Can the Treasurer, with the Charity Steward, open this year's gifts, show which have a valid declaration, and leave a pack a successor can file?

This URL is the product. The blogs are the guides.

Officers who land here usually want one of two things. They want to know whether a product will keep the four records on one desk, or they want the method for running the year. Keep this page if you are choosing the desk. Open the blogs if you need the calendar, the declaration wording HMRC already publishes, the dues split, the tin count, or the longer survey of the Chest and other tools. The titles and descriptions are different on purpose so a search result does not send you to the wrong one.

• How a lodge takes a Gift Aid declaration is the declaration itself: what HMRC asks for, why a tick is not a file, and how it sits on the named member.
• How a Treasurer splits dues so Gift Aid can be claimed is the charitable portion of the annual subscription, written on every paid row.
• How a lodge reclaims GASDS on festive-board cash is the tin counted on the night, and why unnamed small cash is a different scheme.
• How a lodge reclaims Gift Aid on dues, alms, and donations is the year: split, tin, GASDS, and who files.
• Why lodges leave Gift Aid unclaimed is the three operational breaks, using only figures already published.
• How a lodge uses a Relief Chest and still runs Gift Aid is the Chest as a destination, not a rival.

The Treasurer product desk is the wider books: who has paid, what hit the bank, and what Gift Aid is still unclaimed. This page stays on the reclaim job. Software is useful only when it makes those four records cheap to keep and leaves leftovers honest.

The operational reclaim question

A lodge that runs Gift Aid well can answer these without a week of reconstruction. Is there a valid declaration on this named donor. What portion of this year's sub is actually a gift. What did the festive-board tin hold on the night. Can a successor open the pack. Those are officer questions, not a software brochure.

This is ordinary charity paperwork for a UK membership organisation that takes subscriptions, dinner collections, and named gifts. It is not a lesson in Masonry. It does not describe ceremony, signs, words, or anything private to the Craft. It does not invent a rule from UGLE or a Province. Minutes are a lodge record of business. They are not a Gift Aid evidence file, and this page will not ask you to put private lodge business into a tax pack.

The four records are one desk seen from four sides. If they live in four places they drift by the third meeting. The three breaks are how that drift usually happens. A declaration in a folder, a split in a side note, and a tin in a cupboard are three good intentions. The claim needs them on the same paid gift. Filing is then a file, not a hunt.

Four reclaim records, and the three breaks that lose the year

Name the records so a successor can test them. Name the breaks so committee can see why April is always a reconstruction. The records are declaration, dues split, cash log, and filing. The breaks are the first three when they never meet. Software cannot close a break the lodge never owned. A Chest cannot close it either.

A successor arriving after installation should be able to open this year's gifts and answer those four questions without telephoning last year's team. If any one answer requires a Secretary inbox, a formula invented in April, a tin that went home, or an assumption that the Relief Chest already did the work, that break is still open. The test is whether a second officer can show the same answers from the same desk.

What HMRC publishes, re-checked 14 September 2026

We re-checked the public GOV.UK Gift Aid and Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme pages on 14 September 2026 before repeating these facts. HMRC's Gift Aid scheme lets a UK charity reclaim 25 pence for every £1 given by a UK taxpayer who has made a valid declaration. That is public HMRC practice. It is not a lodge custom, and this page will not invent a Provincial by-law about it.

GOV.UK tells charities that a declaration should state that the donor has paid the same amount or more in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year, and that the donor agrees Gift Aid should be claimed. The declaration must include a description of the gift and state the name of the charity, the donor's full name, and the donor's full home address including a postal code. GOV.UK currently tells charities to keep a record of declarations for six years after the most recent donation you claimed Gift Aid on. Follow HMRC if that published period changes for your charity.

Gift Aid applies to a genuine charitable gift. A membership fee is not automatically a gift. Lodges that treat part of the annual subscription as a donation can claim only on that charitable portion, and only where a valid declaration is on file. This page will not tell you the lawful percentage for your lodge. Neighbouring lodges may split differently. Copying them without looking at your own resolution and charity status does not create a record you can defend. The split job has its own note: how a Treasurer splits dues so Gift Aid can be claimed.

The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme is a different HMRC route. GOV.UK, re-checked on the same day, says you may be able to claim 25 per cent on cash donations of £30 or less, and on contactless card donations of £30 or less collected on or after 6 April 2019, without a Gift Aid declaration. If the basic rate of Income Tax is 20 per cent, you can claim a GASDS top-up of £2,000 on £8,000 of qualifying small donations. LodgePay's published copy states an annual GASDS allowance of up to £8,000. We are not adding a higher figure, and we are not inventing a lodge-specific cap.

