Financial Governance
Public money demands proper oversight. Quorate gives clerks real-time budget monitoring, dual-authorisation payment approval, and AGAR-ready financial reporting — all linked to the meetings where spending is approved.
The problem
Parish finance lives in spreadsheets. The clerk enters figures manually, reconciles against bank statements, and translates everything into AGAR Section 2 at year-end. Mistakes happen. Figures do not match. The auditor asks questions. Dual authorisation is tracked on paper. Nobody knows how much s.137 budget remains until the clerk checks the spreadsheet.
Budget monitoring
Set your annual budget by cost centre. Every payment recorded against the budget updates the running total in real time. See budget vs actuals at a glance — per heading, per committee, per quarter.
Budget headings map to AGAR Section 2 categories for parish councils. At year-end, the figures feed directly into the Annual Return without separate reconciliation.
Payment approval
Record every payment with payee, amount, VAT, budget heading, and authorising councillors. Payments above your standing order threshold automatically require dual authorisation. The audit trail shows who approved what, and when.
The financial threshold is configured in standing orders — typically £500 for dual signature. Quorate enforces this: a payment above threshold cannot be marked as approved without two authorising councillors recorded.
Precept and CIL tracking
Track your precept demand, CIL receipts, and s.137 expenditure against the statutory limit. The dashboard shows remaining capacity under each grant heading so the clerk can advise councillors before they commit.
The s.137 limit is updated annually. Quorate tracks spend against this limit and warns when expenditure approaches 80% of capacity. CIL receipts are tracked with the required 5-year spending deadline.
Financial reports
Generate a payment schedule for each meeting, a quarterly budget report, a year-end summary, and an AGAR-ready Section 2 statement. All exportable as CSV or PDF.
The meeting payment schedule shows all payments since the last meeting, formatted for councillor review. Councillors approve the schedule as a batch, and the approval is recorded in the minutes.
VAT reclaim
Track VAT on every payment. At the end of each quarter, generate a VAT reclaim summary showing total VAT paid, categorised by supplier. Export for submission to HMRC.
Parish councils reclaim VAT under Section 33 of the VAT Act 1994. Quorate tracks the VAT element of every payment and generates the reclaim schedule automatically.
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