Accounts Independent Examination

Under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 - Section 44, all charities must have their accounts externally scrutinised each year. Someone who is independent of the charity must review the accounts and produce a report, attached to the accounts, that highlights any issues to the reader. 

The type of external scrutiny you choose depends on your charity’s governing document, gross income and net assets and whether or not your charity is also a company. 

We can only carry out independent examination of accounts.

No, verification is not an audit of your accounts. In Scotland, the Office of the Charity Regulator (OSCR) only requires charities that have an annual gross income of over £500,000, or have gross assets exceeding £3,260,000 to have their annual accounts audited.

Once your accounts have been examined, you will receive an independent examination report from our examiner. You must log on to your OSCR account and upload this report, along with your signed accounts and a copy of your charity's annual report.

If your organisation is governed by Companies House, normally your accounts would be taken care of by an accountant. These would need to be filed with Companies House and not OSCR, and do not need to be Independently Verified.

If however, your organisation is governed by Companies House but is also a charity, then yes, your accounts will need to be independently examined or audited depending on gross annual income and asset value, and also filed with OSCR

Unincorporated associations generally don't have strict accounting requirements like those imposed on registered companies or charities; however,  proper records of income and expenses should be kept. 

You do not need to have your financial records independently examined; however, it is good governance to have someone who is independent of your organisation to review the financial records and sign that they have done so. This shows transparency to the communities that you service and to potential funders.

Unfortunately, this is one of the few services that Caithness Voluntary Group charges for. We used to charge a flat rate of £75.00 for this service, but we found that organisations were presenting accounts in such a poor condition that it was taking our examiner sometimes over 20 hours to sort out the mess.

Therefore, we now charge an hourly fee for this service, with examination of most small charity accounts with documentation that is well presented, in good order, and in the correct format, taking from 3 to 5 hours to complete.

Hourly Rate - £20.00

Please be aware that this is not a service to sort out accounts that are in a total mess. If the accounts are found to be in a poor state, they will be returned to the organisation to rectify, and you may be charged for the hours already spent dealing with them.

The button below will take you to the section on the OSCR website which shows each of the steps that the examiner will take during the examination. It is important that you provide the examiner with any details or documentation that they request.