Rich Arts Poor Arts? - How arts organizations can manage daily financial matters with ease, grace and intelligence (In Collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council)

Rich Arts Poor Arts? - How arts organizations can manage daily financial matters with ease, grace and intelligence

(In Collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council)

Staff members of small and medium arts organisations are often required to deal with finance and accounting duties which they are not trained for.  Some administrators have been taking up book-keeping duties for their companies, learning by doing the tasks; while others manage to outsource the book-keeping duties but are required to check and control the companies’ finances.

This workshop is targeted to provide information and advice for arts administrators to assist them in handling daily financial matters with ease. Topics include:

• Basic financial records, documents and procedures relevant to SMEs – how to check and maintain control; what are the good accounting practices to develop in a SME arts organization.
• Finding the common language with the auditors: Introducing the role and responsibilities of auditor; understanding audit reports and how to deal with company and project auditors systematically as required by different funding bodies.
• How to change a financial year end date
• Other relevant topics such as tax issues, matching of income and expenses, asset transfer from the previous unincorporated organization to the incorporated company

The workshop is especially suitable for staff of arts organizations that have some experience in dealing with their own financial functions and those who are required to check and control the organizations’ financial operations.

            Speaker:           Mr William Po, Proprietor, William Po & Co (CPA)

            Date:                29/3/2011

            Time:                10am-1pm

            Venue:              Hong Kong Arts Development Council Conference Room (14/F, East Warwick House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong)

            Language:         Mainly conducted in Cantonese

            FREE ADMISSION

Mr William Po

William Po is a chartered accountant and certified tax adviser who has been running his own professional accountancy practice William Po & Co, CPA since 1990. Before that he had worked in various international accountancy firms and an Australian listed company for a total of about 10 years. On top of his accountancy practice, he had also been trainers for courses organized by Hong Kong Society of Accountants (currently renamed to the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants), Hong Kong Management Association, Shanghai City Audit Bureau, and International Academy of Management with University of Wales, Newport, to name a few.

He takes particular interest in working for charities and non-government organizations (NGOs). His current portfolio of clients include more than 50 charities/NGOs of a wide spectrum of sectors, including the arts. He has been involved in community services for more than twenty years. Present positions held include Hon. Treasurer of Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art, board member of Synergy Net Ltd (a public policy think tank) and Hong Kong Unison Limited. He is also one of the founding board members of the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation, and has been the Foundation’s Chairman since January 2009.