Good morning to everyone working on their #CultureRecoveryFund application.

We're all just interpreting the guidance to the best of our abilities and your interpretation will be as valid as mine, but if it's helpful I will share any thoughts in this thread throughout the day.

First thing's first. Start the day well. I started with a dog walk and breakfast - tea, nutella on toast. Otherwise you'll feel like shite and your brain won't be any use to you.

@martiburgess: "Do the numbers first." This is a good tip because it often feels like the worst part, but the numbers tell the story. Doing that bit first will help to ground what you're saying in the body of the application.

There are three #CRFR2 spreadsheets - two attached to the form and one linked here: https://cutt.ly/jjXaxVA  This third one is only for #CDFR1 applicants who have an underspend.

The two main spreadsheets - Cash Flow and Budget - look same same but different. For some elements the 1/4rly income/exp may be the same e.g. salaries.

Other items may differ e.g. you might have in your Cash Flow a grant coming in in one payment in Apr21. But your Budget may show that income split evenly across four quarters as the grant income relates to a 1yr project, for example.

This time round, you can add in rows to both Cash Flow and Budget under the 'other' row at the bottom. Make sure if you're adding rows to double check the sum at the bottom of table as sometimes adding rows doesn't get included into the sums.

I am lucky because 1) I quite like a spreadsheet and 2) I have a Finance Manager, but even we all agree that these spreadsheets are horrid, to paraphrase @clarered

Few bits on the Cash breakdown by fund on the Cash Flow:
Hopefully you will have your Balance Sheet for 31 Dec 2020. This will give you an opening cash balance to go into the green cell.

a) Restricted c/f = e.g. a grant with specific T&C on how to spend it.
b) Designated c/f = e.g. balance remaining of an asset being paid in installments, ticket income for postponed gigs
c) Unrestricted general c/f = e.g. cash left over that can be spent on general running costs

There are little red squares with notes in. Hover over them to read - so on Cash breakdown by fund a)+b)+c) = total balance c/f for the month

Budget breakdown by fund might look a bit different to your cash flow. For example, here designated funds might also include value of non-liquid assets being depreciated, for example. So the balance might be higher than in the Cash Flow.

Unrestricted general funds and Free Reserves on Budget might be different as you may be budgeting for some general funds over and above the amount of free reserves (e.g. to cover wind-up costs). Or your position might be such that Unrestricted general funds = Free Reserves

Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant and if you have one, defo get their help to complete this, even if you have to pay for their overtime this weekend. There are a lot of formulas here so it's easy to make a mistake. I'm calling Trinity's Finance Manager at 11am, poor lass...

Before I do any more on the Cash Flow and Budget, I'm skipping over to the email I got at 5pm last night for CRFR1 applicants. You remember that 3rd spreadsheet? Well, I don't think we have to complete it as we won't have a carry forward...

...however I have no approval of the 18Dec activity plan, that we have also had to re-revise in Jan due to #Lockdown3 As it's unlikely we'll get any response prior to submission of #CRFR1 I just want to make sure that we don't end up getting caught out here on sommat I've missed.

So, I'm off to re-read the guidance ( https://cutt.ly/jjXaxVA ), look at the 3rd spreadsheet and see if any revisions for Jan-Mar #CRFR1 exp need to be presented (still not clear why there was a permitted revision from 8wk to 12wk reserve for #CRFR1 then back down to 8wk in #CRFR2)

So, we will have no carry forward (other than reserves <12wk). But to be on the safe side, I'm sending the amended CRFR1 budget confirming this will be spent by 1 Apr to [email protected] + gonna work out if I can attach it in Grantium just so there's no confusion for CRFR2!

CRFR2 applicants who applied for CRFR1 have been advised to keep their ask to <50% of the R1 ask, which I've been trying to do but the grant amount is slightly over (53%) so hoping that won't go against us. I've budgeted for air filtration off the back of a venues Facebook chat

...obviously as a listed building, @TrinityBristol is a challenge to ventilate, so I'm hoping this will be a sufficient interim solution to getting people back into the building when permitted, whilst we explore long-term (£££) ventilation. Obviously lots still unknown!
#Obvio

I'm tempted to tick the box on Grantium that references the underspend so I can then upload the 3rd spreadsheet just so I can complete the 250 word narrative to explain the variation on CRFR1 budget Oct-Mar that's changed again between 18th Dec revised activity plan & #Lockdown3

I'm probably as far along as I can get with the Budget and Cash Flow. Got a meeting with the team 1st thing Monday so hopefully can finalise then. Feels like we're cutting it close but what can you do...I'm gonna save this for now and move onto the narrative (separate thread) x