Latest Blogs in Education
Jonathan Moore
5th September 2019 Gift Aid Guidance Update

HM Revenue & Customs have updated their Gift Aid for charities guidance.   In particular, the tables under sections titled The Benefit Rule, Charity Auctions and Educational School trips have been updated the latter of which will be of interest to charities involved in the running of schools and Educational Trusts.   The updated guidance…

Hannah Wisbey
29th October 2018 Great audit expectations

No audit sets out to conclude with total confidence that a set of financial statements are 100% free from any misstatement. To do so would belie the technological reality and scale of modern business; auditors would likely become a permanent fixture at client premises to review every single business transaction and audit would become an…

Hannah Wisbey
23rd October 2018 AI for audit?

Technological advances in the ways that data is captured, processed, stored and communicated continually change the ways in which we do business. In the context of auditing, data analytics concerns the process of extracting, transforming, validating and analysing large volumes of data to make judgements and form conclusions. The way we approach auditing must change…

Ruth Pearson
12th September 2017 Get ready for the new data protection rules

The government is to introduce new data protection rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which takes effect from 25 May 2018. Under the GDPR businesses will have increased obligations to safeguard the personal information of individuals which is stored by the business. These rules apply to the information of customers, suppliers or employees.…

Whitings LLP
11th July 2017 ICO warning as business fined £60,000 following cyber attack

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is warning SMEs to take care or face a fine. The warning comes after a company which suffered a cyber attack was fined £60,000. The investigation by the ICO found Boomerang Video Ltd based in Berkshire failed to take basic steps to stop its website being attacked. Sally Anne Poole,…

Keith Day
28th January 2016 Audit De-regulation

Audit Exemption Turnover Threshold: Raised to £10.2m. The Government is to raise the audit exemption threshold to the maximum allowed under EU law. In a statement read out in parliament, Anna Soubry, minister for small business, industry and enterprise, said the decision had been made after considering responses to its discussion paper. Companies will not be required to…

Paul Tatum
7th January 2016 Academy Returns

Academy reporting – Accounts Return The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has now published the 2012/13 Academy Accounts Return with a revised submission date of 31 January 2014. Audited financial statements still require submission to the EFA by 31 December 2013. The accounts return is used to support a number of Treasury and departmental requirements, including…

Paul Tatum
1st May 2015 Charity Audit Legislation

Charities: Changes to audit exemption thresholds. Changes to charity audit thresholds came into force on 31 March 2015, aimed at reducing the regulatory burden for charities. They include increasing the basic audit threshold from £500,000 to £1 million, meaning less charities will be required to subject their accounts to a statutory audit. Those charities can instead…

Paul Tatum
11th April 2014 Academy Financial Compliance

Academies – 2013 Audit Outcomes There were 2,248 sets of audited accounts submitted to the EFA for the year ended 31st August 2013. Of these 25 (1.1%) had a qualified audit opinion and 73 (3.2%) had a qualified regularity opinion. Of the 25 qualified audit opinions, 21 of these resulted from failure to disclose trustee’s…

Paul Tatum
11th April 2014 Academy Audits

Academies:  2013 Audit Outcomes. There were 2,248 sets of audited accounts submitted to the EFA for the year ended 31st August 2013. Of these 25 (1.1%) had a qualified audit opinion and 73 (3.2%) had a qualified regularity opinion. Of the 25 qualified audit opinions, 21 of these resulted from failure to disclose trustees’ salaries.…