in fact, just completed a masters dissertation on virtual colleges).  The budget assumes that most of our web development will be carried out in-house to enable skills transfer to take place, although there is provision for consultancy assistance.  It would not be wise to rely entirely on external consultants for what is becoming a core IT competence.

Delivery of lifelong learning, including virtual colleges

17. There are papers on this subject elsewhere on the Away Day Group agenda.  I simply make the point here that there is no budgetary provision for investing in the development of a tutorial college, virtual or otherwise, nor for the development of learning materials.  On the other hand, the provision of a virtual environment with restricted access, within which external colleges, publishers and individual lecturers can run their own classes, is not in principle difficult and will not involve us in significant cost.  Development of specialist educational resources (a virtual college is predominantly an educational issue, not an IT one), will.

The syllabus review

18. For information, I set out in Appendix 5 the budgeted costs which relate directly to the syllabus review.   This shows that the direct costs in 2000 (conferences, pilot papers, new forms, handbooks, brochures and design, new exhibition stands, etc. amount to £0.75m (the figure which “made grown men cry”, as Mark told the International Assembly).  This excludes the cost of substantial staff resources devoted to the new syllabus, principally within Student Education and Promotions, Examinations and IT.  It should also be noted that the budget currently assumes that no reserve papers under the old syllabus are prepared for the final session in June 2001 - a change in this policy will add some £400k to costs in 2001.  A decision is also required as to whether existing students will need to be supplied with new student training records and student handbooks at the time of the change.

Marketing

19. There is no central budget for marketing initiative costs.  This means that 2000 expenditure identified in HB’s original paper as being outside departmental budgets (technical guides for practitioners; links to allow employers to advertise in ACCA publications; corporate sector ‘route map’; additional public sector research funding and  guidance notes; international public sector visits and events; panel meetings) will have to be abandoned or funded from existing departmental budgets.

20. All other marketing-related projects listed in HB’s paper are included in departmental budgets for 2000; these are set out in Appendix 6. This excludes general promotional expenditure and the salary and other costs of the central corporate marketing unit.

21. I propose that we now agree to:

22. In addition, we need to review the information in Appendix 1 to identify opportunities for generating extra income or cost savings.  Particular areas on which we might focus are:  
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 APPENDIX 1 - MANAGEMENT BUDGETS

Chief Executive’s Office

The budget breaks down as follows:

                                                 1999         2000
                                                 £,000        £,000

Staff costs                                 1033            911
CCAB                                        599             725
Review Board                              -                300
Professional fees                         230             150
Marketing initiative                       340                 -
International Assembly                 180            125
Staff travel                                   165            175
Contingency                                  25            100
Miscellaneous                               15              13
                                                 2587           2499

CCAB costs have risen from 1999 forecast of £599k (£516k in 1998) to £725k.   This increase arises purely from additional CCAB costs since both 1999 and 2000 figures are based on relative membership figures as at 31.12.98.  Any increase in ACCA’s market share (24.6% at 31.12.98) will further increase the 2000 contribution.  The additional CCAB costs of £517k  represent 20% of its total budget and arise across the board, the principal elements being APB (assumed to fill two posts in 2000 which are currently vacant) and IFAC (owing to an increase in the secretariat staff and in the number of meetings)

In the absence of any specific budget, a provision of £300k is included for ACCA’s annual contribution to the Review Board structure from 1.1.2000.  The contribution to APB (assumed to continue at present levels) is included within CCAB costs.

Professional fees, which were high in both 1998 and 1999 because of a number of hopefully one-off circumstances (Irish JR, 28 LIF, Malaysia, Steiner) are assumed to fall in 2000 to £150k (1999 forecast: £230k)

No central provision is included for marketing costs in 2000 (see main paper).  The 1999 amount represents the expenditure in 1999 (mainly the £715k already paid to Lapot)  less the amount accrued at the end of 1998.

The Assembly budget of £125k is based on 1999 arrangements and costs, but assuming that there is no major members’ meeting prior to the Assembly.  This does not include any costs associated with external speakers.

A general contingency of £100k is included in accordance with normal practice.  Note that there is no provision for President’s letters on specific issues, nor for an EGM.

Members’ Affairs

Income from members is budgeted as follows:

                                                         1999             2000
                                                         £,000           £,000

Admission fees and subscriptions        9505            10455
Audit PCs                                            662                682
IBCs and compensation levy                 440               424
Insolvency licences                                49                  51
Other certificates                                  159                176
AAPA                                                 110                106
Other                                                    62                  58
                                                         10987            11952

Admission fees, member and affiliate subscriptions are budgeted to raise £10.45m in 2000 (an increase of £945k, of which about £550k represents volume growth and the balance the increase in subscriptions).  This assumes end-1999 numbers of 69,362 members and 10,953 affiliates, (66% of whom will convert to full membership during 2000); and incorporates the agreed subscription/admission fee of £140 for members and £70 for affiliates.  On this basis, projected numbers at the end of 2000 are 73,124 members and 11,084 affiliates.
 
