Format For End Of Year Charity Accounts

[Deb]

Where to begin? Not sure if any of you good people can help with this one but thought it would be worth a try.

 

Took over paid admin in September, pre-school assistant by day. Alledgedly paid for admin, naturally am way over hours paid.

 

Accounts one year behind, hence need for paid admin. Promised ledger would be updated before handed over last September. March - committee asked treasurer to hand everything over as is because situation was not going to alter, handed over this evening still not uptodate. File of receipts, invoices, etc, bank statements, no record of what exactly income is made up of ie fundraising or fees because this was done by another person who lost the paying in book etc etc.

 

Should mention, Treasurer very good/conscientious for previous 3 years, work pressures/new business caused problem last year etc.

 

I have been keeping totally accurate records of all expenditure and income since I took over in September (using the fantastic spreadsheet Inge shared with me on here )

 

I now have to use the bank statements to try to cobble together a ledger to cobble together end of year accounts to send to the charity commission.

 

My question is, does anybody know the absolute minimum information the accounts need to contain? How much detail do I have to include? I know ideally everything should be broken down but if I don't have that information for last year.................

 

Should we just come clean, explain the situation, busy volunteers unable to cope with demands, situation now rectified for this year?

 

Quite frankly the stress I feel under at the moment, and the amount of unpaid work and even more time away from my family involved, I don't care if the Chairty Commission decided to close us down!

 

This probably doesn't make sense.

 

Yours miserably,

Deb

[Guest JPH]

As your end of year accounts need to be independently audited, I would recommend discussing your problem with the Charity Commission. If you can show that the accounts from the time you have had them are accurate and informative, and you have a good system now in place, they should be understanding. Good luck.

[Inge]

hi deb,

 

how about charity commission website.....may be info you need on there.

 

As previously suggested i would probably contact them for advice..... just remember you are not a trustee and it is unlitmately their responsibility to ensure accounts etc are completed......even if you are paid for the job they should be double checking the account regulalrly as well.....

 

if you need to do more ask for the money to pay for your hours...or consider handing it all back or asking a committee member to spend a few mornings with you helping sort it out........ a threat is often enough to get a committee to listen....or insist they get the accounts sorted as promised before giving them to you to take over.......I am sure they are fine since sept.....just dont let them get you too bogged down by thier mistakes.....

 

when is the account period from.....you may find that you have done a lot already from september to satisfy the charity commission.....

 

Inge

[nicki-k]

Hi Deb,

 

What a nightmare for you !

 

I have been doing the accounts and payroll for my pre-school for four years. We have the accounts independently audited at the end of the financial year, which in our case year end is August 31st. Our trustee then has a copy of the audited accounts which she sends to the charity commission in December.

 

I use excell to create the accounts. Every penny spent and received has to be backed up by a receipt. I have one A4 file with dividers in it as follows:

 

Outstanding bills - I file all outstanding invoices here so that none are missed.

Monthly statements - This is a monthly statement collating the weekly income & expenditure sheets to present to the committee.

Weekly Income & expenditure - Spreadsheet detailing Income & expenditure.

Petty cash - Monthly statement for petty cash expenditure.

W.F.R.U. - Milk receipts for refund from W.F.R.U.

Record of receipts - Details of income from receipt book for fees etc.

Bank statements - Monthly reconciliation of bank statements.

Paid bills - All paid invoices. I write the date paid and cheque number on each invoice and file them in cheque number order. This makes it easy for auditing.

 

At the end of the financial year I complete a separate Income & expenditure spreadsheet detailing for example expenditure listed alphabetically down the rows and the months Sept - Aug across the columns at the top. Then all I have to send to the accountant is this one file plus receipt books, petty cash book and cheque books.

 

I probably haven't explained this very well but its a simple and thorough system which has always passed my accountant's very finicky eye!

 

I don't know what you can do about missing accounts though. Its probably worth ringing your auditors to clarify what to do or the charity commission as Inge suggested.

 

Sorry I can't be of more help .

Edited March 28, 2006 by nicki-k

[Guest]

I don't know if this of any help to you, but:

 

When our pre-school was a charity our accounts were independently audited by someone who worked for the PLA. Our PLA adviser put us in contact with her and she only charged a nominal amount (I seem to remember it being somewhere in the region of £40, although it was 3 years ago now)

 

I am not even sure if this is a service the PLA offers if you were not registered with them or whether this lady was a one off who just happened to work for the PLA. Maybe worth an ask if you are registered with the PLA though.

[Deb]

Thank you all for your support, much appreciated and it's useful to see what others do.

 

Hadn't thought about PLA, will take a look at their website in a min to try to get some info before our committee meeting tomorrow night.

 

Did think of calling local Surestart Business Support Team so am awaiting their call.

 

Our end of year is also 31 August so believe we have until May to get something together. Have this afternoon completed milk claim forms from Sept 04!

 

Need to get a bottle of wine ready for after the meeting, not looking forward to it. Have commented on the situation in my admin report (just like a focused observation of a child) stating the facts and asking what next steps? Just wanted it written somewhere so there is no comeback on me, it's amazing how short some people's memories are!

 

Deb