Parish Accounting
Over the last few years the Church in Wales, including representation from all the dioceses, has undertaken to revise the standard form of accounts it recommends for use in its parishes. This has included both consultation sessions and pilot use of the new accounts format with treasurers within the diocese and the response received was overwhelmingly positive.
We are issuing the revised format at this stage in order that you can keep accounts throughout this year which will follow the new headings, so that preparation of the final end of year accounts in the new format will be considerably more straightforward.
Why use the new recommended standard form of accounts?
* To comply with The Charities Act and to ensure that accounts comply with the detail of charity law
* To allow us to help you – more effectively and more easily. Enquiries about the details of accounts are much more straightforward to deal with if we are all working to the same format!
* To make your life easier. The revised accounting format has been specifically designed to mirror a revised format to the Church in Wales Annual return (the revised format will be issued later), so that at year end data from your completed accounts can simply be transferred straight across to the financial section of your annual return without the need for any additional work.
* And finally, so that as a church as a whole and as a diocese, we can ensure that we are collecting accurate and comparable information, so that important trends within data can be monitored which highlight the strengths and weaknesses of parishes and inform the wider church where it best and most effectively targets help and resources.
For these reasons The Diocese of Llandaff is asking all parishes to use the new format of accounts from this time onwards.
We realise that this will inevitably result in a period of adjustment for many, but please be assured of the on-going support of the finance department of the Church in Wales (029 2034 8200) and through your membership of the Association of Church Accountants & Treasurers. www.acat.org.uk or e-mail admin@acat.uk.com
To download the revised format of accounts from The Church in Wales website, click here http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/resources/finance/