In our last newsletter of 2024, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our clients and colleagues for your support and custom this year – we’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with you. From all the team at Insight Training we would like to wish you a happy and healthy festive season and all the very best for 2025.
Upcoming courses
Our 2025 CPD programme is open for bookings on our website. You can download our booking form and brochure here.
Date – Time – Course – Presenter
4th Mar – 9.30-12.30 – Charity Accounts and Audit The Fundamentals – Richard Hemmings
7th Mar – 9.30-12.30 – Charities Update – Peter Herbert & Maya Norbury
10th Mar – 9.30-12.30 – Audit Testing of Systems and Controls – Peter Herbert
14th Mar – 9.30-12.30 – Spring Tax Update – Malcolm Greenbaum
18th Mar – 1.00-2.00 – Effective Communication and Influencing Others – Nicky Clough
19th Mar – 9.30-12.30 – Payroll Update – Rebecca Benneyworth
25th Mar – 9.30-11.30 – Independent Examination of Charities – James Chalrton
25th Mar – 12.30-1.30 – IT Controls Under ISA 315 – James Charlton
Our AML, Ethics and GDPR E-Learning Programmes are available now. New versions will be available in February 2025.
“Excellent delivery, easily understood with some good points raised.” Delegate, Autumn series
FAQs from recent courses
Financial Reporting – Groups
We act for a small company which, during the year, acquired a subsidiary, resulting in the creation of a medium-sized group because of relevant thresholds being breached. Are consolidated accounts required for the group’s first year?
Perhaps slightly counterintuitively, the answer to this question is no. The group does breach the thresholds. However, this is not the company’s first financial year, it has historically been a small company and this is the first year the thresholds have been breached. For this reason, the group is small for the first year, because of the ‘two-year rule.’ Assuming the group breaches the thresholds again in the following year, the company would not then qualify as a small company and consolidated accounts would be required.
Company size limits
It’s been mentioned that company size limits will increase for periods commencing 6 April 2025. Is this definitely happening and will audit exemption limits increase also?
The Companies (Accounts and Reports) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 were published on 10 December 2024. The size limit increases proposed have been confirmed. The regulations, which can be downloaded here, deal with the transitional arrangements and confirm that audit exemption thresholds will increase in line with the increase in the new size limits.
Financial Reporting – Charities
When can we expect to see an exposure draft of the proposed revised Charity SORP? There’s been lots of discussion about this on courses but nothing has been forthcoming so far.
On 3 December, the Charity SORP Committee provided an updated timeline for production of the SORP. The Financial Reporting Council is expected to approve the draft SORP in the first quarter of 2025, at which point a 12-week consultation will begin. Final approval is expected in September/October 2025 with the final SORP then expected to be published in October 2025.
This SORP is eagerly awaited. It will reflect the changes in FRS 102 which have been much discussed, notably in respect of leasing and revenue recognition. Other substantive changes are also expected though, with this being the first significant SORP revision since 2015. Keep an eye on the Charity SORP ‘microsite’ here in the early part of next year and be ready to respond quickly given the very short consultation period.
Financial Reporting
We act for a group of three companies. A number of the directors don’t have formal contracts of employment but represent a number of the different group companies. How does that arrangement impact on the calculation of employee numbers?
This issue is dealt with in a very helpful ICAEW helpsheet on employee numbers which states that:
‘Where one individual serves more than one group company, consideration should be given to the structure of the arrangement.
If the individual is employed by one company which then recharges the other group companies for its employee’s time, then we have one employee.
If, however, the individual has contracts of service with each of the group companies, then they would count as one employee in each company, and three employees therefore for the group purposes’.
This might require careful thought, since it is not always easy to determine when contracts of service exist, especially since it is possible to have a verbal or an implied contract of service, rather than a written one. ICAEW members can download the helpsheet here.
In a recent poll
How much remote auditing do you do?
We ran this poll on a recent audit update course in the light of professional body comments about the challenges of remote auditing. Lots of firms tell us that the culture of remote auditing, very much part of the COVID years, is something they are trying to move away from. Being on site and ‘walking the floor’ can be much more effective and give audit teams more chance to challenge and probe. In view of this, these poll results were somewhat surprising. This group felt there were clearly more opportunity to take advantage of the efficiencies that remote auditing can allow. Whether that’s a good thing is open to debate!
