Accounts
Receipts & Payments vs Income & Expenditure: what your committee should present at the AGM
Two statements, two different questions. Understanding the difference helps committees answer members clearly — and avoid the most common AGM arguments.
14 September 2026 2 min read
· Society Keeper Team
At most annual general meetings someone eventually asks: “If we had a surplus, why is there so little money in the bank?” The question usually comes from mixing up two different financial statements. Associations should present both — and explain the difference.
Receipts & Payments: where did the cash go?
The Receipts & Payments account is a summary of the cash book. It answers one question: how much money actually came in and went out during the year?
It starts with the opening cash and bank balance, lists receipts by head (service charges collected, donations, bank interest) and payments by head (salaries, electricity, repairs), and ends with the closing balance — which must match the bank statement and the cash in hand.
It is easy to read and members trust it, because it ties directly to the bank.
Income & Expenditure: did we live within our means?
The Income & Expenditure account answers a different question: did the association earn more than it spent this year?
The key difference is timing. Income is counted when it is earned — when the bill is issued — not when the cash arrives. Expenses are counted when they are incurred, even if the supplier has not been paid yet.
So if owners were billed ৳24 lakh but only paid ৳21 lakh, Income & Expenditure shows ৳24 lakh of income, while Receipts & Payments shows ৳21 lakh received. The ৳3 lakh difference sits in the balance sheet as dues receivable.
A worked example
| Receipts & Payments | Income & Expenditure | |
|---|---|---|
| Service charges | ৳21,00,000 received | ৳24,00,000 earned |
| Security agency | ৳3,00,000 paid | ৳3,50,000 incurred |
| Result | Cash up by the difference | Surplus for the year |
Both statements are correct. They simply answer different questions.
From the same team: Somity Keeper, cooperative accounting software for Bangladesh, and Somity Keeper Lite, a savings-group app for smaller organisations.
What to present
- Receipts & Payments — for transparency about cash.
- Income & Expenditure — for the true result of the year.
- Balance sheet — what the association owns (cash, bank, fixed deposits, dues receivable) and owes (supplier bills, advance payments from members).
- Dues aging — how much of the receivable is likely to be collected.
If the surplus is large but cash is small, look at dues receivable first. That gap is usually the most important number at the meeting.
With double-entry accounting all four statements come from the same records, so they always agree with each other. Society Keeper produces them at any time, ready to print or export.
#AGM #financial statements #accounting
