Charity accounting standards and principles

By Nadine Sutton, Principal Product Manager

Charities are not-for-profit organisations, and they don’t have any shareholders. This means that there are no owners who expect to collect dividends, so any surplus money is retained within the charity and either used operationally or put aside as a reserve.

When it comes to financial management, there are a few key similarities between for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. As in the corporate world, you must be able to vouch for all your income and expenditure, produce accounts and reports in a timely fashion, monitor your cashflow and prevent financial crime.

Your tax status will be different, but your approach to running a not-for-profit must be just as focused as it would be if you were running a limited company.

On top of that, there are also a number of specific measures and processes that charities need to follow.

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