Thursday 31 January 2019

General Data Protection Regulation: A Guide For Charities

Still grappling with GDPR? Check out the ‘best free guide’ on GDPR for charities, covering governance, fundraising, financial data, beneficiary data and employee data.  Read more here.

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Only 70% of accounts submitted to the Charity Commission are of acceptable quality

The Charity Commission found that 70% of the sets of accounts that they reviewed met their basic benchmark, compared with last year’s 74%. The common problems were that -

• Many of them provided little or no information on the charity’s purposes and/or activities carried out to achieve them

• Some failed to send any form of independent scrutiny report or the documents submitted were inadequate, with some filing to submit the trustees’ annual report or the accounts financial statements

Read the full report here. 

Nigel Davies, Head of Accountancy Services at the Charity Commission said: “The public want and deserve to know how charities spend their money so this deterioration in the quality of accounts is of serious concern. The trustees’ annual report and accounts are a key way to build confidence among supporters.  So many charities are clearly missing an opportunity.

I would urge those charities that find reporting difficult to take advantage of the pro-forma reports and accounts available on our website. We also need to see a step-change in trustees’ attitudes to public benefit reporting. It is disappointing that nearly half of charities fail to explain the activities they undertake and the impact they have. We want to see charities thrive, so charities must be clearer about who they help and what difference they are making.”

If your accounts are prepared by WYCAS we make sure that they are fully compliant with the legal requirements so you will be within the 70%!

However, it is concerning that the Commission felt that half of the charities reviewed failed to explain their activities. We understand that writing an annual report can be difficult; it can be tricky to get the right balance between a lengthy report that includes everything, and one that is brief but doesn’t tell the story.

Here is a link from NVCO and an old but still relevent article from the Guardian which may be useful.

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How to avoid a late filing penalty

If you’re a company director, (that includes trustees of a charitable company), you are personally responsible for making sure you file your accounts before the due date. Watch this video to find out the best ways to get your accounts in on time and avoid a fine. You can check your company's due date on Companies House website. 

You can find out more about late filing penalties here.

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QuickBooks Online Subscription

Did you know you can subscribe to QuickBooks Online via WYCAS?  Our subscribers are entitled to free QuickBooks telephone support from Intuit, and expert telephone support from our Community Accountants.  QuickBooks desktop can be transferred to QuickBooks Online and any additional support, e.g. one to one visits, would be invoiced.  You can sign up here, or for more information please vist our website.

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Our services

WYCAS provides a range of specialist services designed to meet the needs of the third sector:

• One to one support and training
• Preparation of year-end accounts
• Independent examination
• Financial training courses and workshops
• Computerising accounts
• Bookkeeping and management accounts
• Advice and information
• Bespoke consultancy projects

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