GOV.UK also publishes conditions that sit beside that allowance. Your charity or CASC must have claimed Gift Aid in the same tax year as you want to claim GASDS, and without getting a penalty in the last two tax years. Your GASDS claim cannot be more than ten times your Gift Aid claim in the same tax year. Membership fees are not eligible for GASDS. You cannot claim on donations that already have a valid Gift Aid declaration, and you cannot take a £30 portion of a larger gift. The scheme still needs a cash record: the total collected, the date of the collection, and the date it was paid into a bank account. Check HMRC for the conditions that apply to your charity in the year you file. The night-count job has its own note: how a lodge reclaims GASDS on festive-board cash.

Those are the public facts this product desk is allowed to use. Everything else on this page is officer practice: who owns the file, when the declaration is taken, how the split meets the paid row, how the tin is counted, and how a successor opens the pack. It is not a ruling from UGLE or a Province.

Three streams, without inventing lodge rules

Lodges commonly treat three streams as in scope. We describe them as officer practice, not as a ruling from Grand Lodge.

• The charitable portion of annual subscriptions, where the lodge has already decided that part of the sub is a donation rather than a membership fee, and a valid declaration sits on that named member.
• Festive-board alms and similar collections attributed to brethren who have a declaration on file, with a name on the meeting rather than a guess in April.
• Named donations taken at the point of giving, with the declaration captured then or already on the member record.

Dining is usually a meal cost. A raffle may be a lodge social account. Only the money the lodge treats as a charitable collection belongs in a Gift Aid or GASDS conversation. Decide that on the night, in writing, not in a later argument. This page will not invent a rule that every pound taken in the dining room is a gift.

A waiver is a decision, not a deleted row. If the lodge remits a brother's subscription, the charitable portion was not given. Putting it in the pack because the split is a formula is how totals inflate. A leaver who paid part of the year did not give a full-year gift. A late payer belongs in the year the money arrived, not the year you wished he had paid.

Unnamed small cash is not a named Gift Aid line. It may be GASDS if your charity meets HMRC's published conditions and someone counted the tin. It is not a way around a missing declaration on a named donor. Card and online gifts on the same evening already have a processor record and, often, a name. When a declaration exists, they stay on Gift Aid. Do not dump card takings into GASDS to save matching.

Declarations on the named donor

The first break is storage and timing, not wording. The declaration lives in a Secretary's inbox, a paper file from 2019, or a scanned PDF that nobody matches to this year's dues run or to a named donation on the night. Officers then either skip the claim or guess. A valid declaration that nobody can find is the same as no declaration for the purpose of filing.

A working process is dull and sufficient. Take the declaration once. Store it against the named member. Apply it to later eligible gifts. When a brother has not declared, do not invent a claim. Ask, or leave that gift out of the pack. If a declaration is cancelled, or a donor's tax position changes, stop applying it. GOV.UK expects donors to tell the charity if they want to cancel, if their name or address changes, or if they no longer pay enough tax.

The Treasurer should be able to open a named member and see the declaration, the date it was taken, and whether it still applies to this year's eligible gifts. He should be able to open two members who paid the same amount, show a declaration on one and none on the other, and see Gift Aid only on the first member's charitable portion. If the process cannot show that difference, the lodge will either under-claim or invent a claim.

The longer how-to, including what HMRC already publishes for a valid form, is on the declaration guide. This page will not write the wording for you, and it will not invent a UGLE template. HMRC publishes example declaration forms. A lodge can use those examples, or another form that meets the same published requirements, adapted to the charity that will actually file.

Keep the declarations and the gift list for the period HMRC requires. GOV.UK, re-checked on 14 September 2026, says six years after the most recent donation you claimed Gift Aid on. LodgePay's own product copy, when you reach the tool at the end of this desk, states seven years. Use the stricter of what HMRC and your own charity require. Follow HMRC if their published retention period differs.

Charitable split on annual subscriptions

The second break is the absence of a decision. Annual subscriptions are the largest regular figure on most lodge books. Membership fees and charitable donations are not the same thing. Gift Aid applies to the donation, with a valid declaration, not to a private club fee. A declaration does not create the split. It only answers whether this named donor is a UK taxpayer who has agreed Gift Aid on gifts to this charity. Both answers have to be yes before a dues line belongs in the pack.

