Thursday 26 February 2015

2014 Evaluation results

The results of our 2014 service user evaluation are now available in a summary highlight report. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond! We were delighted with both the volume of response and the extremely positive assessments received.

We also learned valuable lessons for future development. The associated news item is available here.

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Charities SORPs – guides available

Over the last few months we’ve been giving updates on the progress on the new Charities SORPs (Statement of Recommended Practice) which have been developed to replace the existing SORP 2005. These have now been officially released and provide guidance for charities preparing accruals accounts for accounting periods commencing on or after 1 January 2015. Given there are now two SORPs, charities will need to decide which one to use.

We’ve developed two short guides covering the important issues. The first explains why there are two SORPs, the main differences between them and guidance on making a decision about which one to choose. The second deals more generally with the differences between the existing SORP and the new ones.

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Charities audit threshold to increase

Last week the government in responding to a consultation exercise confirmed plans to double the audit threshold for most charities from £500,000 to £1m. 

This is intended to decrease the regulatory burden on charities, and associated cost and is expected to make up to 4,000 charities exempt from the need for audit. The threshold for audit for charities with assets of more than £3.26m will change also. These charities will now be subject to audit if their income is more than £500,000. Those charities no longer requiring an audit will now be able to opt for an Independent Examination of their accounts.

WYCAS will now be able and available to offer this service to charities of this size for the first time. The changes are expected to take effect on 31 March 2015. If you would like to know more about these changes or our accounts service, please feel free to contact us.

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On-line accounting? – special fixed price ending

If you are thinking about an on-line accounting option, we now know we will not be able to continue our longstanding offer on Quick Books Online Plus beyond 20 April 2015. Until then you can sign up with us for a monthly cost of £15 (incl VAT) which is fixed for as long as you maintain the subscription. This gives you an unlimited number of users and also access to unlimited telephone support from our staff who are QuickBooks Online Certified Pro Advisors.  For further information please see here or contact us.

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Charities - Authorising your adviser to submit accounts

Last month the Charity Commission launched a new service which includes the option for a third party adviser to submit annual accounts on behalf of a charity. Previously, only the charity was able to submit its accounts. This should make the accounts submission process easier and take away the risk of missing your accounts filing deadline.

You are now able to delegate the task to your accountant (or other nominated agent) via the process outlined on the Commission’s website.

WYCAS is considering offering this service to our charity clients and would like to hear from any who would be interested in taking this up in order to give us some idea of the potential demand.

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Events for Wakefield and district based organisations

We are working with Nova Wakefield District and other partners to put on a series of short 2 hour focused learning and networking sessions for voluntary and community based organisations in the Wakefield district. These are free and take place over the next few months across the district covering a range of key areas essential for the success and sustainability of your organisation, including business planning, marketing, fundraising, and finance. 

You can find more details of the next two sessions here.

Specifically, we will be supporting Nova with the business planning session and running the session on financial responsibilities on 20th May in South Kirkby.

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Website updates

We routinely update our website with guidance, news and new training. In addition to items covered in this e-bulletin, recent updates include a useful update to our FAQ which addresses how long key accounting records need to be kept for.

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E-Bulletin

Our e-bulletin is issued on a monthly basis and sent directly to registered subscribers. It is also available from our website. Please note that information and resources contained in the e-bulletin are general in nature and not intended as specific advice or recommendations. We welcome any feedback on the content and format so that we can improve it and make sure it meets your needs. Please let us know  if you have any comments or suggestions.

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