Campaign accounts and record keeping

Parties, groups, candidates and other electoral participants at the NSW Local Government elections are responsible for understanding and complying with the rules for campaign accounts and record keeping set out in the Electoral Funding Act and the Electoral Funding Regulation.

The rules set out in the section Political donations in relation to who is responsible for the management and disclosure of political donations and electoral expenditure apply to the use of campaign accounts and keeping of records. For further information visit the website at elections.nsw.gov.au/funding-and-disclosure/campaign-accounts or email us at fdc@elections.nsw.gov.au.

What is a campaign account, when and how to use it?

Elected members, candidates and groups – A campaign account is an account that is required to be kept by an elected member, group or candidate for an election if the political donations received or electoral expenditure incurred by the elected member candidate or group are $1,000 or more. A campaign account must be separate to any other accounts of the party, elected member, group or candidate and must be held with a financial institution in Australian dollars. The campaign account of a group must be separate to the campaign account of each candidate who is a member of the group.

There are no requirements under the Electoral Funding Act as to the name of a campaign account however a financial institution may require an account to be kept in the name of the party, elected member, group or candidate.

Parties – A campaign account is an account that is required to be kept by a party for making payments for the party’s electoral expenditure.

Local government campaign account of a party

A political party must keep a campaign account for a local government election campaign before incurring electoral expenditure for a local government election. The campaign account is known as the local government campaign account of the party.

All electoral expenditure incurred by the party for a local government election must be paid from the party’s local government campaign account. Other accounts kept by the party and accounts kept by local groups or branches of the party must not be used to make payments of electoral expenditure for a local government election.

The party may authorise any person to operate the party’s campaign account. When opening a campaign account those people who have been authorised by the party to operate the campaign account must also be authorised by the financial institution to operate the account.

The following may be paid into the local government campaign account of a party:

• political donations made to the party that do not exceed the applicable cap on political donations to the party for a local government election (including the proceeds of the investment or disposal of any political donation of property for a local government election that is held as an asset of the account)
• money borrowed by the party at any time for a local government election
• money belonging to the party on 1 July 2016 (including the proceeds of the investment or disposal of any other property belonging to the party on or before that date) and
• a bequest made to the party.

Other money may be paid into the local government campaign account in addition to the above list except for the following which may not be paid into the local government campaign account:

• a party subscription except an amount that exceeds the maximum subscription referred to in the section Political donations and that constitutes a political donation to the party
• an amount of a political donation to the party that exceeds the applicable cap on political donations to the party (refer to Caps on political donations) and
• payments made to the party by the NSW Electoral Commission from 1 July 2016 from the Election Campaigns Fund, Administration Fund, Policy Development Fund or New Parties Fund.

If a political donation is received that exceeds the applicable cap on donations, the amount exceeding the cap should be deposited into an account kept exclusively for federal election campaigns in order to be exempt from the donation cap.

The local government campaign account of a party can also be used to make payments for other expenditure (except electoral expenditure for State elections).

Campaign account of an elected member, group or candidate

A campaign account is required to be kept for the elected member, group or candidate in the following circumstances:

• $1,000 or more in political donations have been received by the elected member, group or candidate in the period from 30 days after the previous general election for the local government area to 30 days after the local government election or
• $1,000 or more in electoral expenditure is incurred by the elected member, group or candidate in the period from 30 days after the previous general election for the local government area to 30 days after the local government election.

The political donations and electoral expenditure of a group are separate to the political donations and electoral expenditure of a candidate even if the candidate is a member of the group. This means that if a candidate who is a member of a group receives $1,000 in political donations or incurs $1,000 or more in electoral expenditure, the candidate must keep a campaign account that is separate to the group.

Political donations made to or for the benefit of a group are taken to be political donations of the group and electoral expenditure incurred by the group is electoral expenditure of the group.

The elected member, lead candidate of the group, or a candidate (as applicable), must be authorised with the financial institution to operate the account and must operate the account.

Political donations made to or for the benefit of an elected member, group or candidate that are used to make payments for electoral expenditure for the elected member, group or candidate, must be paid into the campaign account and the payments must be made from the campaign account.

