The most useful preparation is to agree who will supply the information, when it will be ready and which issues need an early decision. A clear plan helps your finance team manage audit requests alongside its normal work and gives trustees time to consider the accounts and findings.
You do not need to anticipate every audit question. You do need reconciled records, accessible evidence and a way to flag matters that could affect the timetable. The auditor’s requests should be tailored to your charity, rather than treated as an identical checklist for every organisation.
This guide is for charities preparing accruals accounts under the Charities SORP. Other frameworks and jurisdiction-specific rules may apply. First confirm whether an audit is required for the relevant period or is being commissioned voluntarily.
1 Agree the timetable and responsibilities early
Work backwards from the earliest relevant date, which may be a trustee approval meeting, funder requirement or filing deadline. Include time for accounts preparation, audit work, responses to queries, review and approval. A charitable company may have more than one filing obligation.
Ask the auditor to explain what must be ready before fieldwork and what can follow later. A first audit, complex group or significant reporting change may need much earlier discussion than a routine recurring audit.
- Name the person coordinating requests and the owner of each major information area.
- Agree who prepares the accounts and the trustees’ annual report, including any external accountant.
- Set dates for the initial information pack, fieldwork, draft accounts, significant queries and trustee consideration.
- Agree how missing information or timetable risks will be escalated.
Who does what
Finance team: coordinate records and grant evidence, review reconciliations and forecasts, and track outstanding requests. External accountant, where engaged: prepare the agreed accounts and supporting schedules, and explain proposed adjustments. Trustees: oversee significant judgements, the going concern assessment and annual report, and approve the accounts. Using an accountant does not transfer the trustees’ responsibilities.
2 Explain your funds and funding arrangements
Provide a fund schedule showing opening balances, income, expenditure, gains or losses where relevant, transfers and closing balances. It should reconcile to the accounting records and support the figures in the accounts. Explain significant transfers and deficits rather than leaving the auditor to infer their purpose.
Keep donor restrictions distinct from designations made by trustees. Designated funds remain unrestricted funds. Include endowment funds where relevant, and retain the evidence supporting the nature of each material fund.
Make significant grant agreements, award letters and variations available, including earlier agreements still affecting this year. Explain conditions, repayment clauses and how shared costs have been allocated. The allocation basis should be supportable and consistent with the relevant terms.
A restriction on how funds may be spent is not, by itself, a reason to defer income. Ask your accounts preparer to document the treatment of significant grants and contracts under the applicable SORP, and discuss uncertain cases early with the auditor.
3 Agree a proportionate information pack
The finance team should organise and review the evidence, but need not prepare every specialist calculation itself. Where an external accountant prepares the accounts or schedules, agree responsibilities and delivery dates with them.
Accounting records and bank balances
Provide the trial balance and ledger for the audit period, reconciliations for all bank accounts, and statements supporting the year-end balances. Identify any accounts opened or closed during the period and explain material reconciling items.
Income and expenditure
Prepare analyses of the significant income streams and costs, reconciled to the ledger. Retain relevant agreements and supporting records. Bank receipts alone may not establish the correct period or accounting treatment for grants, donations, legacies or contracts.
Assets and liabilities
Have fixed asset and investment records, valuation evidence where relevant, debtor and creditor analyses, accruals and deferred income schedules ready. Explain significant estimates, collectability concerns and unusual movements. Include property and lease information where relevant.
Payroll and pensions
Use payroll reports covering the charity’s financial year to reconcile gross pay, employer National Insurance and employer pension costs to the ledger. Reconcile payroll liabilities and pension contributions to supporting records and payments. P60s follow the tax year, and P11Ds concern expenses and benefits, so neither is a substitute for a complete payroll reconciliation.
Subsidiaries and related parties
Identify trading subsidiaries, connected organisations and transactions with trustees or other related parties. Agree who provides subsidiary accounts, intercompany reconciliations and any consolidation information.
Budgets and cash forecasts
Prepare or review the budgets, cash-flow forecasts and assumptions supporting management’s going concern assessment. The assessment should cover at least 12 months from approval of the financial statements, taking account of relevant information beyond that period. Explain funding renewals, restrictions on available cash and significant uncertainties. Agree proportionate supporting evidence with the auditor; a forecast ending 12 months after the year end may be too short.
4 Prepare the trustees’ annual report alongside the accounts
Start the narrative before the financial statements are final. Agree who drafts it and who checks consistency with the accounts. Trustees should explain the charity’s activities, public benefit, achievements, financial position and reserves in a way that reflects the charity’s circumstances.
The precise requirements depend on the applicable SORP, size and circumstances. Avoid carrying forward last year’s wording without checking whether activities, risks, reserves or future plans have changed. Leave time for trustees to consider and approve the report.
5 Bring significant matters to the auditor early
Provide relevant board and committee minutes, including available drafts where approval is pending, with their status clearly identified. Do not delay sharing a significant decision simply because the next meeting has not yet approved the minutes.
Highlight major funding changes, new leases, property transactions, significant estimates, related-party arrangements, suspected fraud, regulatory concerns and events after the year end. Early discussion gives management time to assemble its analysis and the auditor time to assess the evidence needed.
The audit considers governance and controls to the extent relevant to the financial statement audit. It is not a comprehensive review of every governance process or a guarantee that all control weaknesses will be identified. Agree any additional assurance work separately.
6 Check which SORP applies to your period
Charities SORP 2026 applies to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026. A year ending during 2026 does not necessarily fall under the new SORP. For example, an ordinary year from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 begins before the effective date; the following year begins after it.
Discuss applicable changes with your accounts preparer, including income, leases and trustees’ reporting. Identify transition work and the information it requires. Separately, England and Wales have revised statutory reporting and scrutiny thresholds for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026. Check the rules for your legal form and jurisdiction, together with governing and funding requirements. The SORP test uses the period start date; the threshold changes use the period end date.
Read the Charity Commission’s September 2026 update
What commonly delays a charity audit
An unreconciled fund schedule, missing grant variations, unexplained year-end journals or an unfinished annual report can hold up work even when most records are available. Keep one outstanding-items list with an owner and expected date for each item. If the trial balance changes after submission, provide an updated version and a list of the journals posted so that schedules and accounts can be kept aligned.
For example, a grant agreement signed in the previous year may still govern this year’s income. Supplying only the current-year award letter can leave the accounting treatment unresolved. Include the agreement and subsequent variations together, with the relevant income and fund reconciliation.
Your final preparation check
- The scope, timetable, accounts preparer and main contacts are agreed.
- The trial balance and significant supporting schedules reconcile.
- Fund movements and material grant terms can be explained.
- The annual report and significant accounting judgements have named owners.
- Trustees have time to consider the accounts and significant findings.
- Known gaps have a realistic completion date and have been discussed with the auditor.
How Accendo can help
Accendo provides partner-led charity audit with clear preparation requirements and communication about significant matters. Where permitted, accounts preparation can be agreed separately. Tell us your year end, approval timetable and finance-team arrangements so we can discuss an appropriate scope.
Discuss your charity audit with Accendo
Read our guide to charity audit costs
Explore Accendo’s charity audit service
Further guidance
Charities SORP guidance and applicable editions
Charity Commission guidance on managing charity finances
FRC guidance on the auditor’s going concern assessment
Accendo | Updated 26 September 2026. General guidance for planning a financial statement audit. Requirements and information requests depend on your charity and reporting period.