This key will help you to understand how to understand the financial transactions listed.
Data header
This key explains what the headers on each column of the spreadsheet mean.
Department family
This is the name of the Government department where the money comes from - in our case the Department of Health.
Entity
This is the name of the individual organisation, in our case Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Date paid
The date is to identify when the transaction took place. Usually it will be the payment date, not the date when the supplier receives the funds. Where the payment date is unavailable, the invoice input date or the invoice date is used. This ensures that transactions are only shown once.
Expense type
This identifies the general nature of the expenditure (e.g. healthcare expenditure). The description does not disclose the specifics of individual transactions (i.e. the invoice detail), as this specific information is not routinely recorded in the organisation's financial systems.
Expense area
This shows where the Trust has spent the money, and will most commonly be broken down by what we call 'directorates', for example renal services.
Supplier
This field contains the name of the supplier named on the invoice. Please note that multiple payments to the same supplier is not combined - each individual transaction is shown separately.
Transaction number
This is the finance system transaction number and can be used to identify all queries.
Amount in sterling
The amount disclosed is the amount recorded on the finance system for each transaction inclusive of VAT. If a single invoice has been allocated to more than one expense type and/or expense area, the value shown is split between the individual combinations, even where entries are less than £25,000.
Supplier VAT registration number
Where this information is readily available, this field shows the VAT registration number of each supplier. This will allow identification of suppliers even where supplier descriptions are not consistent between different organisations publishing the data.
