When you are busy it is so easy to focus on what you are doing, and potentially miss other important dates and deadlines. This is just a quick reminder of what is coming up in November:
On 4 November the online form for the accounts return is available - if you can get a head start on completing this early it will save a big rush before the filing deadline of 25 January 2022. If you prepare it whilst your statutory accounts are still being finalised it will make it easier to ensure that the costs are allocated to the correct headings in both the accounts and the online return - meaning that queries should be kept to a minimum and expenses are allocated to the correct headings.
On 9 November the land and buildings collection tool should be submitted. This should be a reasonably straight forward exercise for most Trusts as the tool requires details of the different types of buildings and land held by the trusts at the year-end - and you are likely to have just provided the information to your auditors!
Whilst you are thinking about buildings it is a great opportunity to think about the Trusts Estate Management, as well as looking at how well the trust is doing in comparison to its peers. The government have a brilliant tool that will help trusts see how their individual schools are performing against other schools of a similar size, or in the same location, against a number of different metrics. It is worthwhile taking a look at the different areas of benchmarking available - as it will be a useful conversation starter for upcoming Board meetings. The benchmarking tools can be found here: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/
If, having undertaken a benchmarking exercise of schools in your trust, you have questions about how you can improve some of the results please contact me or your local academy contact and we will be happy to help.
The next steps
For more information, please contact Shona Munday or your usual UHY adviser.
