2. Finance Salary Survey
• 79% of senior finance professionals also
responsible for IT department
• 53% of respondents plan a career move within
12 months
• Flexible working most desired benefit, only
44% of respondents currently get this
3. Judith Miller
Partner, Sayer Vincent
TPP
4 July 2017
Compliance & communication
Conveying impact through your
annual report
5. 5
Achieving your objectives….
• Who is your audience?
• Who are your stakeholders?
• What’s your message to them?
• What do they care about?
6. 6
Transparency …Honesty…
“tell the charity’s story in a fair and balanced
manner, acknowledging both significant successes
and failures”
(FRS 102 SORP 2015)
8. 8
Overview & purpose
ref : FRS 102 SORP 2015
• “ensure the charity is publicly accountable”
• “should be a fair, balanced and understandable
review”
• “what the charity is set up to do, how it is
going about it and what is achieved”
• “essential link between…legal purposes…aims
and objectives …activities”
9. Who is your audience?
Public,
beneficiaries
Donors/funders
Trustees, management
Regulator
Performance, delivery, summary
Technical, compliance
10. 10
Head and/or Heart
• Are you
looking to comply and satisfy the regulators?
looking for support and engagement? financially or with
time or…?
answering the “so what” question?
11. 11
Different vehicles
• Trustees’ annual report & financial statements
Legal requirement
Black & white compliance version
Stand alone segments
• Annual review
Choice
A “glossy” – web or hard copy
Short & sweet with high level financials
• Impact report
Choice
Annual or ongoing snippets
12. 12
Process & people
• Who needs to be involved? Design team?
• What’s the timeline?
• Advisable – start early
• How does TAR & accounts fit within your
communications strategy?
• Hard copy? Soft copy?
13. SORP requirements for all charities
• Objectives and activities
• Structure, governance and management
• Achievements and performance
• Financial review
• Plans for the future
• Reference and admin details
14. Objectives and activities
• What are your objects? What do you do to
achieve them?
• Explain public benefit
• Issues to be tackled and how this will deliver
against legal objects
• Details of programmes, projects and
activities
• Idea of short and longer term aims
• Use of volunteers
15. Structure, governance & management
• Nature of your governing document
• Methods of recruitment and appointment
of trustees
• Organisational structure
• How decisions are made
• Trustee training and induction
• Remuneration policy
• Wider network
16. Achievements and performance
• Summary of main achievements
• Qualitative and quantitative information
• Performance against objectives
• Comment on fundraising performance
• What has contributed to performance –
positive and negative?
• Measures and numerical targers
• Comment on investments
17. Financial review
• Review of the position at the
year end and performance
• Reserves policy
• Any uncertainties around going
concern – explain
• Subsidiaries and funds position –
any in deficit – explain
• Answer any questions?
18. Financial review
• Principal risks and uncertainties
• Investment policy and objectives
• Financial effect of significant
events
• Future factors that might affect
performance
• Financial impact of pension
liability
19. • Explain the policy for holding reserves
• State the amount of reserves held and why
• If trustees have decided that holding reserves
is unnecessary, the trustees’ report must
disclose this fact and provide reasons behind
the decision
Reserves disclosures - smaller charity
19
20. • Amount of total funds held at year end
• Identify restricted funds & designated
• Indicate likely timing of designated funds expenditure
• Identify funds tied up in fixed assets
• State free reserves (unrestricted, undesignated, not fixed assets)
• Compare free reserves to reserves policy and explain
steps being taken to bring into line with policy
Reserves disclosures - larger charity
20
21. “To be or not to be?”
• The “going concern” assumption
• Are we? How far ahead do we need to look?
• Are there any “material uncertainties”?
• What do we need to say/do?
• What does the auditor say/do?
22. 22
Content, context & communication
• Focus on overall coherent document
• Place this year’s performance in the context of
your overall strategy - past, present, future
• Linkage to non financial stats too
• Stories & case studies
• Graphics
• Any order
• Linkage of key policies – reserves,
investments, grant making, risk
23. Report income and expenditure in line with
activities reported in the trustees’ annual report
• How charity has used resources to further its
charitable aims for public benefit
• Single document
• What are the key charitable activities?
Link trustees’ report and SoFA
23
24. 24
Seek out examples
• Those operating in a similar space
• Award winners eg PWC Building Public
Trust awards 2016
• CharityComms – comms perspective
Updated April 2017
• Other sectors: NAO Examples of good
practice in annual reports
Introduce myself – partner at SV where I trained and qualified. 17 years experience of the SORP.
Sayer Vincent works exclusively with charities and social purpose organisations
My role at Sayer Vincent – partner responsible for technical and compliance matters, but day job is audit partner, senior stat auditor or independent examiner.
Member of ICAEW Charities Technical committee.
Trustee of Farleigh Hospice in Chelmsford.
Spent the last 2-3 years reading about and speaking on SORP 2015. Today is an opportunity to share some of the key issues I anticipate we will face in adopting SORP 2015, whether that’s FRSSE or FRS102. Also look at the practical solutions and ways to prepare for implementation.
July 2009
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
In this diagram we have on the right hand side, in the pyramid, the different audiences and on the left hand side we can see how the focus changes.
So if we start from the bottom up we you have your regulations e.g. Charity Commission, Companies House and in there it’s all about compliance
Trustees and management also want to make sure that everything is correct, and reports are compliant as this is their responsibility
Donors and funders on the other hand won’t be as concerned about compliance. They are more interested in finding out about the financial viability of the charity, current activities and future plans.
And then you have your beneficiaries. They want to know why they should be supporting you. They want to know about your message. Statistics show 99% of the general public are not interested in the figures and therefore the TAR is the most important as it is the selling tool showing what the charity is about and what is trying to achieve, also its impact.
But your charity will have other stakeholders, the public, staff, funders, trustees, beneficiaries… and they have other focusses.
Do staff need to be more focussed on technical aspects, e.g. fundraisers having a grasp of the numbers and what they mean – reading a set of accounts
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
So what types of messages are you trying to communicate?
You need your financial information and details of your objectives and achievements as well as information on future plans. But it should not be too detailed.
Reference and administrative details have to be included but don’t have to be included first – they can be moved to the back of the accounts
Significant events- how would you summarise the year in order so someone could understand the significance of work
What will you need funding for, why will funders, volunteers and staff continue to support you?
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Firstly, the SORP is clear that there needs to be a link between the activities you report in the trustees’ report and those you report as income and expenditure on the Statement of financial activities.
The report and financial statements need to be a single document telling your story and explaining how you have used the resources available to further your aims.
The trustees’ report is the place to describe the aims and objectives, explain how your activities meet those aims, what you have achieved as a result and the impact you have had.
The SOFA should then reflect those activities in numbers.
In sets of accounts I read, this isn’t always the case. Often the TAR and the accounts are prepared independently. So the practical points to consider are:
What are your key charitable activities – if there isn’t currently a link between the trustees’ report and SOFA, which headings will you adopt?
Can you report the income and expenditure in this way?
Remember that you will need to restate the prior year as well
Perhaps start thinking about this now – engage the trustees in the decisions, as well as consider practical considerations of how you will crunch the numbers.
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Some other concessions for these “small” charities under £500k…
Example accounts from Charity Commission and OSCR on charity SORP microsite. Plus helpsheets.
Also Sayer Vincent website!
SORP 2015 made simple
Reading charity accounts made simple
SORP training
Template accounts – if interested let me know, if not a client, can purchase for a small fee
I hope that’s enlightened you on the changes brought about by SORP 2015. We have time for some questions.