Other uses for the campaign account include:

• deposit contributions made by a candidate to finance their own campaign, that is, for the candidate to incur their own electoral expenditure
• deposit political donations made to or for the benefit of the elected member, group or candidate
• make payments for electoral expenditure for the elected member, group, or candidate
• reimburse the elected member, group or candidate for money paid into the account by the elected member, group or candidate or
• make political donations to elected members, groups or candidates who are members of the same party as the elected member, candidate or group members.

Electoral expenditure of an elected member, group or candidate can only be paid using:

• contributions made by a candidate to finance their own campaign or
• political donations made to or for the benefit of the elected member, group or candidate.

Minor payments of electoral expenditure of $50 or less  (and no more than $1,000 in total in an election period) can be paid for outside the campaign account. A record must be kept in the petty cash book.

A contribution made by a candidate to finance the election campaign of the group of which the candidate is a member is a political donation that is subject to the applicable donation cap for a group and is subject to the other rules that apply to political donations.

The elected member, group or candidate can appoint a person to make payments from the campaign account and to deposit political donations made to or for the benefit of the elected member, group or candidate. The person appointed should then be authorised by the financial institution to operate the campaign account. A written record of the appointment should be kept.

When the account is no longer required it may be closed. Any amount remaining in the campaign account must be paid:

• to the party of which the elected member or candidate was a member at the time of the election
• in the case of a group – to the campaign accounts (if any) operated for the candidates who were members of the group (the amount being divided equally among the candidates) or
• if none of the above apply – to a charity nominated by the elected member, group or candidate.

Records must be kept of the bank statements from the account for the purpose of a compliance audit that will be undertaken by the NSW Electoral Commission.

Record keeping

Complete and accurate accounting and financial records must be kept by parties, party agents, elected members, groups and candidates for at least three years in order to for political donations and electoral expenditure to be properly disclosed.

The following people and entities are responsible for keeping records of political donations and electoral expenditure:

• a party is responsible for keeping the party’s records
• a lead candidate of a group is responsible for keeping the group’s records
• an elected member is responsible for keeping their own records and
• a candidate is responsible for keeping their own records.

Accounting records may be kept in paper or electronic form. If records are kept in electronic form the records must comply with the requirements for keeping paper records to the extent the requirements can be reasonably complied with.

If accounting records are kept in electronic form the responsible person must ensure that:

• entries appear in chronological sequence
• all entries are numbered sequentially in a manner that enables the completeness of the records to be conveniently verified
• no amendment to the particulars of a transaction already recorded can be made otherwise than by a separate transaction effecting the amendment
• a back-up copy of all records that are less than three years old must made at least once a month and
• the most recent back-up copy must be kept in a separate location so that any incident that might adversely affect the records would not affect the back-up copy.

Political party records

Political parties are required to keep the following accounting records at the party’s headquarters in New South Wales:

• a receipt book for monetary reportable political donations
• an acknowledgement book for non-monetary reportable political donations
• a deposit book
• a cash book, or a receipts cash book and payments cash book
• a cheque book
• a journal and
• a ledger.

If a party wishes to keep an alternative system of accounts, approval must be sought from the NSW Electoral Commission.

Elected member, candidate and group records

The person responsible for an elected member, group or candidate is required to keep the following accounting records in relation to the elected member, group or candidate’s election campaign:

• a receipt book for monetary reportable political donations
• an acknowledgement book for non-monetary reportable political donations
• a cheque book
• a petty cash book and
• a cash book, or a receipts cash book and payments cash book.

Receipt and acknowledgement books

The NSW Electoral Commission provides elected members, groups and candidates with receipt and acknowledgement books for reportable political donations received. To request a receipt and acknowledgement book email us at fdc@elections.nsw.gov.au.

Each receipt and acknowledgment comes in triplicate form: the original must be given to person who made the reportable political donation, the duplicate is to be kept by the person responsible for keeping records and the triplicate is to stay in the book and be sent back to the NSW Electoral Commission when the person discloses political donations to the NSW Electoral Commission.

Each receipt and acknowledgement contains a statement to advise the donor of their obligation to disclose to the NSW Electoral Commission details of the reportable political donations they have made. 

An electronically generated receipt or acknowledgement can be used if it contains the same information as the receipts and acknowledgements in the books issued by the NSW Electoral Commission and the system used to generate the receipt is approved by the NSW Electoral Commission. To be approved, the candidate or party will need to demonstrate that the system they intend to use will number receipts or acknowledgements in sequential order and that they cannot be altered after being issued.

