Timely, informative conference ...

The Charity Commission’s Chief Executive, Frances McCandless, gave an overview of the Charities Act, reminding the audience that it will take a couple of years at least for all the provisions to come into force.  She explained why the establishment of the charity register is delayed and outlined the work of the Commission in the near future.  Frances pointed out that in these tough times, governance is not less important but, rather, more important than ever.

Fiona Gordon, Director, Association of Charity Independent Examiners, (ACIE) then explained what is meant by an independent examination as laid out in the Charities Act, describing it as a proportionate form of external scrutiny of a charity’s annual accounts.

After coffee, Dr Ciaran Connolly from Queen’s University Management School gave a comprehensive overview of what SORP is and outlined why it is necessary for charity accounts.   The technical elements of SORP were explained in detail by NICVA’s auditors Goldblatt McGuigan in the afternoon accruals workshops. 

Úna McKernan, Deputy Chief Executive, NICVA, outlined some key aspects of maintaining good financial management. She emphasised the importance of following the finance policies and procedures that organisations already have in place.

Before the morning session broke for lunch, Denise McCann, Governance and Charity Advice Manager, NICVA gave an overview of the preliminary findings of the Viewfinder survey that was sent to NICVA members in September.  She encouraged participants to take the governance health check and the Code of Good Governance back to their committees and use them as tools to help improve governance standards.

In the afternoon, participants got the opportunity to delve into the detail of charity accounts. As well as the SORP and accrual accounts workshop there was also a workshop on understanding Receipts and Payments accounts, delivered by Sector Matters.  There was also an opportunity to learn more about the detail involved in preparing for an Independent Examination.