Record keeping for other electoral participants
Record keeping information for Members of Parliament, councillors, candidate, groups of candidates, associated entities and third-party campaigners.
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General requirements
The following accounting records are required to be kept by the person responsible for at least three years:
a receipt book
an acknowledgement book
a cheque book
a petty cash book
a cash book, or a receipts cash book and payments cash book.
Receipt and acknowledgement book
The receipt and acknowledgement book must contain forms of receipt in triplicate. Each copy must be machine numbered serially.
Provision must be made for the following to be entered on each form:
the date of the receipt or acknowledgement
the amount of money received or the value of the gift received
a description of the gift (if not a monetary donation)
the form (cash, cheque or postal order) in which the money was received (for a monetary donation)
the name and address of the individual, or the name and relevant business number of the entity, by whom or on whose behalf the donation was made
the purpose for which the donation or payment was made.
If a reportable political donation of money is received the person responsible must issue from the receipt and acknowledgement book a receipt for the amount received. The particulars of the donation must be entered on each receipt and the receipt must be signed by the person responsible.
If a reportable political donation that is a non-monetary gift is received, the person responsible must issue from the receipt and acknowledgement book an acknowledgement of the donation. The particulars of the gift must be entered on each acknowledgement and the acknowledgement must be signed by the person responsible.
A carbon impression of the receipt must be made on the triplicate form, which must be retained by the person responsible.
If a receipt is to be cancelled write the word 'CANCELLED' across the face of the original and copy of the form.
The person responsible must retain in the receipt and acknowledgement book the original form of a cancelled receipt and the copy.
An electronic version of a receipt or acknowledgement may be used with the approval of the NSW Electoral Commission.
Petty cash book
The petty cash book must be a book for recording cash payments for items of expenditure of $50 or less.
Cash book
The cash book must be a book or books, the sheets of which are consecutively numbered. The consecutive numbers of receipts issued or cheques drawn must be shown on the respective sheets.
As soon as practicable after a transaction is effected, the person responsible must enter:
on the receipts side of the cash book, on the receipts cash sheets or in the receipts cash book—particulars of all money received by way of political donations
on the disbursements side of the cash book, on the payments cash sheets or in the payments cash book—particulars of all money disbursed by way of electoral expenditure.
At the end of each month, the cash book or books must be balanced and the balance carried forward to the commencement of the next month and to a ledger account provided for that purpose.
At the end of each month:
the entries in the cash book or books must be compared with the statement of the bank, credit union or building society
amounts credited to the bank, credit union or building society account and appearing in the relevant statement for which no receipt had been written and amounts debited to the bank, credit union or building society account and appearing in the relevant statement for which no cheque had been drawn must be entered in the cash book or books.
Any necessary reconciliation (showing the balance in the bank, credit union or building society account as indicated in the relevant statement, and adding any money received but not banked and deducting any cheques drawn but not presented for payment) must be entered in the cash book at the end of the entries for the month.