Member services costs (excluding staff costs) are budgeted as follows:

                                                               1999                 2000
                                                               £,000                £,000
Staff costs                                                 675                 736
Regional services costs                               59                   68
Functional societies                                    217                 248
District societies                                        153                  200
Officers’ conference                                   35                    50
Member services and publications
(see marketing initiative above)                   322                   461
Rulebook and handbooks                         173                    173
Members list (net)                                      30                      11
Travel and sundry mailings                         84                      66
Graduation ceremonies (net)                       58                      61
International CPD (net)                              12                      20
Business Navigator (net)                             8                        5
AAPA                                                      16                     16
less misc income                                      (4)                    (11)
                                                             _____             _____
                                                             1838                 2104

District society grants are based on the amount expected to be claimed .  The costs of the officers’ conference are provided on the basis of a single weekend event.

The I&C Society grant budget includes a bid for £10k for a benchmarking project already turned down by Research Committee.

Member services and publications comprise all the MAD projects identified above as relating to the marketing initiative, whether listed in HB’s original paper (£353k) or not (£108k).

The provision for 1999 rulebook/handbook  costs includes the development cost of a CD ROM version, but no account has been taken in 2000 of potential savings in the cost of postage - or indeed, in the cost of print runs - arising either from a big take up of CDROM or from possibly publishing the rule book on the website and making hard copy available to non-practitioners on demand only. There have, however, been savings arising from a more economical print run on handbooks  and from setting the Rulebook in house.

The budget for International CPD (£20k) comprises a general provision for “pump priming” activity rather than the projected cost of any specific UK-led events.

Other departments within MAD are budgeted to perform as follows:

                                                             1999                     2000
                                                             £,000                    £,000

Courses  - income                                 1,360                     1,416
               - expenditure                          1,139                     1,233
                                                            _____                   _____
              - contribution                            221                        183
 
Scotland                                                139                         149
Ireland (net)                                           227                         272
Administration                                       389                         387

The courses budget, which includes third party mailings, assumes a broad continuation of existing activities and delivery methods.  There is a small provision (£11k) for CPD development but the budget does not allow for any strategic shift in the development, scope or delivery of on-line CPD, nor for the introduction of complex assessment systems, nor for changes to corporate IT systems to record such matters.

The budget for ACCA Scotland includes a significant increase in corporate promotion costs, from £19k to £35k. This relates to the development of the Scottish Business Lecture, two smaller corporate seminars, one major publication on the lines of How Will Scotland’s Parliament Work?, setting up subject-specific focus groups, events to replace Guildhall, the Annual Report and provisions for joint projects and advertising.

The increase in the budget for ACCA Ireland (which excludes premises and student related items) is almost exclusively staff related, comprising the full year cost of the Head of Ireland as well as a vacant administrative post.
 
 Student Affairs

    Student income is budgeted as follows:
                                                             1999                 2000
                                                             £,000                £,000

Registration fees and subscriptions           6310                    6560
Examinations and exemptions                 12080                  13060
Script reviews, certificates, desk hire, etc     92                      101
                                                              _____                 _____
                                                             18482                  19721

Registration fees and subscriptions for the main scheme, CAT and Diploma are together budgeted to raise £6.56m(1999: £6.31m).  This assumes an equalisation in the IR and subscription for the main scheme, raising the IR by £3 to £38 - but no other price effect.  The volume assumptions which underlie this are as follows:

                                                                     1999             2000
Registrations (including re-registrations)
 Main scheme and MSER                             34,500             35,500
 CAT                                                           10,100            13,100
 Diploma                                                        1,500             1,500

Year end student file
 Main scheme                                             130,584           135,417
 CAT                                                           18,515             21,936
 Diploma                                                        3,731              3,216

As noted above, increasing the main scheme registration and subscription by a further £10 to £48 - of which £5 would be payable to Oxford Brookes - will generate additional income of £735k.
 
Examination and exemption fees over the three qualifications are budgeted to raise £13.06m (1999: £12.08m).  This incorporates the volume assumptions above and reflects an increase of £1 per paper in the examination and exemption fees for the main scheme only.  A further increase of £1 will generate additional revenue of £435k.

