Wednesday 6 August 2014

Management accounts – See the wood for the trees!

If you are interested in improving your management accounts, you might like this recent paper by Hilary Seward. She advocates adopting a ‘trustee centred approach’ to reporting and is currently investigating how financial information can be conveyed to trustees in more interesting and meaningful ways.

You might also find our guide on a related theme about presentation of information helpful.

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Advice surgeries

Did you know we run free informal advice surgeries in West Yorkshire every month?  At these surgeries we are available to help and support you with your accounting and finance issues and problems. Simply contact the relevant community accountant to book in to the one that suits you best.

For locations in the Wakefield or Kirklees district areas please get in touch with Lis Beverley and for the Calderdale area please contact Helen Galvin.

In Calderdale we are also now running joint sessions with North Bank Forum for organisations with broader support needs. For details of forthcoming dates and more information please see the advice surgeries page on our website.

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Net current liabilities

Trustees do you have a good understanding of your charity’s financial position and are you aware of the risks and implications of insolvency? The Charity Commission has published a short paper with the results of their review of a sample of filed accounts which show negative current liabilities (ie where current debts are greater than funds available to cover them).

The Commission looked at how charities were dealing with this situation and how they reported it within their accounts and the lessons for charities generally. The Commission has published guidance on helping to manage financial difficulties and we also have a guide on this topic.

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Latest blog post – Don’t be the lanterne rouge!

Claire Welling our Leeds Community Accountant, has posted an update to the WYCAS blog on the Doing Good Leeds website. 

Using the recent Tour de France as a theme, it gives a short summary of the key points covered at the recent Charity Tax Group training session. Are you aware of and maximising your opportunity in the relevant jersey areas?

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Annual Return - Consultation

You still have a short time left (until 12 August) to feed into the Charity Commission’s consultation exercise on changes to the 2015 Annual Return.  The Commission are proposing some important changes for small charities (less than £500k income) which will require additional information to be submitted on the Annual Return.

We have put together a short news item with more information which links to further guidance from the Commission and the consultation return.

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New Statements of Recommended Practice (SORP) for charities

In previous e-bulletins, we have been updating you on progress in developing the new Charity SORPs. The Charity Commission has now published the two new SORPs. These provide a comprehensive framework for charity accounting that all charities that prepare accrual accounts must follow.

The new SORPs apply to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2015. Sayer Vincent has published a short paper which gives some further background and information on the SORP. The full SORP is available on the dedicated micro-site.

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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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