Academies

Introduction

It is now possible to produce accounts prepared under the ‘Academies Accounts Direction 2014 to 2015 (SORP 2015)' for use by Academy trusts whose date of incorporation falls on or after 1 January 2015.

Click here for further details on the Academies Accounts Direction(s).

This is only permitted when using the ACAD chart or a chart that has been created based on the standard ACAD chart. The ACAD has a similar structure to the ICHA chart.

Getting started with academies

In the Client | View tab, set the business type to Charity - Incorporated with sub type Academy.

Funds

1. Set up the academy’s funds in Edit | Funds. An unrestricted general fund will be set up by default.
   If no additional funds are required all postings will be made against the unrestricted general fund.
   
2. If additional funds are required, they can be set up by clicking New. Each fund will need to be attributed against a fund type, for example, Unrestricted, Restricted or Endowment with an option to specify they are boarding funds or a material funds or part of a grouping of material funds.

Boarding fund - where a fund relates to boarding this can be set up when creating a fund or viewing and existing fund, by selecting the Boarding fund (Edit Funds -click to view fund and tick Boarding fund).

• Only one fund can be specified as a boarding fund.

Material funds - where an individual fund or group of funds are considered material they will be displayed separately on the SOFA and Balance sheet. When creating a fund or viewing and existing fund, select the Material fund - option to specify a fund as material. Where there are a group of funds which together are material, select the Material fund option against each fund and click the magnifying glass next to the Material fund grouping - to specify the name of the grouping to be displayed on the report.

• All postings need to be allocated to a fund. If more than the default (unrestricted general) fund exists, the user will be prompted to attribute a fund to each posting. This fund will remain the default fund selected until another fund is chosen. An unlimited number of funds can be created.
  
• If there is more than one fund each fund will need to be treated as an individual trial balance and net off to zero, splitting out the analysis of the balance sheet across the appropriate fund.
  
• A report showing the trial balance by individual fund may be run via Reports | Basic Trial Balance | OK | OK | OK | OK Display each fund in separate columns.
  
• To post a transfer between funds, it is necessary to post two entries per fund, one within the transfer codes of 968/11-30 and the other to where the transfer is occurring. For an example of how to post a transfer click here to take you to the Frequently asked questions.
  
• If a pension reserve or a revaluation reserve is required, these will need to be created under Edit | Funds and attributed to the relevant fund type.   

Activities

• The default activities for an academy will be setup when the client is created, select Edit | Activities to setup any additional activities. When using certain nominal codes they will be required to attribute an activity against them, for example code 44 grants. If only one activity is created, this will remain the default throughout posting.
  
• Five default and two charitable activities will be set up for academy accounts by default. Posting to nominal codes within certain groups will be required to attribute a charitable activity against them, for example, Group 103. If postings have been allocated to a specific charitable activity, each charitable activity will be shown separately on the SOFA.
  
• These will not be selectable in the posting screen, IRIS will automatically recognise the groups which have been posted to and show the breakdown of these accordingly.

Grants

• Set up the academy’s grants in Edit | Grants. Each grant will need to be attributed against a grant type, for example, Incoming or Outgoing and a grant category must be specified.
  
• A grant called General Annual Grant (GAG) will be set up with Dfe/EFA revenue grant category for academy accounts by default.
  
• A maximum five grant categories can be set up. Three default grant categories will be set up for academy accounts by default if additional categories are required, they can be set up by clicking New.
  
• When posting to codes 5 and 44, it is necessary to select which grant the posting relates to from the pop up screen.

Support Costs & Basis of Allocation

Academies can split out their support costs and attribute them against the relevant activity. To aid this process there are eight individual sections on the chart (Groups 182 - 322). If gross income is below this threshold, the user should post to only one of these sections for the note not to be detailed in this way.  

There are two alternative ways to post to Support Costs.

• If the exact amounts are known per activity, under Edit | Support Costs deselect Support Costs Active for the current posting entry. When posting to support costs activities will need to be selected.
  
• If the exact amounts are unknown under Edit | Support Costs for each main heading required in the notes, a basis of allocation per fund is required. This can be setup based on ratios or percentages. For example Management costs may need to be split across the activities based on head count. This can be achieved by clicking the magnifying glass. The settings are per posting entry basis and may be altered each financial year.

By default IRIS will show the totals of the Support Costs in a table similar to that provided in the SORP.  If a further analysis of accounts that comprise the total is required by either accounts or groups this may be provided via the data screen in Edit | Data Screens | Notes to the Financial Statements | SOFA Items | Support Costs | Analysis

CSV Import

To import a trial balance from excel, ensure the excel file is saved in a CSV format and the fields are in the following order: Amount, Account, Narrative, Date, Work Ref, Partner/Director/Officer (PDO), Branch, Enterprise, Fund ID, Activity ID

Compulsory fields to be completed: Amount, Account, Narrative, Fund ID and Activity ID (where applicable). All other fields may be left blank, although if required information is missing these will be required during the import.

Links with other products

IRIS Academies will link with the Fixed Asset Register, postings will be imported into the support costs codes. Currently, IRIS Academies does not link up to Auditor or Business Tax.

Report Options

For any alternatives to the reports you will need to use Edit | Data Screens | Presentation Options

Limitations

The current phase of the Academy formats will not include: Groups/Consolidations, Management reports and Lead schedules. Additionally, disclosures for Movement in provisions and Revaluation analysis are not included in this phase, to add the relevant disclosure it will be necessary to use the appropriate Freeform data screen.

IRIS will try to include many of these on future releases, as with all IRIS products we are happy to note user requests and try to include these wherever possible.