 I have assumed that we do not wish, for marketing reasons, to raise the level of registration fees, subscriptions or examination fees for CAT or the Diploma (other than equalising registration and subscriptions, which has already been built in).  As a guide, however, an increase of £1 would raise additional revenue as follows:

CAT registration/subscription                          £28k
CAT examination/exemption fee                      £50k

Diploma registration/subscription                      £4k
Diploma examination/exemption fee                  £5k

Student services costs are budgeted as follows:
 

                                                             1999             2000
                                                             £,000           £,000
Staff costs                                             700                 731
Setting and scrutiny                                911               1048
Postage and freight                                895                 991
Stationery                                              323                 366
Travel                                                     83                 121
Examination centre costs                      1559               1627
Marking                                               2051               2447
Overseas subventions                              71                  77
Script reviews                                         27                  28
                                                             _____         _____
                                                             6619             7435

Setting and scrutiny costs include provision for development of computer-based and Russian language examinations (£35k and £55k respectively).  Postage and freight costs reflect anticipated volume growth in students and known changes, e.g. syllabus conversion letters and direct despatch of scripts from centres to examiners.  Travel costs have been increased to cover training seminars for overseas supervisors and joint scheme partners.  Centre costs make provision for known increases in hall hire charges and provide for additional technician centres and changes in centre status. Marking fees reflect known prices and anticipated volume growth in examination candidates.

The Student Education Department  is budgeted to spend £591k (1999: £445k) net of income.   The major element of this is an increase in syllabus review costs from £78k to £231k,  offset by a reduction in teachers conference costs from combining the Singapore CAT conference with the event to introduce the new syllabus.   The proposed syllabus review costs of £231k include this Singapore event, together with others in UK, Africa and Caribbean (£115k); fees in respect of pilot papers (£76k); and an extended licence in respect of the software for computer based examinations (£40k).

The Student Recruitment Department is budgeted to spend £1,536k (1999: £1,045k), net of advertising and study school income.  This large increase relates principally to promotion of the new syllabus - specifically:

                                                                     1999             2000
                                                                     £,000         £,000
Advertising                                                     146             167
Printing of forms, training
    records, handbooks etc                              141             205
Printing of promotional literature                     105             333
Travel                                                             77               86
International promotion                                   89             100
Promotional material                                       11             115
Student activities                                             80            100
Student support                                              48             56
Miscellaneous (net)                                         41             12
                                                                    ____     ____
                                                                      738         1174

This assumes that we remain with paper-based material for forms, training records etc, at least for next year.  The major increases are in the printing of promotional literature (which assumes new brochures at a cost of £90k as well as a general provision of £150k for design consultancy); and promotional material, which assumes completely new exhibition and conference stands for UK and international offices, at a cost of £100k.

Diploma courses and publications are budgeted to require a subsidy of £32k under the new arrangements (after generating contribution of £130k in 1999).  This, however, masks the fact that the current contribution levels are sustained only by virtue of having written off the development of open learning materials; if we did not now follow the outsourcing route, a major investment would be required to revamp the qualification.  The budget assumes a reduction of £50k in the revenue from open learning materials (any announcement about the new syllabus will have to be carefully timed if the deterioration is not to be worse than this).  It also allows for redesigning and printing new promotional material at an extra cost of £50k.

The Students’ Newsletter  and Questions and Answers are budgeted to cost £2,089k in 2000 - an increase of £300k over 1999, while income, at £631k, is broadly static.  The additional cost derives mainly from volume growth in students - particularly CAT students, which increases distribution costs in direct proportion.  The budget does, however, include a proposal to change the format of the Students’ Newsletter so that the recruitment supplement is moved to the back of the magazine and distributed to UK students only.  This apparently involves additional spending of £37k.   One possible area for saving is to reconsider the current policy of sending the Students’ Newsletter, as well as the CAT Bulletin, to all CAT students.

Professional Standards

Practice regulation costs are budgeted to increase from £911k to £1,065k (net of income); the increase arises almost entirely from a contingency of £100k against compensation scheme claims (whereas in 1999 we expect a credit of £20k from writing back a 1998 provision) and an anticipated increase of £38k in the amount payable to FSA.

Legal department costs are budgeted to increase from £544k to £595k.  Other than staff costs, this again arises because the 1999 results benefit from writing back £20k of provision.

Training department costs are budgeted to rise from £740k to £1,027k; the major increase relates to staff costs, which are discussed separately.  Other than this, the increased budget arises from the cost of reprinting the Employers’ Guide (in 1999 funded from the central marketing initiative budget) and from additional travel consequent on the staffing proposals.

