Expenditure (including for subsidiary companies)

Up to £500:
a) Any member of staff authorised by the Deputy Chair (Finance).
b) Any trustee or other office holder appointed to office by the trustees.
c) For branches, any one officer delegated to spend up to £250.00 – two officers to authorise expenditure over £250.00.

Up to £2,000: Any committee, region or branch chair, any regional co-ordinator

Up to £5,000:
a) For budgeted expenditure, the budget holder.
b) For branches, by resolution of the branch committee.

Up to £10,000: The Deputy Chair (Finance).

Above £10,000: For Inland Waterways Enterprises (IWE) Ltd, by a resolution of the IWE board of directors.

Up to £25,000: Both the Chair and Deputy Chair (Finance) or resolution of Finance Committee.

Above £25,000: By resolution of the trustees

Waterway Recovery Group is treated as a branch/committee for the purposes of these delegations.

Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are required for all external purchases, except those listed below, for expenditure over £500

Purchase orders are not required where there are long-term contracts in place, and the contract is held at Head Office – e.g. payment under long-term contract for Internet services and for postage costs (as invoices are received from Royal Mail based on measured usage).  Neither are Purchase Orders required for inter-company cost allocations.  Separate purchase orders are not required where orders are made on pre-printed order forms required by the supplier or where automatically generated by the Head Office bookkeeping system.

Other than for branch expenditure, purchase order requests should be sent to Head Office.  These will be used for matching with invoices once received from suppliers, and act as the authority for payment, subject to goods or services being received in good order.

Approved by trustees on 9th December 2025