Year-End Accounts
1st January 2024 – 31st March 2025
The following links should be read in conjunction with recent changes voted in favour by the Committee (see below).
Year-End Change
The Committee voted to amend its year-end date from 31st December to 31st March. In accordance with Charity Commission rules, this is treated as a one-off extension thereby creating a 15 month accounting period instead of the usual 12 months.
This has the benefit of aligning our accounts with the fiscal tax year, and moving our AGM from cold, wet and dark January to warm, dry and sunny May.
Computerised Accounting System
The Committee also voted to adopt a computerised accounting system called Xero starting on 1st January 2025. It is cloud-based, imports a live-feed from our bank accounts for accurate reconciliations, and also acts as a document storage system. Therefore, all invoices, receipts and expenses are now scanned and stored into the online accounting platform. Most importantly, it means that the Committee can generate reports quickly with the click of a button.
You will therefore find that conversion balances are the year-end accounts as at 31st December 2024 using the old paper based system. Whilst we appreciate that this is inconvenient for the period ended 31st March 2025, it will offer a lot more information going forward.
Independent Examination
It is a requirement of the Charity Commission that when the total annual revenue for a Charity exceeds £25,000, then the Trustees must arrange for an independent person or accountancy firm to carry out either an audit or an independent examination of their charity’s accounts.
Since the Village Hall was successful in gaining a grant of £50,000 to upgrade its heating system, this meant that it exceeded this threshold. The Trustees were therefore under a duty to instruct an independent accountancy firm to perform an independent examination of the accounts. Whilst this was a compulsory exercise for 2024-2025, the Committee has voted in favour of always requesting a voluntary independent examination on an annual basis.
The purpose of this voluntary exercise is to give the Trustees, Charity Commission, stakeholders, beneficiaries and the wider public, some independent assurance that the charity’s money has been properly accounted for and accounting records kept.