The officer decision happens before software. The lodge, or its charity, decides what portion of the sub is a gift. The Treasurer then needs that split on every paid member, every year, not in a side spreadsheet that drifts from the unpaid list. Neighbouring lodges may split differently. Copying them without papers is not diligence. If the lodge has not decided that any part of the sub is a gift, there is no dues Gift Aid line to compute. Record the payment. Leave that money out of the pack.

Year start, or installation, is the moment. Write the membership fee, the charitable donation, the total a brother is asked to pay, and the charity that will file. If the lodge later changes the split, date the change. Do not silently edit last year's paid rows. If the lodge has no charity registration and files through a Provincial arrangement, say so on the same paper. The split is still a lodge record. The destination of the reclaim is a filing choice. Those are not the same sentence.

A clean year looks like this. The dues run goes out with the split already set. Payments come in by card, bank, or recorded cash. Each paid row shows how much was charitable. Gift Aid is computed only where a declaration exists. Late payers, leavers, and waivers stay visible so the claim is not padded. Instalments still need the same declaration on each charitable slice, or a lasting declaration that already covers those gifts. Choose the method the document actually supports, and do not change the method in March because the pack is due.

The unpaid list and the reclaimable figure have to look at the same rows. Card, bank, and recorded cash have to hit the same record. A brother who pays by bank transfer is not a different class of gift from a brother who pays by card. The split is a lodge decision about the year, not a property of the payment method. The wider dues desk is on the Treasurer page. The longer split method is how a Treasurer splits dues.

Cash log: festive-board named gifts and GASDS

The third break is the tin that never became a line. Dining, raffle, and alms are the same evening. If they post to three places, April is archaeology. Named card and online gifts stay on Gift Aid when a declaration exists. Do not dump card takings into GASDS to save matching. The schemes are not interchangeable.

A brother who puts a named donation on a card, or hands the Treasurer an envelope with his name, is not anonymous cash. If a valid Gift Aid declaration is on file, that gift is ordinary Gift Aid: 25 pence on every £1, as HMRC publishes. Do not drop his name to make the tin simpler. If the gift has a name but no declaration, ask for one or leave the gift out. If the gift is anonymous, it is not a Gift Aid line.

GASDS lets eligible charities reclaim a Gift Aid equivalent on small cash donations without a per-donor declaration, subject to HMRC's published conditions. LodgePay's public copy states an allowance of up to £8,000 a year. We are not adding a new figure. GASDS does not replace declarations on dues and named gifts. It does not repair a dues row with no charitable split. It does not mean that a Chest form completed the lodge year. It covers the small cash that would otherwise be invisible.

Two officers should count on the night, agree a figure, and write that figure against the meeting before the room is packed away. They should not take the tin home to sort later. Bank the counted amount, not a rounded hope. GOV.UK, re-checked on 14 September 2026, still expects a record of the total collected, the date of the collection, and the date it was paid into a bank account. A paying-in book that says a sum went to the bank is not a meeting record. A later transfer to a Relief Chest is not a count.

Some lodges do not charge for dining. The Treasurer still needs the night if a collection moved. If a meeting has no cash line and someone later remembers a collection, write the process failure down. Do not invent a figure from the paying-in book. The longer night-count method is GASDS on the festive board.

Filing: an HMRC pack a successor can open

The fourth record is the pack. The registered charity files with HMRC and receives the reclaim direct to its bank account. That may be the lodge or a Provincial body, as you already arrange. Software can prepare an HMRC-ready export and keep lodge files. It should not file for you. It should not take the reclaim. The processor is not the claim. The claim is the declaration, the split, the night's lines, and a pack a successor can open.

Two officers should be able to see the same pack. Size is not the argument. A thirty-member lodge still produces a dues year, festive boards, and a current account. Write the year as if the next Treasurer will open it with no handover meeting. Declarations on members. The charitable split on the dues year. Closed meetings with cash counted. The last export. Who files. Which bank receives the reclaim. He does not need the sitting Treasurer's phone.

Ownership should be named. Treasurer, Charity Steward, or both. A job that is everyone's is nobody's. We are not inventing a UGLE office rule. We are describing a small organisation that wants a successor. Write the owner's name where the split is written. If two officers share the desk, write which of them files.

Access should be limited to the officers who need it. The Treasurer and Charity Steward need the file. The whole committee does not need a folder of home addresses forwarded on a thread. That is ordinary data care for a charity holding addresses and payments, not a Craft rule. When you file, a second officer should read the totals against the declarations, the dues split, and the tin lines. Store the submission with those documents for the retention period you must keep.

