At the start of the financial year:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Calculate your maximum S137 allowance<\/li>\n
- Decide how much you want to allocate<\/li>\n
- Transfer that amount into the reserve<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This gives you a clear working balance for the year.<\/p>\n
Recording S137 Payments<\/h2>\n
When making a payment under Section 137:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Record the payment as normal<\/li>\n
- Use your existing Account Groups \/ Account Names\u00a0 (e.g. Grants, Donations, Community Support)<\/li>\n
- Allocate the transaction against the S137 reserve<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This means you continue to get meaningful reporting by type of spend, while the reserve provides a simple way to track the S137 total.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-20-221329-1024x453.png\")
<\/p>\nNote: Account Groups \/ Account Names may also be referred to as Nominal Codes in other accounting systems<\/em><\/p>\n
Monitoring Spend<\/h2>\n
At any point during the year, the reserve will show:<\/p>\n
- \n
- How much has been spent<\/li>\n
- What balance remains<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This provides a straightforward check to help ensure you stay within the annual limit.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-20-221435-1024x286.png\")
<\/p>\nYear End<\/h2>\n
At year end, the recommended approach is to reset the reserve:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Transfer any remaining balance back to the General Reserve<\/li>\n
- Set a new allocation for the new financial year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Because the S137 limit changes each year, starting fresh is usually the clearest option.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-20-221459-1024x346.png\")
<\/p>\nWhy use a reserve?<\/h2>\n
Using a reserve for Section 137:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Keeps all transactions grouped together<\/li>\n
- Allows you to continue using existing Account Groups and Account Names<\/li>\n
- Avoids creating separate S137 expense codes<\/li>\n
- Makes reporting straightforward<\/li>\n
- Provides a clear audit trail<\/li>\n
- Helps avoid exceeding the annual limit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Important<\/h2>\n
This approach helps with tracking only.<\/p>\n
The Clerk and Council remain responsible for:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Calculating the correct annual limit<\/li>\n
- Ensuring each payment meets S137 requirements<\/li>\n
- Recording decisions in the minutes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Section 137 in EasyPC Accounts Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 allows councils to make payments for community benefit where no other specific power exists. The total amount that can be spent each year is limited (for 2026\/27 this is \u00a311.60 per elector). EasyPC Accounts does not treat Section 137 as a separate … Continue reading “Tracking Section 137”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3732","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3732"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3736,"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3732\/revisions\/3736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/documentation.easypcaccounts.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}