Creating End of Year Accounts (Accruals)
ExpensePlus makes it super easy to create Year End Accounts for churches and charities creating accounts on an accruals basis.
Top Tip: You need to submit accounts to the Charity Commission within 10 months after the last day of your financial year (if you are a charitable company, the deadline is reduced to just 9 months as your accounts will also need to be filed with Companies House who have a shorter deadline. It is therefore, highly recommended that you look to get started with this within 1-2 months after year-end.
Note: If you create accounts on a receipts & payments (cash) basis, check out this separate help guide article.
Year End Tasks
Before creating year-end accounts, you need to first ensure that you've completed all necessary tasks and checks. To help you with this, we've created an Accruals Year-End Checklist.
Check out the video below which covers the tasks in the checklist in more detail.
Year-End Accounts & Reports
Once you are happy that all of the tasks within the Accruals Year-End Checklist are complete, you will need to download the financial data that is needed to create your accounts.
Typically this will include the following reports (as well as other financial information needed within the notes to your accounts):
- Balance Sheet (by Fund)
- Statement of Financial Activities
- Statement of Cashflow (for charities with an income >£500k)
Note: you can get a breakdown of Income & Expenditure within the 'Detailed' view of this report
IMPORTANT NOTE: Preparing year-end accounts, on an accruals basis, involves more than just taking financial reports from your accounting software and writing a trustee's report. Numerous legal disclosures need to be included in order to comply with the Charities SORP.
Therefore, many charities ask their Independent Examiner to prepare the accounts (as well as examine the accounts) for a moderate additional fee. To learn more please read this article on year-end FAQs.
Accounts Review, Sign Off & Submission
Independent Examination
Once you have created your Year-End Accounts , your accounts will need to independently examine them (if your income is over £1m, then your accounts will need to be audited rather than independently examined).
The video below covers this in more detail.
If you don't already have an independent examiner or you are looking to change independent examiners, then check out the examiners listed below who are familiar with ExpensePlus and highly recommended by other churches and charities that use them:
Top Tip: We'd highly recommend using an independent examiner who is familiar with charity accounting! (just because someone is an accountant, this doesn't mean they understand the principles of fund accounting)
You will also need to provide them access to ExpensePlus so that they can complete their independent examination and ensure the information within the accounts is correct.
Sign Off
Once your Independent Examiner has completed their independent Examination and has signed the Independent Examination declaration within the document, one of the trustees then also needs to sign the accounts on behalf of the other trustees.
Top Tip: Typically year-end accounts are reviewed and agreed at a trustees meeting, with the accounts circulated to the other trustees ahead of the meeting. This is typically then documented in the trustee meeting minutes, with one of the trustees then signing the accounts.
Submission
Completed accounts need to be submitted to the Charity Commission via the Charity Commission online portal.
Top Tip: If you don't have access to the charities commission online portal, it's worth checking who in your organisation does have access so that they can add you as a user to your charity's account. Alternatively, you might want to contact the Charity Commission.
Note: if your charity is a charitable company, you will also need to file your accounts with Companies House (in addition to submitting them to the charities commission).
To find answers to other Frequently Asked Questions relating to Year End check out this help guide article.