Why lodges leave Gift Aid unclaimed

Lodges do not leave Gift Aid unclaimed because they dislike money. They leave it because the three breaks stay open. The declaration never meets this year's gifts. The dues split was never a decision. The tin never became a line. Each break can look closed on its own. The lodge has a folder of papers. The lodge once discussed a percentage. Someone remembers that the tin was full. The claim still fails, because Gift Aid is not three separate hobbies. It is one paid gift that has to carry the right document, the right split, and, for unnamed cash, the right night line.

That is why handover fails. The sitting Treasurer knows which scan is the real declaration, which tab holds this year's split, and which paying-in total was last installation's tin. The successor inherits a laptop password, a shared drive named after last year's Master, and a polite conversation about how the year usually works. The lodge then files nothing, or files a guess.

The published illustration already on the pricing page is the only unclaimed figure this desk will repeat. Most lodges leave £1,000 or more unclaimed each year. A typical 30-member lodge reclaims £1,125 a year: £225 from dues and £900 from eight festive boards, plus GASDS on cash up to £8,000. Those amounts assume the lodge recorded the payments and the declarations. A tin that never became a line cannot be reclaimed. This page will not invent a higher figure, and it will not invent a Province average. The miss is written out on why lodges leave Gift Aid unclaimed.

Sit beside the MCF Relief Chest

The Masonic Charitable Foundation Relief Chest is a real, respected destination for charitable money lodges already trust to the MCF path. Public MCF pages describe the scheme as a way for lodges, chapters, and Provinces to give more to the charities they support. This page will not invent Chest fees, a feature list, or a comparison of Chest products we have not been given. If you need those facts, read the MCF's own material. MCF's public pages already cover Gift Aid on donations into a Chest. Officers already know those papers. This desk will not reprint them.

Destination and the lodge desk are different jobs. A Chest holds and gives. Gift Aid work records what was given, by whom, under which scheme, so someone can file. A lodge can use both. A lodge can use a Chest and still leave Gift Aid unclaimed if nobody captured declarations or counted the tin. A lodge can run a careful Gift Aid year and still send grants through a Chest. Treating them as rivals is how officers spend a year arguing about tools instead of writing down what was given.

A Chest form, where MCF publishes one, is a declaration for gifts that go into a Chest. It is not automatically the lodge year's declaration desk for dues and named gifts that never entered the Chest, and it does not count the dinner tin. A later transfer is not a reconstruction service. The claim pack and a later transfer to a Chest can move on different calendars. If two officers disagree about where charitable money should later sit, they should write the destination down. They should not pause the taking of declarations until the argument ends.

We will not invent a UGLE or Provincial rule that says a lodge must, or must not, use a Chest. LodgePay, when you reach it at the end of this page, sits beside that choice. It does not replace it. The longer pairing is on Relief Chest and lodge Gift Aid.

What other tools actually publish

Named tools are real. We re-checked public pages on 14 September 2026. We will not invent a feature, a price, or a Gift Aid claim those pages do not state.

The Working Tools publishes a Treasurer's cash book inside a secretary operating system. Public pricing on 14 September 2026 was £5.00 a month, with a 30-day trial. Delegates, including a Treasurer, get their own login at no extra fee. An extra-lodge monthly figure is not stated on the pricing page we opened today, so this desk will not invent one. The treasurer page describes lodge-category income and outgoings, subscriptions and dining fees against members, who has paid dues, email reminders from the app, charity funds kept separate from general funds, year-end figures for auditors, branded PDFs, dining numbers from the Event Planner, and officer expenses with receipts. That is a serious cheap desk. The homepage, pricing page, and treasurer page still do not describe Gift Aid or GASDS reclaim, or an HMRC-ready export. We will not award it.

The MCF Relief Chest, on the public pages we used, is a destination and stewardship path. It is not a lodge cash book, and this page will not treat it as one. If the lodge already uses a Chest, keep it. The declaration, the dues split, and the night's cash log are still the lodge's operational work.

A folder can hold paper. It cannot apply a 2019 sheet to this year's paid rows unless someone does that matching by hand every time a gift arrives. A spreadsheet of ticks can record that someone once said yes. It is not the HMRC document. When the tick and the scan disagree, the Treasurer has to rebuild the year from two files that were never required to stay together.

Reclaim jobs versus folder, Chest, cash book, and LodgePay

Read the table as jobs, not as marketing claims. A blank cell on another tool is not an insult. It means their public pages, on the date we checked, did not describe that job, or that the job belongs to a destination rather than to a lodge pack.

