How do I create Charity accounts in TaxCalc?

From version 16.5.460 of TaxCalc we introduced the option to create SORP compliant accruals accounts for Charitable Companies (Limited by Guarantee), Charitable Incorporated Organisations and Charitable Unincorporated Associations registered in England and Wales. 

Please note that the first phase only supports paper filing. 

These instructions will take you through the process of creating Charity accounts. 

Note: You can only create Charity accounts if the add-on for Charity accounts has been purchased. 

Funds  

In the Funds screen you can create and manage the funds for your Charity clients. 

By default, all Charity clients will be created with a general unrestricted fund and further funds can be added by selecting Manage Funds and then Create Fund which will launch the Create Fund Wizard.  

When creating a new fund, enter the fund name as you wish it to be displayed in your charity reports. 

Please note that duplicate fund names are not permitted. 

Each fund will need to be assigned to a class of fund e.g. Unrestricted, Restricted or Endowment. 

If your fund is a revaluation reserve or fair value reserve, you will need to specify this by ticking the appropriate check box. 

There is no limit to the number of funds you can create. 

Charitable Activities  

In the Charitable Activities screen you can create and manage the charitable activities for your Charity clients.  

To create a Charitable Activity, select Manage Charitable Activities and then Create Charitable Activity which will launch the Create Charitable Activity Wizard.  

Enter the charitable activity name as you wish it to be displayed in your charity reports. 

Please note that duplicate charitable activity names are not permitted. 

There is no limit to the number of charitable activities you can create. 

Accounts Setup 

You can customise the account settings for the charity accounts by using the screens within the Accounts Setup. 

Posting 

The new Accounts–Style batch is an alternative to the traditional posting batch which categorises postings as they would be displayed in the report. 

The screen is split into sections and the layout, from top to bottom, follows the format of the Statement of Financial Activities and then the Balance Sheet.  

Each section will allow you to select account codes that are applicable to that section.  

Enter code / name - enter the account to post the transaction to or select the magnifying glass icon to open a filtered version of the Chart of Accounts window.  

Positive entries will be interpreted as a debit transaction amount.  

Negative entries will be interpreted as a credit transaction amount.  

Funds are displayed as column headings allowing you to enter values against multiple funds for a single account code within a single row. New funds can be added using the Create new fund hyperlink without having to close the Posting Batch.  

Charitable Activities are displayed as rows with the Charitable Activities sections. New activities can be added using the Create new activity hyperlink without having to close the Posting Batch.  

The fund balance will be displayed underneath the fund name in the column heading allowing you to identify when transactions entered for individual funds don't balance. 

In the traditional posting batch screen, columns have been added to allow you to allocate postings to raising funds, charitable activities and funds. 

All postings must be allocated to a fund and where applicable either raising funds or a charitable activity. 

When a charitable activity or fund is selected, it will be remembered and automatically selected when a new row is added to the batch.  

A warning message has been introduced that will prompt you if the total of your postings assigned to any one or more of the three classes of fund does not equal £0. 

CSV imports 

To import a trial balance from excel using the existing TaxCalc TB export map, the excel file must be saved in a CSV format and the fields must be in the following order: 

Column A: Account Code 

Column B: Account Description 

Column C: Debit amount 

Column D: blank 

Column E: Credit amount 

Column F: blank 

Column G: Raising funds or charitable activity 

Column H: blank 

Column I: Fund 

Please note there is no option to create charitable activities and funds when importing from a csv in this way so you will need to have created them before attempting this.  

Edit Notes 

The edit notes will allow you to customise your charity notes. 

Reports 

The Trial Balance report has two options within the Customise setting: 

The default option will display each a column for each of the three classes of fund and total funds. This option is only available for reporting on the current accounting period. 

The second option will allow you to add multiple accounting periods with each period being displayed as a separate (single) column in the report. In this setting, only the total funds are displayed and there is no breakdown showing values attributed to individual funds. 

Further settings/options are available that will allow you to: 

• Show the report with or without a breakdown of raising funds and charitable activities within applicable account codes. 

• Filter the report to display all funds of a specific class. 

• Show activities rather than funds as column headings. 

Check and Finish 

The Check and Finish will display errors with specific details related to charity accounts. 

Note: Further phases will include support for charities registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland, electronic filing to Companies House and more.