Imperial College Union has launched a new set of Finance Pages ticking many of the boxes that Clubs and Society Treasurers have been requesting for the last few years. The pages are now 'on brand', using the standard ICU fonts and layouts, with clearer headings and providing a much more user friendly interface.

In an email sent to all Club Officers, Deputy President (Finance and Services), Christian Carter, announced the appearance of the new finance pages with little pomp or ceremony:

"The new finance pages are now available for your use, they show all the transactions made by your club, your budget for the coming year and how much money your club has."

However, Carter's statement has proved not entirely correct for CGCU who were eagerly anticipating the launch of the new finance pages but remain disappointed at the promised SGI balance not being revealed.

SGI is the 'self generated income' of ICU Clubs and Societies which they are free to spend on anything they like. Contrary to Carter's email, CGCU still does not have the correct final figures shown on their transaction pages. Over £2,000 of ticket money has been paid in for the Masquerade Ball but not a single penny is showing up in the account.

CGCU President, Mark Mearing-Smith commented 'it is extremely frustrating [not being able to see our SGI] because I don't know what I can spend. With something as big as the Masquerade Ball, knowing where we are with ticket sales is really important.'

Initially thought to be an issue converting SGI into the new finance pages, Guilds have recently been informed that the lack of funds showing in their account is due to a backlog of paper work in the ICU Finance Department. DPFS, Chrisitan Carter, confirmed the situation stating:

"Online transactions for the month of Septmeber will not show up yet as they are all going to be done in one batch. There is a pile of paperwork waiting to be done. Any cheques that you have paid in that are not showing on the account simply won't have been processed yet."

Further issues with the Union online functions have seen Guilds requesting paper based updates of shop sales from the Student Activites Centre due to the system not being able to send the correct email updates. This is causing considerable delays and extra man hours to keep on top of stock and sales. This inefficient process also requires the CGCU President to use telepathy to know when a transaction has been made.

Guilds, not wishing to follow in the footsteps of ICU DPFS's, who appear to make a habit of losing money on large scale balls, are keeping a close eye on the purse strings leading up to the Masquerade Ball on the 31st October. Despite these setbacks, Mearing-Smith remains positive that sales are booming and hopes that the Union Finance Pages will be updated as soon as possible to reflect the much healthier situation he believes Guilds to be in. However, Clubs and Societies preparing for the new academic year may have serious cause for concern if the workload is already proving too much for the over stretched Finance Department.

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