Most parties operate as a single unit, which means the treasurer of the party has oversight over the finances of the entire party.
However, you may wish to register party branches that have financial autonomy. These are called “accounting units” and each unit is responsible for its own finances. Registering accounting units is optional.
Your financial scheme must specify if your party will have accounting units. Please note that our standard template scheme is not suitable for parties with accounting units.
If you have branches that are not financially autonomous, you do not need to register them as accounting units and they do not need to appear in your financial scheme. However, you may still want to refer to them in your constitution.
If you choose to register accounting units, each unit must have their own treasurer and second officer. You must also register the accounting unit’s headquarters address or a correspondence address if the accounting unit does not have a headquarters.
We can provide further advice on what is required, so please contact us in the first instance if you need more advice on accounting units.
Changes to your accounting units
You must tell us within 28 days if you make changes to your accounting units.
You must tell us if there are any changes to:
the name of an accounting unit
the names of an accounting unit’s registered officers
If you change the name of an accounting unit, including if you are adding, removing or merging accounting units, then this will require you to update your financial scheme.