Standard Form of Accounts for Parishes.
Following a consultation exercise with the parishes and approval of the Dioceses and the Representative Body, a Standard Form of Accounts for Parishes is proposed from the 1st January 2010.
The results of the consultation exercise can be seen here.
The attached selection of spreadsheets should cover the accounts of parishes with different levels of income, and is intended as a guide.
The Annual Report and Accounts should comply with the Accounting Regulations set out in the Constitution.
The more complex spreadsheets have additional columns which may or may not be used, and in some cases parishes may not wish to use them for the purpose for which they are indicated but for some other parish purpose.
Each set of spreadsheets has advice on completion of the forms, a layout of the standard form, a suggested layout for the annual report and the layout for the annual financial return.
A simple set of spreadsheets has been sent to each Parish Treasurer. With these spreadsheets a letter was enclosed, which can be downloaded here.
The following table may help you to decided which set of spreadsheets you wish to access.
| Current Income Thresholds | Receipts and payments accounts | Accruals and accounting | External scrutiny of accounts | Charity Commission registration and submission of Annual Report and Accounts |
| Up to £100k | Yes | No | Independant examination | No |
| £100k to £250k | Yes | No* | Independant examination | Yes |
| Over £250k | No | Yes | Audit | Yes |
All Parish accounts
- Must comply with the Standard of Recommended Practice (SORP)
- Must be available for inspection by the Archdeacons
- Must be retained along with all the accounting records for 6 years
- Must be available to the public on request

