Build the Electoral Commission spending return
The return builder turns a workspace's expenses and donations into the candidate spending return the Electoral Commission expects. Cadrify assembles it. Your election agent still reviews, signs and submits it, and stays personally responsible for what it says.
Clear the compliance flags
The finance hub flags anything the return needs fixed first. Signing, downloading and marking the workspace ready are all blocked while a red flag remains, so nothing incomplete goes out the door by accident.
Open the return builder
Open Finance, select the Returns tab, then Open return builder. The summary shows total spending, how much is paid, how much is still unpaid, donations received and the spending limit that applies.
Check the category breakdown
Spending rolls up into the six statutory categories the Commission uses: A advertising, B unsolicited material to electors, C transport, D public meetings, E agent and other staff costs, F accommodation and administration, plus an Other row for anything that maps nowhere else.
Sign it off
Enter the election agent and candidate names and select Sign off and lock. Signing writes a locked, versioned copy, listed under Signed versions with who signed it and when. Nothing is ever edited silently, and the workspace moves to Return ready.
Download and submit
Select Download return (xlsx) and Cadrify populates the Electoral Commission's own candidate spending return workbook, so the limit and every total are the Commission's formulas, not ours. Submit the file yourself with the supporting invoices and receipts and make the statutory declaration, then select Mark submitted to close the workspace off.
- A nil return still has to go in. Where there is no spending and no donations, the builder says so and the download is a nil return, not a blank file.
- The workbook has fixed room, 13 payment lines, 13 notional items, 13 unpaid claims and 15 donations. A longer campaign runs past those rows, so count the lines against the workspace and add any that overflow to the workbook by hand before you submit.
- Donations only reach the return once they are recorded as received, not merely pledged.
See Cadrify in action
Book a demo and we will walk you through it on a real ward.
Run the rest of the campaign
Import the electoral register
Upload the file, map the columns once, and every future file from the same council imports itself.
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Generate a door-knocking round
Turn a ward boundary into rounds you can print and assign.
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Run a leaflet drop
Reuses the ward's existing rounds, so a drop is ready to assign the moment it is created.
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Build a phonebank
Call lists from your own filters, scripts included, every response fed straight back to the record.
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Run polling day and GOTV
Synced stations, a live telling rota and knock-up lists that correct themselves as the day goes on.
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Produce nomination papers
Enter a candidate once, generate every council form, signatures still wet ink.
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Review and match records
New register rows get scored automatically. Only the unclear ones need a person.
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Import postal, proxy and elector changes
Postal, proxy and elector detail updates, matched on register number, with no mapping and no review queue.
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Digitise a paper marked register
Scan, upload and choose who reads the marks, your volunteers or Cadrify's reader with a human check on the rest.
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Bring in a volunteer with a QR code
A one-time QR code opens one task for one volunteer, no account needed, active in under a minute.
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Plan a poster round
Bundle poster and posterboard requests into a round, assign it and watch delivery happen live.
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Run an event
A public sign-up page and a QR check-in screen, with every attendee added to your supporter database.
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Run a fundraiser
A donation page on your own Stripe account. Money goes direct, and Cadrify adds 0.5%.
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Create a petition or action page
Petitions, open letters and forms on a public link, with every response added to your supporter database.
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Set up casework
One representative per area, matched by GSS code, and volunteer access gated behind a data-protection tick.
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Build a filter and save an audience
Drag and drop a condition tree once, check the count, then save it as a filter or a reusable audience.
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