Finance CFO Update

We have finally completed our preliminary year end results for the Group – thank you to all our Treasurers for doing your bit in this process. We are still following up a few audit requests for specific documents, so please get these to us as soon as possible so we can sign the accounts and make them available for all centres to use for their Grant applications.

The financial results for the Parent and Group were both in deficit of just under $1.3m. This means we spent more than we received so in other words used our savings. This isn’t all bad news though as our results were better than our original forecasts, which were for a deficit of $2.5-3m for the year.

Use of Koha

Just a reminder that Koha is not a suitable form of payment in lieu of an employment contract. Use of vouchers to pay staff is also not acceptable. Centres who opt for these methods may find themselves with a hefty bill from IRD along with penalties. For members, please don’t accept this as a form of payment, you also could end up in trouble with the IRD or impacting any other payments you are receiving from other sources.

Lotteries Grant

I have had a lot of questions about the Lotteries Grant and would like to announce that we have been successful for a total Grant of $160,000. However as with last year, this fell well short of the $2.066m in requests we received from 203 individual centres.

Now that we have the final amount it will become our internal job to determine how this funding will be distributed while we wait for lotteries to pay Playcentre Aotearoa the funds. I will also develop some guidelines for future applications to ensure we are being more realistic with our funding expectations.

Telecoms

I want to say a big thank you to those centres who have now merged their phone lines over, this is already bringing considerable savings, much of which will be felt when we are able to scale down the use over school holidays. For many however, we know there are still some teething issues and other connection dramas.

In response to this Digital Island have set up a help desk for our Centres to be able to access support.  For the setting up of phones the number to call is 09 393 8984 and if the phone has been up and running for more than a week, the number to call is 0800 999 010.

I would also like to make a personal request that centre members mind their usage. As you have read above, we are working hard to reduce our deficit and unfortunately we cannot continue to provide unlimited internet access. We have now got the ability to monitor what apps and websites are using the most data and are consistently finding it’s not Playcentre related items such as Discover, Spotify or even Zoom that are our biggest users, but those that appear more personal, such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and other streaming sites. Please as a member consider our resources as scarce and maybe use your own personal data for personal browsing and social media or better still perhaps these activities could be reserved for non-Playcentre time.

Ask Property

This month we are introducing a new Property support email – [email protected] for all general enquiries we suggest this will be the best and fastest way to get access to our excellent property team.

New property templates

We are in the process of setting up a new section within the website where we will be regularly updating the property documents and templates to make them easier to find and simpler to fill in. Watch this space.

Last words for the year

I just want to finally say a very big personal thank you for all the hard work you have all put in this year. For our Treasurers who made our year end once again a huge success, for our property officers for their mahi and for everyone else who I have had some contact with this year.

As we go into Christmas we all deserve a break before we come back next year

Finance CFO Update

We have finally completed our preliminary year end results for the Group – thank you to all our Treasurers for doing your bit in this process. We are still following up a few audit requests for specific documents, so please get these to us as soon as possible so we can sign the accounts and make them available for all centres to use for their Grant applications.

The financial results for the Parent and Group were both in deficit of just under $1.3m. This means we spent more than we received so in other words used our savings. This isn’t all bad news though as our results were better than our original forecasts, which were for a deficit of $2.5-3m for the year.

Use of Koha

Just a reminder that Koha is not a suitable form of payment in lieu of an employment contract. Use of vouchers to pay staff is also not acceptable. Centres who opt for these methods may find themselves with a hefty bill from IRD along with penalties. For members, please don’t accept this as a form of payment, you also could end up in trouble with the IRD or impacting any other payments you are receiving from other sources.

Lotteries Grant

I have had a lot of questions about the Lotteries Grant and would like to announce that we have been successful for a total Grant of $160,000. However as with last year, this fell well short of the $2.066m in requests we received from 203 individual centres.

Now that we have the final amount it will become our internal job to determine how this funding will be distributed while we wait for lotteries to pay Playcentre Aotearoa the funds. I will also develop some guidelines for future applications to ensure we are being more realistic with our funding expectations.

Telecoms

I want to say a big thank you to those centres who have now merged their phone lines over, this is already bringing considerable savings, much of which will be felt when we are able to scale down the use over school holidays. For many however, we know there are still some teething issues and other connection dramas.

In response to this Digital Island have set up a help desk for our Centres to be able to access support.  For the setting up of phones the number to call is 09 393 8984 and if the phone has been up and running for more than a week, the number to call is 0800 999 010.

I would also like to make a personal request that centre members mind their usage. As you have read above, we are working hard to reduce our deficit and unfortunately we cannot continue to provide unlimited internet access. We have now got the ability to monitor what apps and websites are using the most data and are consistently finding it’s not Playcentre related items such as Discover, Spotify or even Zoom that are our biggest users, but those that appear more personal, such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and other streaming sites. Please as a member consider our resources as scares and maybe use your own personal data for personal browsing and social media or better still perhaps these activities could be reserved for non-Playcentre time.

Ask Property

This month we are introducing a new Property support email – [email protected] for all general enquiries we suggest this will be the best and fastest way to get access to our excellent property team.

New property templates

We are in the process of setting up a new section within the website where we will be regularly updating the property documents and templates to make them easier to find and simpler to fill in. Watch this space.

Last words for the year

I just want to finally say a very big personal thank you for all the hard work you have all put in this year. For our Treasurers who made our year end once again a huge success, for our property officers for their mahi and for everyone else who I have had some contact with this year.

As we go into Christmas we all deserve a break before we come back next year revitalised and ready to go. I have some exciting plans for the new year and look forward to sharing as we go.

Marina