The Charities Sorp (Statement of Recommended Practice) provides accounting recommendations and sets out the format and content of charity reports and accounts. It is published by the Charity Commission in accordance with the Accounting Standards Board code of practice.
The current SORP was prepared by the Charities SORP Committee, a group of financial experts from the sector, in 2005 and its legal references were updated in July 2008. The Committee is now working on the next SORP which is expected to be published in 2010.
The new charity accounting framework must serve the needs of users, argues Nick Brooks.
Charities, iXBRL and HMRC
Paul Booth explains the ins and outs of the new system of electronic accounts reporting required by the taxman from April 2011.
The Charities Sorp Committee has started work on a modular e-version of the next Sorp, to ensure it dovetails with the three-tier approach that the Accounting Standards Board is planning for the move to harmonise UK reporting standards with international ones.
The future of the Sorp
Ray Jones and Nigel Davies provide an update on the development of new accounting standards for charities and other public benefit entities.
The Accounting Standards Board has decided to create an accounting standard for charities and other public benefit entities, as part of its work to harmonise UK accounting standards with international ones.
Reporting expenses
Charity Finance has surveyed the UK’s largest 100 charities to find out whether they intend to publish their expenses following the advice of the Independent Expert Group on Charity Expenses. Tania Mason reports.
Charity accounts could exclude all donated goods and services under the new International Financial Reporting Standards proposed for small and medium-sized enterprises, which charities may have to comply with.
The independent expert group on sector expenses says there is no significant evidence of expenses abuse in the sector and so charities should not be required by law to publish their trustees’ and managers’ expenses.
New accounting disclosures for charities holding heritage assets have been introduced, which will require information about the nature and scale of assets held and policies for their acquisition, preservation, management and disposal.
Scotland’s charity regulator has given short shrift to the Accounting Standards Board’s proposals to develop a new accounting standard for public benefit entities.
A new SORP for 2010?
The next SORP will be shaped by the Accounting Standards Board's consultation on the future of UK GAAP, says Ray Jones
Charity Audit Survey 2009
Now in its seventeenth year, Charity Finance’s annual review of the charity audit market and related reporting issues is based on data from 1,097 charities with collective annual income of £20.3bn and audit fees of £22.2m.
The Charity Commission and OSCR are to host an event in London early next month to launch the findings from a series of SORP roundtable events and examine the consultation on the Future of UK GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).
A business that has just launched a software solution to help charities report their expenses boasts Professor Paul Palmer as a board member – the same Paul Palmer that sits on the independent panel that is devising guidance on how charities should report their expenses.
The Charities SORP Committee is to discuss the possibility of the next SORP recommending disclosure of charity chief executives' expenses, at its meeting today. The idea was suggested by Paul Palmer, professor of voluntary sector management at Cass Business School and a former member of the SORP Committee, in a response to a blog on Charity Finance last week. The blog by accountant and Charity Finance blogger John Tate, argued that a culture of openness within charities makes abuse of expenses claims much less likely.
Gut instincts
As a newcomer to charity finance, Warren Alexander has some issues with the Sorp. By Vibeka Mair. Warren Alexander knew diseases of the bottom and the bowel would be a tricky cause to raise support for, but when the chief executive post at research charity Core came up, he couldn’t resist the challenge.
Andrew Hind discusses emerging findings from the Sorp Committee's research. Against a backdrop of financial uncertainty and increasing expectations for charities, developments in charity reporting and accounting continue unabated. Demands for increased transparency and accountability are affecting all sectors. We need only look to the debate about the accounts of UK and international banks and the application of fair value accounting to financial deriva-tives to see how back room accountancy can become centrepiece publicity.
Sorp it out
Sorp's reports and accounts are far more than grey statutory documents.
The Charity Commission has finally published a package of guidance material to help charities of all sizes prepare accounts and trustee reports under Sorp 2005.
Conflicted interests: slugging it out
What can go wrong when there are conflicts of interest between a trading subsidiary and the parent charity - and how to avoid it
A personal view on the development of the Sorp: why the underlying debate is still between an ideal of complete transparency and a need to maintain effectiveness.
CFDG is formulating a template for accounting software to meet the needs of smaller organisations.
The fifth edition of the Charity Finance Accounts Compliance Checklist will be published shortly.
The Office of the Third Sector has launched a sector consultation to help decide how new accountancy and reporting provisions introduced by the Charities Act 2006 will be implemented and supported by regulations.
Technical briefing - new CIS rules
Patricia Goldie provides a technical briefing of new construction industry scheme rules, plus heritage assets.
Doing good and doing well
Carol Rudge reviews Acevo's recent work on defining and measuring success.
In the end, it seemed a bit of an anti-climax when the Charities Bill received Royal Assent on 8 November.
The Charity Commission and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator has announced the membership of the new Charities Sorp Committee.
Increasing scrutiny
The widening dimensions of external review for UK charity accounts.
Reviewing the future: food for Sorp
The chief executive of the Charity Commission summarises new arrangements to take the Sorp forward.