Where LodgePay fits, after the lodge owns the year

Once the lodge owns taking the declaration, storing it on the member, applying the dues split, counting the tin, and assembling a pack, software is a way to stop that work living in one brother's laptop. LodgePay is the tool at the end of that decision, not the opening line. The Treasurer desk already states the wider books this reclaim sits inside.

LodgePay records a Gift Aid declaration against the member and applies it to later eligible gifts. It can split an annual subscription into a membership portion and a charitable portion so Gift Aid is computed only on the eligible part, and only where a declaration exists. It records festive-board named gifts and cash on the meeting, including GASDS on unnamed cash up to the published £8,000 allowance, subject to HMRC's conditions. It produces an HMRC-ready export and keeps lodge files. Card payments go through Mooov. The lodge files. The reclaim goes to the lodge or province bank account. LodgePay does not take the money.

A Relief Chest, if you use one, remains a destination. LodgePay sits beside that choice. It does not replace MCF, and this page will not pretend it does. If you only need a cheap secretary cash book, The Working Tools at £5.00 a month may be enough, and you should buy it with a clear conscience. You will still add Gift Aid yourself, because their live pages do not describe that reclaim.

If you cannot open this year's gifts, show which have a valid declaration, and hand a successor the pack, buying a platform will not file the year. That is the end of the pitch, not the start of the calendar.

Cards, Mooov, and fees at cost

Card payments go through Mooov. Status is webhook-verified, so a payment does not sit pending because someone forgot to refresh a dashboard. Standard processing fees pass through at cost. We will not invent a fee table. The processor is not the reclaim. The reclaim is the declaration, the split, the meeting, and the pack.

What the published illustration actually is

LodgePay already publishes this on the Gift Aid and pricing pages. We repeat it so nobody invents a better story. Most lodges leave £1,000 or more unclaimed each year. A typical 30-member lodge reclaims £1,125 a year: £225 from dues and £900 from eight festive boards, plus GASDS on cash up to £8,000 a year.

Those amounts assume the lodge actually recorded the payments and the declarations. A tin that never became a line cannot be reclaimed. A sub with no split cannot be claimed in full. A gift with no declaration is not Gift Aid. Run the same arithmetic on your own membership and meeting count. Do not quote a typical lodge to committee as if it were your books.

Essentials from £149 a month billed annually is £1,788 a year. The illustration is £1,125. The reclaim does not pay the subscription. Do not treat a typical lodge figure as if it covered the plan.

What the product costs

Published prices, as on the pricing page: Essentials from £149 a month billed annually, or £169 monthly. That annual Essentials figure is £1,788. Complete from £229. Group from £349. Province from £2,000 a month plus £35 per lodge. There is no setup fee. A 30-minute walkthrough, or a sandbox with lodge branding, is the usual way to see the desk before anyone commits.

The Gift Aid illustration of £1,125 is smaller than that Essentials year. The reclaim does not pay the subscription. Buy the desk because the four records stay cheap to keep, not because a typical-lodge figure covers the invoice.

Those figures do not raise the year. A £5 cash book the lodge actually operates beats a fuller platform nobody opens. If you only need a secretary operating system and that cash book, compare The Working Tools and buy the cheaper desk. If the lodge already sends charitable money to a Relief Chest, keep the Chest. If the four reclaim records must sit on one desk a successor can open, book the walkthrough and ask the questions at the end of this page.

Short answers a Treasurer actually asks

Is this the same as the Gift Aid blogs?

No. The blogs are the method: how a declaration is taken, how a Treasurer splits dues, how the tin is counted for GASDS, how the year is run, why reclaim is left, and how a lodge sits beside a Relief Chest. This URL stays the product desk. It tells a Treasurer and Charity Steward what LodgePay actually does for the four reclaim records, what it costs, and what to ask on a walkthrough.

What does LodgePay actually do for Gift Aid?

It holds a Gift Aid declaration on the named member and applies it to later eligible gifts. It can split an annual subscription into a membership portion and a charitable portion so Gift Aid is computed only on the eligible part. It records festive-board named gifts and cash on the meeting, including GASDS on unnamed cash up to the published £8,000 allowance, subject to HMRC's conditions. It produces an HMRC-ready export and keeps lodge files. Cards go through Mooov. The lodge files. LodgePay does not take the reclaim.

Does LodgePay replace the MCF Relief Chest?

