This article will break down the hows, dos and don'ts and whys of transferring money between your accounts.
As part of a student group, you will have noticed that the bulk of your funds is held in your restricted account. If you're not sure what your restricted account is, then you should read this Freshdesk article first to familiarise yourself with your group's accounts!
However, the restricted account is not the only account the group has, and as such, different activities will be paid out of different accounts. If you wish to know what each account is for, please read the Freshdesk article linked above.
How do I transfer money between my accounts?
All you need to do in order to transfer funds between your accounts is to submit a Freshdesk ticket outlining how much money you want to transfer and from what accounts you want the transfer to happen between.
E.g. I would like to request a transfer of £500 from our restricted account to our transport account.
Once you submit the ticket, we will pick it up and action this transfer for you.
When would I use this?
If you are part of a sports club, the most used function would be to move funds from your restricted account into your transport account to help cover the costs of mileage expense claims as well as hiring of coaches to go to fixtures, etc.
If you are part of a society, you might need to use your other account to help pay entry fees to competitions.
What accounts am I able to transfer money between?
You can request to move money between:
- Restricted to Other/Transport
- Other/Transport to Restricted
- Social to Restricted
- Grant to Restricted*
- Grant to Other/Transport*
- Grant to Social*
*Grant money will be allocated to you from student group funding and for specific items/activities. e.g. if you have been granted £150 to help cover transport costs, you may move your Grant money to your Other/Transport, but not your Social or Restricted account.
You cannot move money between:
- Restricted to Social
Why can't I move money from any account into any other? Why are there limitations?
The reasoning behind the transfer of funds is to help with your group's finances transparency.
Restricted money is collected from membership purchases. Membership costs are to help cover the core running of the group; core activities and costs associated with this (e.g. coaches, facilities, group owned equipment, *in some cases transport, etc). These payments do not include extras; in this case, social costs. Any social event is a voluntary "extra" to the group's activities, and therefore cannot be charged for in membership money.
This means that if you were to transfer money between your restricted and your social account, you would be using money from a pot that is used for the general running of your group into something optional, which not every member would benefit from.
Social funds need to be fundraised, paid for with a button or be covered by a sponsorship.
Please note, that some student groups have very specific uses for their student accounts (the accounts are not just the standard restricted/social/other) and the above may apply differently to them.