Deposit books (applies to parties)

The deposit book must contain deposit forms in duplicate for the financial institution at which the party’s account is kept. The following to be entered on each form:

• the date of the deposit
• the amount of the deposit
• the form (cash, cheque or postal order) of the deposit and
• in the case of a deposit by cheque, the name of the drawer of the cheque.

A carbon impression of the deposit must be made on the duplicate form which must be retained by the party. The party must ensure that:

• the deposit book is produced to the financial institution at the time of making a deposit of a political donation
• the details referred to above are entered on each deposit form at the time of making the deposit and 
• the carbon impression of each complete deposit entry must be initialed by an officer of the financial institution and is stamped with the stamp of that financial institution.

Petty cash book (applies to elected members, candidates and groups)

The petty cash book is used for recording cash payments for items of electoral expenditure of $50 or less including those payments made outside of the campaign account.

Cash book, or a receipts cash book and payments cash book

The cash book must be a book or books, with consecutively numbered sheets. The consecutive numbers of receipts issued or cheques drawn must be shown on the respective sheets. If the loose-leaf principle is used, separate sheets can be kept for the receipts cash book and the payments cash book, and it is not necessary to number the sheets consecutively.

As soon as possible after a transaction the following details must be entered in the cash book:

• on the receipts side of the cash book, on the receipts cash sheets, or in the receipts cash book – details of all money received by way of political donations and
• on the disbursements side of the cash book, on the payments cash sheets or in the payments cash book – details 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 in the case of a party, 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 financial institution where the account is kept and
• amounts credited to the account and appearing in the relevant statement for which no receipt had been written, and amounts debited to the 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 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.

Journal (applies to parties)

As soon as possible after each transaction, the party must enter in the journal details of:

• the value of any interest in property donated to the party
• details of any interest in property disposed of by the party otherwise than for money
• all adjustments to be made to accounts in the ledger
• all transfers to be made from one ledger account to another and
• all other transactions affecting any ledger account which are not posted or to be posted from the cash book to the ledger, being transactions relating to political donations received or electoral expenditure incurred.

The details of each entry in the journal must be sufficient to identify the transaction in respect of each entry and the reason for that entry.

Ledger (applies to parties)

The ledger must contain details of all political donations received and electoral expenditure incurred. 

The details must, if taken in conjunction with other details in the receipt book, cash book or books and journal, be sufficient to identify the transaction in respect of which the political donation was received or the electoral expenditure incurred.

Each entry in the cash book or books relating to a political donation received or an electoral expenditure incurred must be posted as soon as practicable to the appropriate account in the ledger. 

Against each entry in the ledger account there must be recorded:

• a reference to the folio of the cash book from which the entry is posted or
• if the cash book is kept on the loose-leaf principle, a reference to the receipt number or cheque number.

Each entry in the journal relating to a political donation received or an electoral expenditure incurred must be posted as soon as practicable to the appropriate account in the ledger.

There must be recorded against each entry in the ledger account a reference to the folio of the journal from which the entry is posted, preceded by the letter “J”.

At the end of each month, each account in the ledger must be balanced and the balance (if any) must be carried forward to the commencement of the next month.

Records of DVDs, video tapes and other media

The following applies to any DVD, video tape, film, transparency or electronic video file that is used:

• for the purposes of an advertisement appearing on television or at a cinema or
• at the direction, or with the approval, of a party, elected member, group or candidate.

The party, elected member, group or candidate must keep any such DVD, video tape, film, transparency or electronic video file for 12 months after the advertisement was last broadcast.

The NSW Electoral Commission may ask to view a copy of the DVD and other media for the purpose of undertaking a compliance audit or investigation.

Records of other advertising

The following applies to any electoral expenditure for advertising which is incurred by a party, elected member, group or candidate.

The party, elected member, group or candidate must keep the following advertising material for 3 years after the advertising was last distributed:

• A copy of the text of any radio or internet advertisement or a copy of the radio or internet advertisement and
• if the expenditure is incurred in respect of an advertisement in one or more newspapers or periodicals: 
  • the full page of the newspaper or periodical in which the advertisement is displayed
  • a statement identifying the advertisement and listing the name of each newspaper and periodical in which the advertisement was published, the size of the advertisement and the date of each publication and
  • if the expenditure is incurred in respect of other printed election campaign material, a copy of each printed item.