ACCOUNTANCY SERVICES FOR THE COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR

Annual Returns, Accounts and Filing with the Charity Commission and Companies House

Charities need to file accounts and returns with the Charity Commission, and some need to do so with Companies House as well.

We can help explain what is needed by each organisation in order to conform to legal requirements so that you avoid being fined, and help with filing online which both organisations are now encouraging.

Budget & Cashflow Preparation

We can help prepare budgets for your organisation from scratch or support your organisation in preparing one so that you can plan ahead and fill the requirements needed by individual funders. Also we can help with comparing budgeted income and expenditure to actual income and expenditure to help you assess whether your forecasts are accurate and what to do if they’re not.

We can also help with cashflow preparations from scratch or support with preparation, these will help you to assess when there may be any problems and prevent overspending in a particular period.

Computerisation of Accounts

Which computer system will suit your organisation from Excel to Quick Books and Sage? Do you know? We can help and let you know whether you need a computerised system at all. If you do we can work with you to get the best out of that system and support you if you have any problems along the way.

Corporation Tax Returns, Registration and Exemption

Does your organisation need to register for Corporation Tax? Do you know? We can help with advice about whether you should be registered. If you do we can help with the registration process. If you are exempt we can help with the process of informing Companies House and HMRC that you are exempt.

If your organisation has to pay Corporation Tax we can help with completion of forms for HMRC and online filing.

Development of Accounting Systems

In order to obtain the best possible management information for your organisation you need to have a good accounting system in place. We can help you find the best accounting system for your organisation and support you in setting up and using that system.

Financial Health Checks

Do you know whether your organisation is operating financially in a way that best serves the organisation and makes life easier for those operating the systems?We offer a comprehensive financial health check that will highlight those areas in your organisation which may need working on and those which are working well. This will help your organisation become more efficient and better able to gain funds.

Financial Statements for Companies House

If you are registered as a company e.g. a charitable company, a social enterprise or a community interest company, you need to submit your approved accounts to Companies House (and the Charity Commission if applicable). We can prepare your financial statements ready for submission to the relevant governing body in the correct format. We can also file your accounts online directly to Companies House if requested. We can register as your agent with HM Revenue and Customs ensuring that we deal with all correspondence relating to PAYE, NI, Corporation Tax, VAT etc.

Independent Examinatons & Audits

Most organisations need to have their accounts checked to make sure that their finances are managed properly and running smoothly.

The service CASNE provides has two parts:

• Preparing a set of year end accounts
• Verifying books and records

Preparing a set of year end accounts means using your organisations records (cash book) of income and expenditure for the year to produce accounts that the Charity Commission, funders and others require.

Verifying books and records means checking receipts and invoices against records kept by the organisation, checking minutes and constitutions to ensure the charity is using its finances to meet its objectives and checking banking records against financial records.

Also, because of new anti fraud and terrorism laws, independent examiners have to check to see that the charity trustees (particularly signatories) are who they say they are by means of identification documents, similar to those used in CRB checks.

Payroll Services

These services range from providing help to prepare pay and all the necessary paperwork for employees, employers and HMRC by the organisation to providing this service for them. This can cover:

• Payslip production
• End of month/quarter/year requirements

Support on Working Accounting Systems

We can help set up and provide training on both manual and computerised accounting systems. We can assist in setting up your cashbook for income and expenditure, show you how to categorise costs and record year to date values. We can also show you how to link the cashbook to your monthly management accounts, for presentation to your committee. Our management accounts are prepared in line with guidance from the Charity Commission. We can help you set up systems to record the debtors and creditors of your organisation, and also help you set up a simple to operate petty cash system. We can also help you organise your financial documents using reference numbers which will assist with the preparation of your annual accounts.

Support with Budget and Cash Flow Production

We can help you prepare manual or computerised budgets, ensuring that your organisation and its projects operate within the allocated budget. We can also help you to compare and monitor actual costs to those budgeted and investigate variances as required. Cash flows are a necessity for good financial management and control. We can prepare these with you, tailored to the needs of your organisation. This allows you to make a formal plan of where your organisation wants to be in the future and how it will achieve this. We can also assist with budgets for a particular project, e.g. if you are applying for a grant, the funder will need to be confident that the project will not operate at a deficit and that you have included all relevant costs. We can show you how to budget using Full Cost Recovery.

Support with financial management

We can help with all aspects of financial management, from training to reviewing your financial policies. We can work with you to ensure that your financial policies are relevant, current, help you prepare cash flow forecasts, prepare budgetary control statements. We can ensure that you have the tools and knowledge to ensure excellent financial management in your organisation.

Training

We offer a comprehensive range of training that will suit the needs of most organisations in all areas of finance. These range from:

• Group training either at one of our own venues or at the organisation itself
• One-to-one training
• In the near future we will be offering a CD that you can use in your own time for when you cannot make it to training events

Troubleshooting

This service is one that provides financial services rather than supporting your organisation with those services. For example, if your organisation loses its finance worker or Treasurer we can come in and do the book-keeping, etc. for you until a new worker or Treasurer is found.

VAT Returns, Registration, Advice & Set-up

Does your organisation need to register VAT? Do you know? We can help with advice about whether you should be registered. If you do we can help with the registration process, what schemes are available and if they would benefit your organisation, what is exempt and zero rated and the completion of forms for HMRC and online filing.