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Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice

Published: 28 Jul 2016 Updated: 08 Dec 2023 Update History

The charities SORP gives guidance on financial accounting and reporting for charitable entities. On this page you can access a range of articles, books and online resources providing quick links to the regulations, guidance and other key documentation.

We also have a separate page on accounting for charities in general.

Statements of Recommended Practice (SORPs)

Issuing bodies

The Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland are responsible for issuing the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for charities.

Full-text sources for the SORP

Charities SORP (FRS 102) – Second edition October 2019
Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102 effective from 1 January 2019. Published in October 2019. The SORP can be accessed as modules on the SORP website or the full SORP downloaded.

Guidance from the issuing bodies

SORP examples and useful information
Example accounts under FRS 102 for charities in England and Wales and in Scotland. The examples cover a variety of entity types.

Accruals accounts pack (CC17): SORP FRS 102
Templates to help non-company charities prepare their trustees' annual report and accruals accounts in accordance with Charities SORP FRS 102. The pack also includes a trustees' annual report template (SORP FRS 102) and independent examiner's report template (SORP FRS 102). Updated in September 2016.

Information sheets and help sheets
Provides suggested solutions to implementation issues from applying charities SORP (FRS 102) together with further information about the changes introduced by the new SORPs.

  • Information Sheet 1: suggested solutions for implementation issues
  • Information Sheet 2: Accounting for gift aid payments made by a subsidiary to its parent charity where no legal obligation to make the payment exists
  • Information sheet 3: The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 and UK Company Charities
  • Information sheet 4: Amendments to FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland – Multi-employer defined benefit plans
  • Information sheet 5: The Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018-UK, as applied to Charitable Companies (reissued September 2020)
  • Information sheet 6: Irish Charities - Merger Accounting and Republic of Ireland Company Law

Other guidance

Charities SORP Information Sheet for Community Benefit Societies
Information sheet designed to assist practitioners in implementing the Charities SORP (FRS 102) in relation to the preparation of accounts for Charitable Community Benefit Societies with specific reference to their use of community shares. The information sheet has not yet been formally published by the SORP making body and is being made available by Co-operatives UK for reference.

Featured resources

Charity Finance SORP compliance checklist
Comprehensive guide for charity practitioners and advisers covering SORP compliance and other regulatory issues. Latest edition 2023. Available to borrow from the ICAEW Library

Timeline of previous SORPs, consultations and guidance

Online articles

The library provides access to a range of articles in full text from leading business, finance and management journals. Access to articles is provided to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.

Articles and books in the ICAEW Library collection

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to borrowing books.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports through our document supply service.

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The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.

Disclaimer

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided ‘as is’ with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice.

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