 Resources, finance and IT

The Resources budget can be analysed as follows
                                                                 1999                 2000
                                                                 £,000               £,000
Staff costs                                                   793                    764
10/11 LIF (and Ely Place) revenue costs        248                   248
29 LIF revenue costs                                 1,379                 1,456
Woodside Place revenue costs                     337                    397
Sky Park (and Kinning Park ) revenue costs 140                     275
Leeson Park revenue costs                          156                     136
Guildhall                                                     130                      -
President’s Flat                                              8                        8
                                                              _____                 _____
Revenue costs                                           3191                  3284
Capital costs (see below)                           4335                    244
                                                               _____                 _____
                                                                7526                   3528

The costs of 29 LIF include £962k relating to stationery, freight and couriers, and postage (including London postage relating to members and students.  This assumes that recent steps to tighten budgetary control over spiralling freight and courier charges will be effective and that spending in this area can be reduced from at least £200k in 1999 to £150k.  The costings for Sky Park (which will house the new document imaging operation, as well as existing Glasgow mail opening, microfiching, scanning and warehouse activities) include rent, rates and service charges, lighting, heating, cleaning, insurance and other premises costs.,  There is also a prudent provision of £25k for the costs associated with remaining in or disposing of the Kinning Park lease.

 Finance costs break down as follows:

                                                         1999                 2000
                                                         £,000                 £,000
Staff costs                                             552                   560
Group pension, BUPA etc                     725                   770
Bank charges and interest                      193                    165
Irrecoverable VAT on property leases     28                      27
Travel                                                    38                      40
Credit card commission                        103                    130
Audit and internal audit                           80                      83
Investment management                          50                      50
Warehouse activities                               35                      35
Internet development                             150                    150
Miscellaneous                                         30                      32
Project lag                                               -                     (100)
                                                           _____             _____
                                                          1984                    1942
Depreciation (see below)                       928                    1185
less investment income                         (434)                  (519)
less royalty income                               (220)                  (250)
                                                          _____                 _____
                                                            2258                 2358

Bank charges and interest are projected to fall (and interest income to rise) once the funds from the sale of Ely Place are received; credit card commission, however, will increase as greater take up of credit card payment is experienced.  Internal audit costs include not only Thomson Cooper but the costs of staff review visits to international offices and the cost of specialist review such as that carried out in 1999 on VAT.  Internet development in 1999 has included all work with Sift on site hosting and maintenance, DES online, examination results and other projects as well as the costs of the new site(s).  In 2000, there is a general provision for new developments of about £100k.

The budget for royalty income assumes a continuation of existing arrangements with ATFL.

 IT costs are budgeted as follows:
                                                     1999             2000
                                                     £,000         £,000

Staff costs                                     1025         1136
Contractors/consultants                   307             75
Training                                            65             50
Travel                                               70             50
Maintenance contracts and licences  411           496
Telecommunications                        360           395
Revenue costs of projects:
 DIP                                                 45             70
 CRM                                              30             60
 E-business                                      70             50
 Backups and disaster recovery         -             150
                                                      ____         ____
                                                      2383         2531
Capital expenditure (see below)       1930           430
                                                      ____         ____
                                                      4313         2962
 
The IT staffing plans for 2000 and beyond do not include the use of short term contractors; in addition, the completion of all Oracle corporate systems means that no further provision is required for support from Mrs Dudney.  The remaining budget is for consultancy on emerging technology and web-related issues.

Maintenance and licence costs increase in response to increased staff numbers (and hence PCs and equipment) throughout the organisation, and as a result of extending Quick Address validation to international addresses.

Ongoing project costs relate largely to maintenance and support contracts and to some Phase 2 development.  Provision is also made for developing a comprehensive set of backup and disaster recover arrangements for DIP and e-business developments.
 
Corporate development

Promotion and development costs are as follows:
                                                             1999             2000
                                                             £,000         £,000

Corporate promotion                             200             175
Africa project (ICPAK / ECSAFA)          15               35
South Africa development                     194              200
Shanghai representation                          58                60
China project (net of income)                 68              100
Miscellaneous                                         5                  5
                                                          _____         _____
                                                          540             575

Accounting & Business costs are budgeted to rise from £1,164k to £1,281k, largely as a result of volume growth affecting distribution costs; this is partially offset by an increase in advertising income from £351k to £399k.

Council costs remain broadly unchanged from 1999 forecast at £540k.  This assumes no significant increase in the number of non-UK Council members, and no additional weekend meetings beyond one Out of Town and one strategy weekend. Similarly, PR costs (which include the Annual Review) are expected to remain broadly unchanged at £345k.

Technical Department costs are budgeted to increase from £659k to £730k (net of income); this increase is almost exclusively staff costs, which are discussed separately.

