Charity auditor's reports
1 Sep 09
The Auditing Practices Board (APB) has issued Bulletin 2009/3, which provides examples of auditor’s reports for charities with accounting periods beginning on or after 6 April 2008
The guidance updates the reports in Bulletin 2009/1 to reflect the impact of the Companies Act 2006, and provides illustrative reports for charities that are registered in England and Wales, Scotland and both jurisdictions. Only minor changes have been made to the illustrative auditor’s report examples for non-company charities.
The Bulletin can be downloaded from the APB website.
The auditor’s report should reflect the statutory basis for the audit which must also be reflected in the engagement letter.
The APB and the charity regulators, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the Charity Commission, have taken the view that, in certain circumstances, a charitable company can receive an audit solely under charity law while electing for exemption under company law.
ICAS takes the view that it is good practice where any piece of legislation requires a charity to be audited that the charity is audited under all applicable legislation.
Therefore, all charitable companies registered in Scotland with OSCR which are required to have an audit under Scottish charity law should also have the audit undertaken under the Companies Act 2006.
The same principle should be applied for charitable companies registered with the Charity Commission where the company is eligible for exemption from audit from company law, but requires an audit under charity law.
However, where a Charity Commission-registered charity is large enough that it requires an audit under company law, charity law is scoped out of any audit requirement and is not part of the audit engagement.
APB bulletin 2009/1 should continue to be applied for accounting periods beginning before 6 April 2008.