Guidance

Many of our member groups are ‘mixed ability’, which means that people of any standard can join in – from complete beginners to advanced musicians. The challenge for these groups is how they keep things interesting enough for more advanced players, but at the same time don’t leave beginners feeling all at sea.

This guidance explores how to go about starting a new group. It is a collection of ideas and tips structured in a way that we hope will help you to move forwards with your plan from the beginnings of an idea to your first rehearsal and beyond. This is the last of four sections and focusses on looking to the future to ensure your group is sustainable in the long term.

This guidance explores how to go about starting a new group. It is a collection of ideas and tips structured in a way that we hope will help you to move forwards with your plan from the beginnings of an idea to your first rehearsal and beyond. This is the third of four sections and focusses on finding members and fostering a group culture.

This guidance explores how to go about starting a new group. It is a collection of ideas and tips structured in a way that we hope will help you to move forwards with your plan from the beginnings of an idea to your first rehearsal and beyond. This is the second of four sections and focusses on the practicalities of setting up a group.

If you’re thinking of starting a new leisure-time choir, band, orchestra, or music group of any genre, our tips and guidance will help you move from the beginnings of an idea to your first rehearsal and beyond. This is first of four sections and outlines the process for deciding upon a clear vision for any amateur music group.

This introduction is the first of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of what it is and how it works, and an overall idea if this is something your group would like to look into.

To help you decide we also have two additional documents –

This introduction is the second of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of how to set up and run a production company to claim OTR. 

Find below our series of templates, guidance and services for creating records, accounts and claiming for OTR. 

Keeping records

• OTR 3.1 Guidance: Accruals basis of accounting

This guidance looks at how to keep accrual accounts for your concert production company for the purposes of claiming OTR, and includes examples to help you.

This resource is part of our OTR Part 3 guidance: Keeping records, producing accounts and making a claim. It looks at how to keep accrual accounts for your concert production company for the purposes of claiming OTR. 

Organisations claiming Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) (i.e. the concert production companies) have to prepare their financial statements under the Accruals Basis of accounting which requires that income and expense must be recognized in the accounting periods to which they relate rather than on a cash basis.

This resource is part of our OTR Part 3 guidance: Keeping records, producing accounts and making a claim.

It includes two downloadable documents:

• OTR 3.2 Template: Accrual accounts (Excel spreadsheet)
• OTR 3.2(a) Guidance: Notes on using the accrual accounts template (PDF)

Please note: