Commission launches ‘time saving’ accounts templates for charitable companies
Partnership between Companies House and Commission assists accounts preparation and filing for small charities which are also registered with Companies House.
The Charity Commission has today (31 March 2017) launched the accounts templates pack for small charitable companies to help trustees of charitable companies with an income of under £500,000 prepare their accounts.
The new charitable company accounts templates are the product of a close partnership between Companies House and the Charity Commission to ensure that the templates reflect the regulatory requirements, current guidance and best practice.
Both the Charity Commission and Companies House committed to making it easier for charities to comply with their accounting obligations while making it easier for the public and donors to view charities accounting information.
Charities of this size make up around 77% of the charitable companies on the Commission’s register and these templates make it easier for charities to ensure their accounts are prepared in the correct format and to a good standard. The Commission’s recent research into charity accounts found that when charities used templates provided by the Commission they were much more likely (71%) to have followed the accounting standards.
These templates join 2 other sets of accounts templates for charities provided by the Commission: templates for non-company charities with incomes of less than £500,000 and Trustees’ annual report templates. These are available on GOV.UK.
Paula Sussex, Chief Executive, at the Charity Commission said:
Our renewed focus on enablement is all about supporting trustees and charities to get it right first time. Working closely with our colleagues at Companies House we have ensured that our templates contain the right information to meet the regulatory requirements.
The public have told us that they expect charities to be able to accurately account for the funds that donors give so generously. This toolkit for charities will enable smaller charitable companies to submit accounts that meet the high standards that the public expect.
Tim Moss, Chief Executive, at Companies House said:
I am pleased that our partnership with the Charity Commission has produced these new resources for charities, ensuring that the public and donors can continued to be assured of high standards of company accounting.
We are committed to exploring further opportunities for partnership and collaboration with the Charity Commission.
The new accounts templates are available on GOV.UK.
Ends
PR 26/17
Notes to editors
- The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
- Search for charities on our online register.
- Charity Commission Charity register statistics December 2016.
- Page 4 2016 Accounts Monitoring Review: The quality of small charity accounts
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