Help centre / Registers & safeguarding / Record related-party transactions
Record related-party transactions
A related-party transaction is money or a deal between your charity and a trustee or someone close to them. Record each one in Governance under Related party transactions. Your accounts must disclose them, and your Trustees' Annual Report draws on this register.
Charity accounting rules (SORP Module 9) say your accounts must disclose transactions with trustees and people connected to them, such as a trustee's spouse or a company a trustee controls. Recording them as they happen is far easier than reconstructing them at year end. Having a transaction on the register is not an accusation. Recording it openly is exactly what the rules ask for.
Record a transaction
- Open Governance, then Related party transactions.
- Select Add transaction.
- Enter the Related party (name) and their Relationship to the charity. For example: "trustee's printing company".
- Pick the Type that fits, such as a payment, contract or loan, and the Amount if there was one.
- Say What it was for, with the Date and Financial year.
- Record How it was authorised and how the conflict was managed. For example, Meadowbank Community Trust writes: "Trustees approved the £250 leaflet order and Sam left the room for the decision."
- Select Add.
What happens next
The register shows a running total, and your Trustees' Annual Report draws on it when you come to the related-party section. Anyone who can view the conflicts register can see it, and every change is kept in your audit history.
Is this the same as the conflicts register?
No, but they work together. The conflicts register records the standing interest, for example that a trustee owns the printing company. This register records each actual transaction, with the amount and how it was handled.
The governance behind this: our free guide on charitycontrol.org explains the why in plain English.