Annual accounts and the trustees' annual report, prepared under the Charities SORP for CIOs, charitable companies and unincorporated charities. Start by finding out exactly what your charity has to produce this year — the scrutiny thresholds rise for year ends from 30 September 2026, and for a good many charities that means less to do, not more.
Three things you already know — your structure, your year end and your income — decide all of it. No email address, no sign-up.
If you are not certain, your entry on the Charity Commission register says which — it is the single thing that changes the most about what you have to file.
The year end you are working on now.
Everything that came in — donations, grants, trading, investment income — before any costs are taken off.
Pick a structure and enter your income to see your answer.
A charity has a different regulator, a different calendar, a different accounting framework and a different set of traps from the company year-ends most accountants spend their time on. These are the three that actually cause trouble.
Restricted, unrestricted and endowment funds have to be reported separately — a grant given for one purpose cannot be pooled with general income. This is the single most common thing charity accounts get wrong, and it is the part a general-purpose year-end process does not even look for.
A charitable company files twice. For a 31 March year end that means Companies House by 31 December and the Charity Commission by 31 January — two submissions, two formats, a month apart. It is the December one that gets missed, because January is the date everyone remembers. We handle the Companies House side and prepare what the Commission needs.
The new Charities SORP applies to periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, so the first sets prepared under it are only now coming through. It moves most leases onto the balance sheet and introduces three reporting tiers. Everyone is doing their first one — which makes it a sensible moment to look at who prepares yours.
Every set of charity accounts involves two roles, and conflating them is the most common confusion we hear. Someone prepares the accounts. Someone independent then checks them, if your size requires it. We are firmly the first, and never the second.
If your charity needs an examiner or an auditor, you will need one separately — most boards already have someone, and if you do not, we will point you in the right direction. The Charity Commission's own guidance notes that finding an examiner can take time and should not be left until the accounts are due, which is worth acting on early rather than in January.
Being asked for “your records” is unhelpful if nobody has told you what counts. Four things, and none of them has to be tidy — sorting out the mess is part of the job, not a prerequisite for starting it.
Every account the charity holds, covering the full year — including the deposit account nobody uses and the PayPal or fundraising-platform balance, which are as much charity funds as the current account.
Donations, grants, subscriptions, fundraising, trading, investment income. However it is kept — spreadsheet, cash book, accounting software, or a folder of paying-in slips.
Invoices, receipts and expense claims. Gaps are normal and rarely fatal; we will tell you which ones actually matter and which can be reconstructed.
Grant letters and any funding given for a specific purpose. This is the part that most often goes wrong, because restricted money must be reported separately and cannot simply be pooled with everything else.
Your accounts, trustees' annual report and annual return go to the Charity Commission within 10 months of your financial year end — so a 31 March year end is due by 31 January. If your charity is also a company, you have a second and earlier deadline: accounts must reach Companies House within 9 months of the year end, which for a 31 March year end means 31 December. Charitable companies file twice, to two regulators, and the Companies House date always comes first.
It depends on your gross income, and on when your year ends — the thresholds rise part-way through 2026. For accounting years ending on or after 30 September 2026, an independent examination is required above £40,000 of gross income (it was £25,000); above £500,000 the examiner must be a member of one of the professional bodies listed in the Charities Act 2011 (it was £250,000); and a statutory audit is required above £1,500,000 (it was £1,000,000). There is also a second audit trigger that the income bands hide: total assets above £5,000,000 combined with gross income above £500,000, which catches charities that own property. The checker on this page applies whichever set of thresholds is right for your year end.
Possibly, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. The Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026 raises the audit threshold from £1,000,000 to £1,500,000 of gross income, and the examiner and accruals-accounts thresholds from £250,000 to £500,000, for accounting years ending on or after 30 September 2026. The Order was made on 20 April 2026 and comes into force on 30 September 2026. A charity sitting between the old and new lines can move down a rung — from audit to independent examination, or from examination to no external scrutiny at all. Nothing arrives in the post to tell you this; the obligation simply falls away with that year end. Two caveats: your governing document may require a scrutiny level the law no longer does, and a funder may insist on one regardless.
No, and that is deliberate. We prepare accounts; we do not offer independent examination or audit. An examiner has to be independent of the charity — in particular they cannot have kept its books or had a hand in running it — and above certain sizes the law also restricts who may take the role on at all. In practice most charities we work with already have an examiner or auditor, or we point them towards one.
Because preparing a set of charity accounts is not a routine or mechanical task — it involves judgement about fund allocation, going concern, related parties and the trustees' annual report — and ethical standards bar an auditor from preparing the very figures they then audit. That is why larger charities generally use two separate firms: one to prepare, one to audit. If you have been told this and are wondering what to do about it, preparation is exactly the job we do.
If you prepare accruals accounts, yes — the Charities SORP sets out how. A new edition applies to reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, which is later than most people expect and easy to get backwards: a 31 March 2026 year end began on 1 April 2025 and so is not affected, while a 31 December 2026 year end is. It introduces a three-tier framework based on gross income, brings most leases onto the balance sheet, and raises the income level at which a cash flow statement is required. Charities preparing receipts and payments accounts do not apply the SORP's accounting recommendations at all.
Yes. A CIO files its accounts, trustees' annual report and annual return with the Commission whatever its income, which is the rule small CIOs most often do not realise applies to them. For other charities the size of the job steps up rather than switching on: below £10,000 of gross income you report your income and spending, above that you answer the annual return questionnaire, and above £25,000 you attach the accounts and trustees' annual report as well. There is no income level at which a registered charity submits nothing at all. Note those two lines are not among the thresholds rising on 30 September 2026 — only the scrutiny thresholds move, so a small charity can find it still has to file accounts while no longer needing them examined.
Nothing arrives immediately, which is exactly why it drifts. What happens is public: the Charity Commission shows your filing status on your entry in the register of charities, so a late or outstanding filing is visible to anyone who looks — and funders, grant-makers and banks do look. Persistent default is treated seriously by the Commission and can prompt regulatory action. If you are already late, the sensible order is to get the accounts prepared and filed rather than wait until they are perfect.
There is no standard price, because there is no standard charity. We quote bespoke, for your charity's size, structure and the state of its records — and you will know the number before there is any obligation. As a rough guide to what moves it: a small unincorporated charity on receipts and payments is a straightforward job; a charitable company on accruals accounts with several restricted funds and a property is a substantially larger one. We will tell you which you are, and why, on a first call.
Yes, and this is one of the most common reasons charities call us. The honorary treasurer is very often the only person on a board who can read a balance sheet, and when they step down the work does not stop being due. We can take on the preparation so the board is not depending on one volunteer's availability, and we are used to picking up records that are part-finished, part-missing, or in a format nobody left instructions for.
Taxopedia is a UK accountancy practice, and you will be dealing with Paul, not a call centre. Book a free call and we will tell you what your charity has to produce this year, what it would cost us to prepare it, and whether you actually need us — before you commit to anything.
Book a free call →We checked these rather than relying on memory. Every figure and deadline above comes from the Charity Commission and Companies House directly — go and read them yourself if you'd like to.
Last reviewed 20-08-2026. Tax rules change — if you're reading this long after that date, check the source.