The Corporate Marketing Unit’s costs are entirely staff related and are budgeted to rise from £67k in 1999 to £166k in 2000.  This is dealt with under staff costs.

No income is budgeted from international projects in 2000 on the assumption that any such projects will be self-financing; the budgeted costs are thus exclusively staff related and broadly unchanged at £28k.
 
International Development Department costs are budgeted as follows:

                                                     1999                 2000
                                                     £,000             £,000
Staff costs                                        187             187
Staff travel                                        120             130
New market development                  175             182
Grants to branches                             80             108
Miscellaneous                                      8                 3
                                                      _____         _____
                                                       570             610

International office costs are budgeted as follows:
                                                                                 1999     2000
                                                                                 £,000    £,000
Malaysia (net of income - 1999 includes capital £41k)  460         365
Singapore (net of income)                                            96         251
HK                                                                            721        726
China - Beijing office                                                   62          62
Australia                                                                     60          70
Canada                                                                       54          54
USA (including legal costs re recognition)                    75        154
Zimbabwe                                                                  29          35
Sri Lanka                                                                   18          20
Kenya (1999 includes capital £5k)                               32          36
Ghana                                                                        29          21
Caribbean (1999 includes capital £24k)                      159        145
Uganda                                                                      -            19
 
Capital expenditure
                                                                             1999          2000
                                                                             £,000         £,000

10/11 and Ely                                                         4071             70
29                                                                           143              91
WP                                                                          48              79
SP                                                                            73               4
IT  - hardware                                                         646            260
    - software                                                           273              85
    - communications                                               274              30
   - DIP                                                                  500              35
   - CRM                                                                180             20
   - E-business                                                          57             -
Malaysia                                                                  41             -
Kenya                                                                       5             -
Caribbean                                                               24             -
                                                                          _____         _____
                                                                           6335             674
 
Depreciation
                                                                         1999             2000
                                                                         £,000             £,000
IT                                                                      663                 910
Equipment                                                          142                 161
Buildings                                                            123                 114
=======================
 APPENDIX 3 - NEW POSTS CREATED SINCE 1999 ORIGINAL BUDGET

Chief Executive's Office:
 Head of Marketing                                 1
Members' Affairs
 2 net member services posts                  2
 Web co-ordinator                                  1
 1 courses posts                                     1
Student affairs
 Web co-ordinator                                 1
 Projects manager                                  1
 5 admissions posts (1 vacant)               5
 Newsletter temp to perm                       1
Professional standards
 1 legal posts                                        1
 4 training posts                                   4
 PT to FT                                         0.4
Resources
 Net                                                  0.7
London posts                                   0.7
 Net 1.8 Glasgow posts (DIP)           1.8
IT
 Telecommunications                          1
 4 graduate posts                                4
Finance
 Accounts assistant                             1
 Warehouse temp to perm                   1
Technical
 1 posts                                              1
Marketing
 2 posts                                             2
International
 1 post (vacant)                                  1
 Web co-ordinator                             1
 Malaysia:  8 posts                             8
 Singapore:  3 posts                           3
 Ghana                                              1
 Caribbean:  2 posts                           2

                                                  _____
                                                     46.9
=================================================
 APPENDIX 6:   MARKETING INITIATIVES LISTED IN HB'S PAPER WHICH ARE INCLUDED IN 2000 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGETS
 

Members' Affairs                                         £,000
Members guide to Events & Services              46
Progressing your Career                                 14
Career Counselling                                         12
Factsheets and application forms                  100
Membership survey                                         5
ACCA audit registration                                  5
Small business initiatives                                 9
Member publications redesign                       40
SME seminars                                              10
Euro questionnaire                                        10
ECWAT contribution                                   20
Miscellaneous projects                                   9
Small business booklet reprints                      8
Topo list / DLIP / specialisms                      25
PS compendium (assuming web based
with hard copy demand only)                       12
various member publications deferred
from 1999 (re-badging IFAC/OHE,
financial services booklet, e-commerce         28
Member booklets
 1 for each FSS sector                                 15
 2 care pathways                                          14
 3 I&C                                                        21
 3 ELO/Business Links                                21
4 public sector                                            24
1 follow up FSA                                           5
Repeat of US / Danish study tours                8
                                                                ____
                                                                  461
Student Affairs
Redesign of student promotional literature  150

Professional Standards
Vacancies for 2 new training posts
(Glasgow KAC and Dublin TC)
- in addition to 6 new posts already
filled at full year cost of £157k                    54
Employers’ Guide                                      50

Corporate Development
Vacancy for new financial management
post in technical                                         47
PR commissioned articles                          12
                                                              _____
 
                                                              774