No. The Relief Chest is a real, respected destination for charitable money. This page will not pretend LodgePay replaces it, and it will not invent Chest fees or features. If the lodge already uses a Chest, the lodge still owns the declaration, the dues split, the night's cash log, and a pack someone can file. The two sit beside each other.

Is a £5 cash book enough for Gift Aid?

It may be enough if the lodge only needs a secretary operating system and a cash book. The Working Tools publishes that cash book at £5.00 a month, with a 30-day trial and delegates included. Their public homepage, pricing, and treasurer pages, opened on 14 September 2026, do not describe Gift Aid or GASDS reclaim, or an HMRC-ready export. A cash book can record that someone paid. That is not the same as a declaration-linked claim pack.

Who files Gift Aid, and who keeps the reclaim?

The registered charity files with HMRC and receives the reclaim. That may be the lodge or a Provincial body, as you already arrange. LodgePay prepares the HMRC-ready export and keeps lodge files. It does not file for you and does not receive the money.

Can we claim Gift Aid on the whole annual subscription?

Only on the portion that is genuinely a charitable donation, with a valid declaration. A membership fee is not automatically a gift. The lodge decides the split. Do not copy another lodge's figure without looking at your own resolution and charity status.

Does cash in the alms bag qualify?

Named gifts with a declaration go through Gift Aid. Small unnamed cash may qualify under GASDS if your charity meets HMRC's published conditions. LodgePay's public copy states an annual GASDS allowance of up to £8,000. Check HMRC for the rules that apply to you. A tin that never became a line cannot be reclaimed.

What makes a Gift Aid declaration valid?

It is a HMRC document, not a lodge custom. GOV.UK, re-checked on 14 September 2026, requires the charity name, the donor's full name and home address including a postal code, a description of the gifts, and agreement that Gift Aid may be claimed, plus the taxpayer confirmation HMRC publishes. Without that document stored on the named donor, a named gift should not go into the pack.

How long do we keep the declarations?

Follow HMRC. GOV.UK, re-checked on 14 September 2026, says keep a record of declarations for six years after the most recent donation you claimed Gift Aid on. LodgePay's published copy states seven years for Gift Aid records. Use the stricter of what HMRC and your own charity require, and keep the gifts that those declarations supported with them.

What if a brother paid but has no declaration?

Record the payment so the books stay true. Do not invent Gift Aid on his charitable portion. Ask for a declaration, or leave that gift out of the pack.

If we already use a Relief Chest, do we still need this process?

Yes. A Chest is a destination for charitable funds. Declarations, the dues split, and the night's cash log are still the lodge's operational work. The two are not rivals.

What does LodgePay cost?

As on the pricing page: Essentials from £149 a month billed annually, or £169 monthly. That is £1,788 a year on the annual Essentials rate. Complete from £229. Group from £349. Province from £2,000 a month plus £35 per lodge. Mooov processing fees pass through at cost. There is no setup fee.

Does the Gift Aid illustration pay for LodgePay?

No. The published typical 30-member illustration is £1,125 a year (£225 from dues and £900 from eight festive boards), plus GASDS on cash up to £8,000. Essentials billed annually is £1,788. The reclaim does not pay the subscription. The figure is an illustration, not your books. See pricing.

Questions that puncture a demo

Bring last year's unpaid list, last installation night's alms total, and how you already send money to a Relief Chest if you use one. Ask these out loud. If the answers need a second spreadsheet, you are still buying a diary.

1. Show a member with a declaration and one without. What is claimed on the same dues run?
2. Open the declaration. Is it the HMRC document with name, address, charity, and gifts covered, or only a tick in a spreadsheet?
3. Where is this year's charitable split on the annual sub, and who can change it?
4. Open the last festive board. Dining, raffle, named donation, cash alms. Which lines are Gift Aid and which are GASDS?
5. Export the HMRC pack. Who files it, and which bank receives the reclaim?
6. Show declarations and a dues split without asking us to stop using a Relief Chest.
7. Walk the published £1,125 illustration on our membership count, then show Essentials at £1,788 billed annually, without claiming the reclaim pays the subscription.
8. If the Treasurer stands down in June, what does the successor actually inherit?

A 30-minute lodge walkthrough from Chelmsford

If the four records belong on one desk, book a 30-minute lodge walkthrough. Email hello@lodgepayments.co.uk or use Book a demo. LodgePay is based in Chelmsford. Bring the membership count, last year's alms total, the dues split if you have one, and, if you use a Relief Chest, how money already reaches it. Software is still the last decision. The walkthrough is how you test whether this desk keeps the four records cheap.