As Autumn arrives, so does the Academy Audit Season

The kids are back at school, summer holidays (even as abnormal as they were) are a long and distant memory. Cold nights and fresh mornings are with us as Autumn appears and that can only mean one thing – it is Academy audit season.

For those academy business managers, we appreciate that this year is going to be a little bit different. Not only are you having to deal with a very strange and changing working environment, trying to juggle work with family and changes to our lives from the pandemic, but you also have to deal with the changes to the audit process. This is of course the change in rules that came into force on 1 September 2020 where you can no longer use the same firm for your internal and external audits.

But don’t worry, here are some of our top tips to get you through.

1. Set those AGM and finance committee meeting dates, whether virtual or socially distanced.
2. Get your dates organised with your auditor. Agree a timetable for the preparation of the accounts and the audit and work backwards to ensure you have enough time.
3. Prioritise your other work. Allocate a couple of mornings a week to those routine jobs. Planning your day really helps to ensure you can manage your workload. If you are overloaded, ask for help. The audit process can be a huge drain on your time so get the resources in place to help you.
4. Make sure that you have read and understood your audit planning pack. This will provide you with all the information and even a checklist so you can mark off your progress. A lot of the items on the checklist can be completed by other people so do delegate and get others to help you.
5. Update your Trustees on when their annual report is required. As the name suggests this is to be written by the Trustees not you.
6. Don’t leave it all until last minute. The ESFA deadlines already restrict the time to complete the audit and accounts, don’t make it worse! ‘failing to plan = planning to fail’
7. If you are unsure or struggling to complete all your roles, do talk to us. We are here to help to ensure the process runs as smoothly as you would. Contrary to popular belief, we are not the enemy!

Whether you are currently audited by Forrester Boyd or not please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about your current audit process.