User Committee Records and Reports Nepal Offices Expect

User committees in Nepal operate under their own bylaws and under the guidance of the ward or municipality where they are registered or recognised. The details differ from scheme to scheme and change over time, so this article does not try to list legal requirements. It describes the records that any sensible committee keeps and how to organise them, so you are ready when members, an auditor, a donor or the local office ask for them. Confirm the exact requirements with your local office.

The records every committee should hold

1. Constitution or bylaws and any amendments, with the dates they were adopted.
2. Registration or recognition papers from the office that approved your committee.
3. Member register with households, joining dates and changes.
4. Committee list with names, posts, term start and end, and contacts.
5. Meeting minutes, with attendance and decisions, especially those authorising spending and fee changes.
6. Cash book and bank book, with a ledger for each head of account.
7. Receipts and vouchers with bills attached.
8. Grant records: agreements, amounts received, conditions and how the money was used.
9. Asset register of canal parts, turbines, poles, tools and buildings.
10. Annual report shared with members.

Money records: keep them in the same shape every year

Decide your heads of account once. A typical committee might have income heads for member fees, joining fees, penalties, grants and other income, and expense heads for operator pay, repairs, materials, meetings, transport and administration. Keep these heads the same from year to year so you can compare. Each payment needs a voucher with the date in Bikram Sambat, the amount, the purpose, who received it and who approved it.

Software helps by forcing each entry into a head and by producing the cash book and ledgers from the same data. A committee using a spreadsheet can do the same with discipline, but it is easier to alter a spreadsheet without a trace.

Keep grants clean

Money from the ward, municipality or a donor usually comes with conditions: what it can be spent on, a deadline and a report. Keep each grant as its own fund with a separate balance. Record the agreement, the date money arrived, every payment made from it and the final report. If a supplier or contractor is paid, keep the bill, the quotation if one was taken and the committee decision. The aim is that a stranger could follow the story of that money from receipt to the finished work.

Record labour and in-kind contributions

Many schemes are built partly by community labour and local materials. Record days of labour per household, the work done and the date. Record materials given, such as stone, sand or timber, with quantity. Your committee, the local office or a donor may want to count this contribution in reports, and it also shows members that effort was shared fairly. How to value it is a question for your bylaws, donor and auditor; recording the quantity is the part you control.

Reports to prepare each year

Report	Who reads it
Income and expenditure statement	General assembly, auditor, local office
Receipts and payments summary	Auditor
Fund balances including grants	Donors and the local office
Arrears list by ward	Committee
Asset register with condition	Committee, auditor
Progress and work report	Members, local office

The exact formats may be specified by your local office or donor. Ask for a sample and set up the software or spreadsheet to produce it, instead of rebuilding it every year.

Fiscal year and calendar

Nepali government and most local bodies work on a fiscal year that starts in Shrawan. Align your accounts to the same year so your figures match what the local office reports. Record all dates in Bikram Sambat and keep an English date where a bank or donor requires it.

Meetings and minutes deserve care

Minutes are the committee's legal memory. Record the date in Bikram Sambat, who attended, who chaired, the agenda, each decision and who proposed and seconded it. Have attendees sign or mark the minute book, and read the minutes aloud at the next meeting for correction. Decisions about money should state the amount and the fund it comes from. When an auditor or a member later asks why something was done, the minute is your answer. Link major payments to the minute date in your books so the two can be found together in a minute.

Storing records safely

Paper in a village house is exposed to damp, rodents and fire. Keep one set in a locked box, scan the important papers and store a digital copy outside the village, such as with the treasurer's relative or in the hosted system. Name files clearly: bylaws, registration, minutes by year, grants by name. A committee that loses its papers in a flood loses its history.

How software supports the routine

A well configured system keeps the member register, billing, receipts, funds and reports together and shows the user behind every entry. It does not decide your obligations; those come from your bylaws and local rules. See how this works in our user committee software. If your group is a community forest group instead, look at community forest user group software.

Next step

Make a folder, paper or digital, with the ten records above and tick what is missing. Bring the list to WebsNP on WhatsApp at +977 9846280400 and we will show how each missing item can be kept in the system.

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