Scotland's charity regulator is working with its English counterpart to gather charity sector views on new accountancy practice
Scotland's charity regulator has launched a consultation with charity finance professionals on changes to accountancy practice set to come into affect in 2016.
The changes to UK-Irish accounting practice will mean that charities' Statements of Recommended Practice (SORP) will need to be updated. So, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is working with the Charity Commission for England and Wales to gather the views of charities on the proposed SORP changes.
The SORPs have to be updated to comply with the expected changes to accounting standards by the Financail Reporting Council (FRC).
The FRC requires that a SORP must be prepared in accordance with the FRC’s Policy and Code of Practice on SORPs and include no fundamental points of principle that are unacceptable in the context of current practice or to conflict with an accounting standard.
The joint SORP-making body and Charities SORP Committee considered all the available options and these options and the final proposal based on the Charities SORP (FRS 102) are set out in the consultation.
Laura Anderson, head of enforcement at OSCR and joint chair of the SORP committee, said: “Our shared aim with the SORPs was to equip the sector to make a smooth transfer to new GAAP in 2015 and to stay compliant with GAAP thereafter. The changes to GAAP from 2016 require a response, and we believe that a single solution based on the Charities SORP (FRS 102) from 2016 on is the best way forward to support the needs of our sector.”
The consultation documents and draft schedule of changes, called an Update Bulletin, can be viewed via the dedicated SORP micro-site
The consultation opened on 18 June and closes on 18 September.
The SORP-making body anticipates that the Update Bulletin would be published late February or early March 2016. The Update bulletin will be published on the dedicated micro-site once it has gained the necessary approval from the FRC.
