TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 1/59 - Smaller charities, SORP and issues of fi…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 2/59 - Table of Contents

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 3/59 - Introduction

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 4/59 - Executive Summary

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 5/59 - Where there was an understanding of the…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 6/59 - classifications on the SoFA, was found t…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 7/59 - Quality of external advisor support Sma…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 8/59 - Methodology

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 9/59 - Chartered Accountants (ICAS) and Associa…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 10/59 - accounts for, a further 436 were unusabl…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 11/59 - Table 0.1. Representativeness of final s…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 12/59 - o Statement of Balances Based on these t…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 13/59 - Table 0.2. Small charity survey sample c…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 14/59 - surveys. Whilst such issues of the accou…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 15/59 - Results

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 16/59 - Table 1.1. Income thresholds and minimum…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 17/59 - Research has been conducted amongst Scot…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 18/59 - possibly due to issues downloading accou…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 19/59 - Figure 1.3. Estimation of accounts type,…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 20/59 - jurisdiction, or is it an artefact of no…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 21/59 - Table 1.2. Contingency table of estimate…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 22/59 - 1.2.1 Examining undetermined accounts Ho…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 23/59 - Independent Examiner, whereas in England…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 24/59 - 2. Why do some smaller non-company chari…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 25/59 - 2.2 Survey evidence

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 26/59 - We asked a similar question in the Indep…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 27/59 - The reason SORP was considered unnecessa…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 28/59 - Table 2.4. Top five reasons for choosing…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 29/59 - accounts. Others were aiming for simplic…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 30/59 - 3. To what extent do smaller charities u…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 31/59 - Table 3.1. Familiarity with key charity …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 32/59 - We asked the same questions in the Indep…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 33/59 - It is worth noting that this represents …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 34/59 - 4. To what extent do smaller charities r…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 35/59 - We see a slight / moderate association b…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 36/59 - Figure 4.3. Distribution of workload in …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 37/59 - Figure 4.4. Distribution of workload in …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 38/59 - Bottom line is, I just give them [the ac…
![Bottom line is, I just give them [the accountants] a sheet that has numbers in it, and then they give me back the official financial statement ... I just hand it off to them and then they produce the financial statements. [focus group participant] Some of the treasurers mentioned that they went to some trouble to distinguish restricted funds before passing information to their accountants: in one focus group more than half the participants confirmed that they were using fund accounting in their own books and records. Some said they included provisions for debtors and creditors (so in these cases the figures send to the accountants were on an accruals basis). But, even so, it seemed there was little understanding of the rationale for the presentation of the SORP accounts that came back. For the most part there was little evidence of treasurers or other trustees asking for amendments to SORP accounts prepared by external accountants. Many had little appreciation that the SORP presentation involved decisions and judgments by trustees, and it seems few of the external accountants made clear that the trustees should feel free to request changes. 4.4 Conclusion Many survey and focus group participants reported positive experience of guidance they received, particularly from their accountants and Independent Examiners, and the guidance from charity regulators (especially OSCR) was also mentioned by some. However, awareness of the SORP itself was more limited and whilst most were familiar with the term `SORP, few if any had used the SORP directly as a source of guidance. Nevertheless, many wanted to see more simplifications in the SORP for smaller charities, though relatively few were able to raise specifics. The awareness of the specific simplifications already allowed for smaller charities, such as the use of natural classifications on the SoFA, was found to be very low, even amongst professional accountants. As to whether reliance on external advisors is expected to change in the future, few focus group participants provided responses on this topic and it was not explored in the small charity survey either.](pages/page-0038-small.png)
TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 39/59 - 5. Could the SoFA and annual accounts gu…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 40/59 - Figure 5.1. Helpfulness of guidance for …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 41/59 - Table 5.1. Suggestions for improving ann…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 42/59 - Table 5.2. Suggestions for improving ann…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 43/59 - Some referred to guidance provided by th…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 44/59 - 6. Could the requirements of the TAR be …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 45/59 - Figure 6.2. Accessibility of TAR require…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 46/59 - Figure 6.3. Importance of TAR for accoun…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 47/59 - Again, there were comments about these r…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 48/59 - 7. Could the quality and consistency of …

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 49/59 - Figure 7.1. Satisfaction with support pr…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 50/59 - Figure 7.2. Satisfaction with support pr…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 51/59 - Satisfaction is generally high but respo…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 52/59 - A common theme developed across response…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 53/59 - 8. What changes would you like to see to…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 54/59 - Pro forma approach and a simplified requ…
![Pro forma approach and a simplified requirements list for a small charity like ours. [survey respondent]](pages/page-0054-small.png)
TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 55/59 - Six responses recommended SORP being wri…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 56/59 - 56

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 57/59 - Bibliography

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 58/59 - Morgan G. & Fletcher N. (2011) Public Be…

TPR-Smaller-charities-and-the-SORP_0.pdf - page 59/59 - Acknowledgments
