Posted by admin - July 17, 2014 7:55 am New Charities SORP (statement of recommended practice)

What has changed?

The Charity Commission has released two new SORPs which represent the biggest changes to financial accounting for charities in more than five years.

  • One SORP supports the financial reporting standard for smaller entities (FRSSE).  The FRSSE is for charities that meet two of three criteria:

    • an annual income of less than £6.5m,

    • total assets of less than £3.26m or,

    • fewer than 50 employees

Both of these new SORPs are to be used for year ends beginning on or after 1 January 2015 and, are designed in a modular format so that they can be tailored to reflect the structure and activities of your charity.

The new SORPs can be viewed on the SORP micro site

Jane Hobson, Head of Policy at the Charity Commission said:

“We are pleased to announce the publication of the first new SORPs in over five years and are grateful for the hard work of the SORP committee in producing a framework that we believe works with charities. Recent research into public trust and confidence in charities revealed that the public’s appetite for knowing how charities spend their money continues to increase and is a key factor effecting trust. The SORPs clearly lay out the reporting rules to help charities be transparent, meet the high expectations held by the public and uphold the high levels of trust in the sector.
Accounting and reporting is a critical activity for charities which is why these changes aren’t just for Finance Directors and Treasurers to think about – trustees must engage with what the changes mean for the charity and start thinking now about the information they will need to report on next year.”

Should you wish to discuss the impact the introduction of the new SORPs will have on your charity please contact Clair Rayner on 01795 479111 or via email atclair.rayner@mfw.co.uk. Alternatively contact your local MFW office for more information and assistance.