Political party records
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General requirements
The following accounting records are required to be kept by the party for at least three years:
receipt book
acknowledgement book
deposit book
cash book, or a receipts cash book and payments cash book
cheque book
journal
ledger.
The party agent of a party may apply to the NSW Electoral Commission for approval for the party to keep a system of electronic accounting records other than as described here. For further information, contact us.
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 was made.
If a reportable political donation of money is received the party 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 a person authorised by the party agent.
If a reportable political donation that is a non-monetary gift is received, the party 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 a person authorised by the party agent.
A carbon impression of the receipt must be made on the triplicate form, which must be retained by the party.
If a receipt or acknowledgement is to be cancelled write the word 'CANCELLED' across the face of the original and copy of the form. The party 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.
Deposit book
The deposit book must contain deposit forms in duplicate for each bank, credit union or building society at which the party keeps accounts.
Provision must be made for 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
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 bank, credit union or building society at the time of making a deposit of a political donation
the particulars are entered on each deposit form at the time of making such a deposit
the carbon impression of each complete deposit entry is initialled by an officer of the bank, credit union or building society at which the deposit is being made and is stamped with the stamp of that authorised deposit-taking institution.
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 party 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.
Journal
As soon as practicable after a transaction is effected, the party must enter in the journal particulars of:
the value of any interest in property donated to the party
particulars 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 effected from one ledger account to another
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 particulars of each entry in the journal must be sufficient to identify the transaction in respect of which the entry is made and the reason for that entry.
Ledger
The ledger must contain particulars of all political donations received and electoral expenditure incurred.
The particulars must, if taken in conjunction with other particulars 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.