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Charity begins at home: finding positives in a pandemic
How has charity auditing and financial reporting been affected by COVID-19? Sudhir Singh discovers that the pandemic could lead to improved quality of the remote audit as parties.
While some commercial sector audits have been deferred at the behest of either the company or their auditors, in the main, charity audits have been undertaken in more or less normal time frames since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the spring of 2020. This is probably not unexpected given the regulated nature of the sector, the public accountability of charities and the expectations of readers of charity financial statements – not least charity trustees wanting assurance that their financial duties are being achieved.
This article reflects on the experience of 2020 and on how charity auditing and financial reporting have been affected. One of the main ways is that the UK’s countrywide lockdown meant both auditors and their clients stopped working from their offices. The only way for any of us to work was remotely from home. In some ways, the most surprising aspect of this change is just how many positives have emerged.