Our examination will be carried out in accordance with the directions and guidance produced by the Charity Commission/Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator/The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland /other regulator as appropriate.
Our examination will involve comparing the accounts with the accounting records and making limited enquiries of the charity’s officers. In certain circumstances we shall look for independent evidence to support entries in the accounting records or in the presentation of the accounts.
The responsibility for safeguarding the assets of the charity and for the prevention and detection of fraud, error and non-compliance with law or regulations rests with the trustees. Our examination should not be relied on to disclose all such material misstatements or fraud, errors or instances of non-compliance as may exist.
As part of our normal procedures, we may request you to provide formal representations concerning certain information and explanations we have received from you during the course of our examination.
In order to assist us with our examination of your accounts, we will request sight of any documents or statements that will be issued with the accounts. This will include the trustees’ report. We are also entitled to attend all general meetings of the charity, and to receive notice of all such meetings.
It is not the purpose of our examination to identify all significant weaknesses in the charity’s systems, but if any such weaknesses comes to our attention, we shall report them to you. If this situation occurs, the report should not be provided to any third party without our consent.
Once we have issued our report, we have no further direct responsibility in relation to the accounts for that financial year. However, we expect that you will inform us of any material event occurring between the date of our report and that of the annual general meeting that may affect the accounts.
We have set out the agreed scope and objectives of your instructions within the engagement letter. Any subsequent changes will be discussed with you and, where appropriate, a new letter of engagement will be agreed. We shall proceed on the basis of the instructions we have received from you and will rely on you to tell us as soon as possible if anything occurs that renders any information previously given to us as incorrect or inaccurate. We shall not be responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter that falls outside the specific scope of your instructions. We cannot accept any responsibility for any event, loss or situation unless it is one against which it is the expressed purpose of these instructions to provide protection.
The advice that we give can only be as good as the information on which it is based. In so far as that information is provided by you, or by third parties with your permission, your responsibility arises as soon as possible if any circumstances or facts alter, as any alteration may have a significant impact on the advice given. If the circumstances change, therefore, or your needs alter, advise us of the alteration as soon as possible in writing.
As trustees of the above charity, you are required by statute to prepare either receipts and payments accounts or accruals accounts for each financial year, which present the income and expenses of the charity for the period and its assets and liabilities at the end of the period, together with a trustees’ annual report in accordance with the section 133 of the Charities Act 2011/ section 44 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005/ section 64 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 as appropriate, as amended and regulations thereunder. In preparing those accounts you must:
As trustees of the charity, you are responsible for maintaining proper accounting records and an appropriate system of internal control for the charity. You are also responsible for preparing the annual report and financial statements, which give a true and fair view and have been prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and the Companies Act 2006 and regulations thereunder. It is also your responsibility to safeguard the assets of the charity, and hence to take reasonable steps for the prevention of and detection of fraud and other irregularities with an appropriate system of internal controls.
You are also responsible for making available to us, as and when required, all the charity’s accounting records and all other relevant records and related information, including minutes of all trustees’ meetings along with access to all staff.
In accordance with section 133 of the Charities Act 2011/section 44 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005/section 64 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 as appropriate, where the charity’s income in any financial year does not exceed £250,000, and if permitted by the charity’s governing document, the charity’s trustees may elect to prepare a receipts and payments account(s), a statement of assets and liabilities and trustees’ report as its annual statement of accounts.
The intended users of the report are the trustees. The report will be addressed to the trustees.
Our legal and professional duty is to state in our report whether any matters have come to our attention, which, in our opinion, attention should be drawn to in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached, and to report whether or not any matter has come to our attention in connection with the examination which gives us reasonable cause to believe:
We have a statutory duty to report to the appropriate Charity Commission/Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator/The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland such matters (concerning the activities or affairs of the charity or any connected institution or body corporate) of which we become aware during the course of our examination which are (or are likely to be) of material significance to the regulator in the exercise of their powers of inquiry into, or acting for the protection of, charities.
There are certain other matters that, according to the circumstances, may need to be dealt with in our report: for example, material breaches of trust or information not provided to us.
Under directions issued by the appropriate Charity Commission/Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator/The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland/other regulator, We are obliged to report to it any matters that we become aware of during the course of our examination, which give us reasonable cause to believe that one or more of the trustees have been responsible for deliberate or reckless misconduct in the charity’s administration.
Should you instruct us to carry out an alternative report then it will be necessary for me to issue a separate letter of engagement.
If, as a result of the work we perform, we arrive at the conclusion that the charity is not entitled to exemption from an audit of the accounts, or if we are unable to reach a conclusion on this matter, we will not issue any report. We will provide you with written notification of the reasons for this.
We are also required to report any of the following matters that have become apparent during the course of the independent examination:
As trustees of a charity, you are under a duty to prepare an annual report for each financial year complying in its form and content with the appropriate Charities Act 2011/the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005/Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008. You should also have regard to Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities issued by the Charity Commission and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in their role as the joint SORP-making body, recognised by the Financial Reporting Council.
As trustees, you are required to report as to whether you have given consideration to the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and to the systems designed to mitigate these risks. Compliance with the SORP requires you to confirm that these risks have been reviewed and that systems have been established to mitigate those risks. We are not required to audit this statement, or to form an opinion on the effectiveness of the risk management and control procedures.
Our services as detailed above are subject to the limitations on our liability set out in the engagement letter in paragraph 22 of our standard terms and conditions of business. These are important provisions, which you should read and consider carefully.
