Annual Report and Accounts
The Charities Act 2011 and its impact on wording of Annual Reports and Accounts
The Charities Act 2011 came into effect on 14 March 2012, and consolidates previous charity legislation into a single comprehensive Act. The new Act does not change pre-existing legislation under the previous Charities Acts.
Whilst none of the requirements concerning Independent Examination (or Audit) have been changed, and whilst the essential substance of the Examiners Report therefore stays the same, inevitably the references to respective statutory provisions have changed. The Charity Commission is busy updating its publications, and the Auditing Practices Board has in hand the updating of their model example audit reports.
Here are some links to other websites and resources to help with preparing the PCC's Annual Accounts
Resources from the National Church
The Charities Act and the PCC (third edition 2006), can be downloaded from the Archbishops' Council website here as a pdf (965kb). A copy of the book, or a simpler guide for parishes with income under £250,000, can be ordered from Church House Bookshop.
There is also some useful guidance on annual reporting for PCCs on the parish resources website:
Receipts and Payments Accounts: http://www.parishresources.org.uk/acc/randp.htm
Accruals Accounts: http://www.parishresources.org.uk/acc/accruals.htm
The Trustees Annual Report: http://www.parishresources.org.uk/acc/annual_report.htm
Charity Commission
Charity Reporting and Accounting
Accruals Accounts Pack
Charities and Risk Management
Charities requiring an independent examination, rather than an audit ,are not required to include a statement about risk management in their annual report. Trustees of smaller charities with gross income below the audit threshold (who should still be concerned about the risks their charity faces) are encouraged to make a statement as a matter of best practice.
Example Trustees Annual Reports
Example of a public benefit statement in church accounts
Accounting Software
Paxton
Quick Books
Data Developments
"Parish Buying" ( a National Church Initiative) are working with their approved IT Software supplier to make a whole range of software licences and packages available to parishes. Please refer to http://www.parishbuying.org.uk/categories/it-software.html for more details.
Annual Financial Returns
This link takes you to the Finance Forms page
