Understanding the New Charity Accounting Rules

The Charities Act 1993 introduced a whole new area of legislation about the form and content of charity accounts. The detailed regulations behind this, together with the new Charities SORP (statement of recommended practice) are now in force. In most cases, any organisation with charitable status will be breaking the law if accounts do not comply.

The course will enable participants to understand the background of these rules, how to comply with them in different sizes of charity, and in particular how to produce end of year accounts that will meet the new requirements.

Course Content

• Accounting records and year-end accounts
• Legal structures
• Requirements for accounts - the regulation under Charities Act & SORP
• Charity accounting: multiple funds - understanding fund accounting
• Types of funds: Unrestricted, Restricted, Capital/Endowment
• Current accounting reports: Income & expenditure and balance sheet - what they mean and how to produce them
• The new report - the SOFA (Statement of Financial Activities) - what it is and how to produce one
• The new Balance Sheet - and rules for Fixed Assets
• Financial Turnover - the rules at different levels of turnover - accruals or receipts & payments?
• The Notes to the Accounts
• The Annual Report - the new legal requirements
• Audit versus independent examination - the new options
• Financial responsibility - the treasurer and other trustees

Who should attend?

Treasurers, managers, finance officers, trustees of charities small or large.

No accounting knowledge is required beyond basic book keeping skills (although those with more extensive financial experience will still find the course a vital update).