Financial Introduction to Local Council Administration (FILCA)
Essential finance
The Financial Introduction to Local Council Administration (FILCA) is a Level 2, online sector specific learning tool to support all new Responsible Financial Officers (RFO’s) in England and Wales (or officers who have a financial element to their job role). The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to council finance.

Course overview
The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the work of an RFO. The course is in five modules based on the annual round of financial activities.
Duration
You will have access to the online course for twelve months. Read more below.
Commitment
Allow up to 2 hours per module, 5 modules in total
CPD Points
Claim 8 CPD points for completing this course
Delivery/Format
Online, self-paced
Price
£120 + VAT for members and non-members
Are you a clerk in Wales? You could be eligible for a bursary towards 50% of the cost, click here to find out more. Please also ensure you register for ILCA (Wales) which contains the relevant legislation and content for officers in Wales.
When registering...
Important: Please ensure that, when you register for ILCA online, you login and register for yourself and not on behalf of someone else. If you have a colleague who wishes to register for ILCA please ask them to setup a user account here.
What will I learn?
1. Roles & Responsibilities
- Occupational standards
- The role
- The legal framework
- Values
- Calendar
- Resources
- Assessment
3. Systems & Procedures
- Proper practices
- The council’s financial regulations
- The cash book
- Spending
- Income
- Banking
- Investments
- Payroll
- Resources
- Assessment
5. External Audit and the Year End
- External audit
- Exempt councils (not applicable to FILCA Wales)
- Public rights
- The AGAR (FILCA England) / The Annual Return (FILCA Wales)
- The Statement of Accounts
- Annual accounts
- Resources
- Assessment
2. Budget and Precept
- The budget
- The precept
- Constructing the budget
- Making budget decisions
- Monitoring the budget
- Resources
- Assessment
4. Internal Control and VAT
- The council’s duty
- Implementing the duty
- Separation of responsibilities
- The management of risk
- Insurance
- The internal audit
- Reviewing the systems
- VAT
- Reclaiming VAT
- Resources
- Assessment
Assessments
After completing the e-learning content for each module, your knowledge and understanding of each module will be assessed through a module assessment.
You must score 80% or above in assessment to pass the module.