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Charities Accounting Services

Accounting, Reporting, Planning & Governance

It is vital that a charity's management receives timely and accurate management information in order to monitor the charity's performance on a regular basis.

As well as regular management accounts, charities have a statutory obligation to prepare accounts which comply with the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations, the Companies Act 2006 and the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities. The statutory accounts must be filed with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, together with an Annual / Monitoring Return within 9 months of the charity's year end. All charities must have these accounts either audited or independently examined.

Charities considering new opportunities and seeking funding for new developments often find that they need a robust business plan and projections to support their funding requests.

Charity trustees need to ensure that their organisation has good governance procedures in place and that trustees and the charity staff receive adequate training to understand the financial and governance issues being faced.

Our experienced team can support charities with all aspects of these issues, specifically, our team can provide assistance in the following areas:

 

Accounting Services

  • Preparing management accounts.
  • Preparing annual accounts to comply with relevant requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Companies Acts, and the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities, depending upon the legal structure and size of the charity.
  • Advising on the form and content of Trustees’ Annual Reports.

External scrutiny

  • Annual audit of accounts.
  • Independent Examination – for those charities eligible for exemption from audit.

Internal audit

  • Internal audit services.

Management Information Solutions

  • Advice on the selection, implementation and development of computerised systems.
  • Training in the use of computerised systems including Sage and Access Accounting.

Governance and training

  • Advising on strategy, performance reporting and corporate governance.
  • Facilitating strategic reviews undertaken by the Boards of Charities.
  • Advising on the development of corporate governance procedures.
  • Providing tailored training to meet needs of finance personnel, charity trustees and directors on a variety of topics including charity trustee induction seminars, establishment of a reserves policy, form and content of SORP compliant accounts.

Business planning and forecasting

  • Preparation of business plans and projections for annual forecasting and one-off developments such as major capital projects and development of new services.
  • Assistance with fundraising.