Employee documents for NGOs and trusts

Contracts, extensions and project links

For each project post, keep the fixed-term appointment letter, every extension letter with its new end date, and a note of which grant funds the post and in what share. When a grant is extended by six months, extension letters must be issued before the old end date, not after, or staff work for weeks without a valid contract. Track contract end dates like expiry dates, with a reminder 60 days ahead, so the programme manager decides in time.

Safeguarding and verification records

Keep signed safeguarding, code of conduct and conflict of interest declarations on every file, with the date of signing, and, for anyone working with children or vulnerable adults, police verification. Record the renewal cycle your policy sets for verification. If a donor's safeguarding audit asks which staff in a child-focused project hold current verification, the answer should be a list, not a search through block office cupboards.

• Signed safeguarding and code of conduct declarations
• Conflict of interest declaration
• Police verification with a renewal date
• Safeguarding and POSH training certificates

Salary evidence for donors and auditors

For every person charged to a grant, donors and auditors may ask for the appointment letter, the salary structure, attendance, payslips and bank transfer proof for the months charged. Keep payslips and the finalized payroll for each month, and link each employee to the funding project through the cost centre. Share documents with auditors through time-limited links rather than email attachments, and mask bank and contact details for roles that only need to see project allocation.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. In Onboarding, set a checklist for project staff: fixed-term letter, identity and bank proofs, education, safeguarding declarations and police verification where needed.
2. Verify documents in Employee Documents as they arrive, rejecting unclear copies with a reason, and put an expiry date on every contract, verification and licence.
3. Store extension letters from the HR letter library in the employee's documents, so the full contract history sits in one place.
4. Tag each employee's cost centre to the funding project, so audit files can be built project by project.
5. In Access Control, give the Auditor role view access for the audit period, with salary, bank and contact fields masked where they are not needed.
6. Share files with donor auditors through time-limited download links from secure file storage.

Read more about employee documents in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions