End of year review of accounts
This part of our finance procedures explains how to prepare end of year accounts and have them independently reviewed
This guidance is part of our finance procedures.
Last updated: 6 November 2024
All guiding units and levels, whether registered as charities or not, must prepare annual accounts.
And their accounts must be independently reviewed.
The exact legal requirements of this will vary depending on how much income your unit or level receives and the country you’re based in. The accounts must also be available to view if anyone asks and may need to be shared with the relevant charity regulator.
Check the finance policy as well as this guidance to help you prepare for your end of year review.
What do I need to do?
If your unit or level is registered with the relevant charity regulator, there’ll be additional legal requirements to meet as part of the end of year review of accounts. Click on the heading for your country below to see if you need to register your unit or level as a charity and what you’ll need to do for your end of year accounts.
You should keep the financial information section of GO for your unit or level up to date. This will help you to keep track of key information, and is very helpful for your commissioner.
Your commissioner is responsible for making sure the accounts of the units and levels below have been produced and reviewed appropriately by the end of the financial year. They’ll ask you for the relevant documents listed below. It’s important to cooperate with their requests. If you find completing accounts challenging, reach out to your local commissioner for support as soon as possible.
Do I need to register my unit or level as a charity?
In England and Wales, most units and levels are classed as ‘excepted charities’. This means that they don’t need to register with the Charity Commission.
You’ll need to register with the Charity Commission if you meet any of the following criteria. This means you'll need to do some additional steps in your end of year accounts.
- Units or levels whose income is more than £100,000.
- Units or levels that have a permanent endowment and their income is more than £5,000.
- Units or levels that own land or buildings and their income is more than £5,000.
If you're not registered as a charity
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out. This is a Girlguiding requirement. If your unit or level's annual income is above £25,000, this is also a legal obligation.
- Give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities, along with the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form, no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
If you’re registered as a charity
If your unit or level's annual income is below £10,000 a year, you’ll need to:
- Complete limited sections of the annual return for the Charity Commission within 10 months of the end of the financial year.
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out.
- Give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
If your unit or level's annual income is between £10,000 and £250,000 a year, you’ll need to:
- Prepare and submit a trustees’ annual report to the Charity Commission.
- File your annual return with the Charity Commission within 10 months of the end of the financial year.
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out.
- Give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
If your unit or level's annual income is above £250,000 a year, you’ll need to:
- Prepare and submit a trustees’ annual report to the Charity Commission.
- Prepare accruals accounts.
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out by a registered or qualified auditor, as required by the Charity Commission.
- File your annual return, trustees’ annual report and accounts with the Charity Commission within 10 months of the end of the financial year.
- Give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
- Confirm that there have been no serious incidents in the last year or that they have been reported to the Charity Commission.
The Charity Commission needs accounts and other documents to be submitted within 10 months of the end of the financial year. Girlguiding need accounts to be sent to your commissioner within 3 months of the end of the financial year. To avoid doubling-up on work, we recommend you submit your accounts to the Charity Commission at the same time.
To make sure you’re fulfilling your legal obligations, check the Charity Commission website.
Do I need to register my unit or level as a charity?
Units and levels are encouraged to register as a charity with the Office of Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). If you register with OSCR, you’ll be able to claim Gift Aid.
For more information visit the Girlguiding Scotland website.
If you're not registered as a charity
If your unit or level isn’t registered as a charity:
- You’ll need an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out.
- You must give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form, or the independent examination certificate included in the Scottish unit accounts pack. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
You can use the Girlguiding accounts pack, or the Scotland-specific accounts pack to help with this.
If you’re registered as a charity
If your unit or level’s income is below £250,000 you’ll need to:
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out. This is a legal requirement of OSCR.
- You must give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also the signed and dated independent examination certificate, included in the Scottish unit accounts pack. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
- Within 9 months of the end of the financial year, provide OSCR with:
- A trustee report.
- An independent examiner report.
- A statement of receipts and payments with prior year comparatives.
- A statement of balances as at the last day of the financial year and opening balances.
- Notes to the accounts.
If your unit or level’s income is above £250,000 you’ll need to:
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out by a member of a listed professional body. This is a legal requirement of OSCR.
- Provide your commissioner with a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also the signed and dated independent examination certificate, included in the Scottish unit accounts pack. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
- Within 9 months of the end of the financial year, provide OSCR with fully accrued accounts, prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (the SORP), including:
- A trustee report.
- An independent examiner report.
- A statement of financial activities.
- A balance sheet and statement of cash flows.
- Notes to the accounts.
OSCR requires accounts and other documents to be submitted within 9 months of the end of the financial year. But, it's a Girlguiding requirement for accounts to be submitted to your commissioner within 3 months of the end of the financial year. To avoid duplicating work, we recommend you submit your accounts to OSCR at the same time.
You may use the Scottish unit accounts pack to help you create the statement and reports. The accounts pack includes everything to ensure you’re fulfilling your legal obligations.
For further information, check the OSCR website.
Do I need to register my unit or level as a charity?
All units and levels operating in Northern Ireland must be registered with the Charity Commission NI. For help with this, speak to your local commissioner or email [email protected].
What you need for end of year review
If your unit or level’s income is below £250,000, you’ll need to:
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out. This is a legal requirement of the Charity Commission NI.
- Give your commissioner a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent examiner’s report. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
- Submit the following to the Charity Commission NI:
- An annual monitoring return.
- A receipts and payments account.
- Trustees’ annual report.
If your unit or level’s income is above £250,000, you’ll need to:
- Have an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out by a member of a listed professional body. This is a legal requirement of the Charity Commission NI.
- Provide your commissioner with a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent examiner’s report. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
- Submit the following to the Charity Commission NI:
- An annual monitoring return.
- Accruals accounts, prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (the SORP).
- Trustees’ annual report.
The Charity Commission NI requires accounts and other documents to be submitted within 10 months of the end of the financial year. But, it’s a Girlguiding requirement for accounts to be submitted to your commissioner within 3 months of the end of the financial year. To avoid duplicating work, we recommend you submit your accounts to the Commission at the same time.
To make sure you’re fulfilling your legal obligations, check the Charity Commission NI website.
Girlguiding requires you to have your accounts reviewed annually. You should also make sure that you’re following local laws regarding handling money.
You’ll need an independent review of your unit or level’s accounts carried out.
You must also provide your commissioner with a copy of your annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. Also, the signed and dated independent reviewer checklist and confirmation form. Provide all documents no more than 3 months after the end of the financial year.
You can use the Girlguiding accounts pack to assist with this.
How do I prepare the statements I need?
All units and levels need an annual accounts statement and a statement of assets and liabilities. If you’ve never prepared these before, it may seem intimidating – but it’s not as difficult as it sounds!
Annual accounts statement
This shows information about your income and your spending. As long as your unit or level has been keeping your accounts records up to date throughout the year, this will be easy. If you use our accounts pack spreadsheet, there's a tab which will automatically be filled in with the details you need.
Statement of assets and liabilities
These show your assets, which is anything of value that the unit owns, including valuable equipment, land, buildings, investments. As well as any cash or money you have in the bank.
It also needs to show your liabilities, which means anything you owe. Usually this is sums of money for volunteer expenses or any unpaid invoices at the end of the year.
The statement should list your:
- High value assets, such as land, buildings or investments.
- Equipment – this is the value of your equipment. Include valuable equipment here like tents, flags, tables, laptops, tablets and other devices.
- Cash and bank balances - how much petty cash you have and what's in the unit’s bank account. Be aware of cheques paid in that haven’t cleared. And cheques paid to suppliers that might not have been cashed. If you’ve recorded the dates cheques were paid into the unit bank account or were issued from the account, these will be shown in the balance if you’re using the Girlguiding unit accounts pack spreadsheet (Excel, automatic download, 536KB). You should include them so that the expected balance in your bank account is correct.
- Any other amounts that might be owed to you (debtors) or by you (creditors).
Once you’ve completed these statements you need to have your accounts independently reviewed.
What’s an independent review or examination?
An independent review or examination gives an outside check on a charity’s, or unit or level’s, accounts. It involves reviewing the accounting records kept by the charity and comparing the accounts to the records kept. It also looks for unusual spending.
For a review or examination to take place, you need to give the independent reviewer or examiner your annual accounts statement with your statement of assets and liabilities, and all supporting documents. This could include:
- Budget for the year.
- Cash account pages.
- Bank statements.
- Paying in slips.
- Cheque book stubs.
- Invoices, including the invoice for the annual subscription payable to HQ and other levels.
- Receipts.
- Details of any Gift Aid income. Do not share any names or addresses.
- Attendance registers.
- Subscription records to confirm how much subscription income you’ve received from members of your unit. This would typically be your membership records.
- Proof of authorisation, by another signatory, for transactions made without dual authorisation when online banking.
- Any other financial documents that the reviewer asks for.
You also need to give the reviewer the contact details for your local commissioner, in case they need to raise any issues.
Who can be an independent reviewer?
Any competent, responsible and financially confident person can review or examine the accounts, but they must not be:
- A member of the unit’s leadership team.
- A signatory of the bank account.
- Related to anyone within the unit.
If the income of your unit or level is more than £250,000, the independent reviewer will need to be registered with a professional body or a registered or qualified auditor. Check what's required for your country or region.
The leadership team is responsible for having the unit accounts independently reviewed or examined each year. The local commissioner‘s role is to make sure this is done. In many some cases, a commissioner will appoint someone to review all the accounts across their whole area. Check out our outline of commissioner responsibilities for accounts (PDF).
If you're struggling to find someone who will do the independent review, you can think about hiring an accountant. Make sure to budget for the cost of this, and if you’re lucky they might be willing to do it for a modest charge!
What do I need to do as an independent reviewer?
If you've been asked to do an independent review or examination of end of year accounts, it’s important you understand what that involves.
Download the independent review checklist and confirmation form (PDF).
You should check the following:
- A bank account exists in the name of the unit or level, and most income is recorded here.
- Spending and income are accurately recorded across financial records, including bank statements, paying in books, cheque books, invoices and receipts.
- Any grant money received has been spent on the correct purpose.
- Cash held by the leadership team is minimal.
- Any money collected for another charity has been passed on appropriately.
You should raise as a concern with the local commissioner if any of the following is present:
- Money is unaccounted for.
- Spending is excessive compared to the budget or your experience of local costs, or inappropriate compared to the unit activities which have taken place.
- Bills haven’t been paid on time, like rent for the meeting place.
- Excessive or unexplained amounts of cash held at the end of the financial year, or if there have been delays in paying in cash during the year.
- Other breached of the finance policy or procedures.
If you're not able to contact the local commissioner, you should contact the country/region office or Girlguiding HQ.
Once you've reviewed the accounts, you might need to create a report for the charity’s trustees. The requirements of this will depend on the income of the unit/level, the country they’re operating in, and whether they’re registered as a charity. See the country-specific information to check whether a formal report is required.
Where a report isn’t required by the relevant charity regulator, this checklist and confirmation form (PDF) must be completed. It will confirm that the independent review has been carried out in line with Girlguiding’s requirements.
Your name and contact details are included on this form so that a commissioner can get in touch if they need to verify information or discuss any issues you may have raised with the accounts.
Download the independent review checklist and confirmation form (PDF).
Not completing the end of year review process for your unit or level’s accounts is a breach of the finance policy. This may lead to a sanction on your membership. If you have concerns about completing these processes, speak to your commissioner as soon as possible.
What do I need to do as a commissioner?
As a local commissioner, it's your responsibility to make sure the accounts of the units and levels below have been produced and reviewed appropriately.
Each unit must provide you with a copy of their annual accounts statement and statement of assets and liabilities. They must provide evidence that the independent review has been carried out within 3 months of the end of the financial year.
This must be either the Girlguiding independent reviewer’s checklist and confirmation form, the Girlguiding Scotland independent examination certificate, or an independent examiner’s report as defined by the country’s charity regulator.
If you have concerns about the accounts, or that the independent review may not have been carried out to the right standard, you should request to see additional financial information relating to the unit and escalate concerns to the next commissioner.
See our guidance on commissioners responsibilities for unit accounts (PDF) for help if accounts aren’t produced on time.
