What the searcher is trying to do
If you have searched for charity independent examination, you are probably in one of two positions. Either the year-end is getting close and nobody has explained to the new treasurer that someone independent has to look at the accounts, or an examiner has written asking for records and the cash book is spread across a spreadsheet, a shoebox and a bank app.
The practical questions are usually the same. What do I need to give them? By when? What will they actually check? And who has the login for Charities Online, because the person who set it up may have left the committee three years ago.
This guide is general information for the volunteer holding the role this year. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice. Your examiner and your regulator are the people to confirm the details for your charity.
The UK rules in plain English
An independent examination is a check of your accounts by a person who is independent of the charity's trustees and who has the right experience to do it. It is lighter than a full audit. The examiner reads the accounts, looks at the records behind them and reports whether anything has come to their attention that suggests the accounts are not in order.
For charities in England and Wales, the Charity Commission's guidance has long set the basic thresholds. In broad terms, a charity whose gross income in a year is over £25,000 needs its accounts examined, or audited if income is over £1 million. Scotland, Northern Ireland and some charity structures follow their own regulator's rules, so check with OSCR or CCNI if you are not in England or Wales. Thresholds can change, so read the current guidance rather than relying on an old figure from a forum post.
What an examiner typically looks for:
- Whether the figures in the accounts add up and agree with the bank statements.
- Whether income and expenditure are recorded in the right year.
- Whether restricted funds, the money that must be spent on a particular purpose, are tracked separately.
- Whether there are records for significant transactions, such as grants, large donations and payments to trustees or connected people.
- Whether Gift Aid claimed matches the declarations you hold. HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years.
An examiner may raise findings. That is normal and does not mean the charity has done something wrong. It means the examiner has noticed something to explain or put right. No tool or service can guarantee an examination with no findings, and no one should promise that.
What to gather before the examiner asks:
- Bank statements for the whole period, with a reconciliation at the year-end date.
- A full list of income, grouped by type: donations, Gift Aid, grants, fundraising, membership or subscriptions.
- A list of expenditure with receipts or invoices for the larger items.
- The prior-year figures, so the examiner can see how the numbers have moved.
- The minutes where the trustees signed off the accounts and the trustees' report.
- The register of Gift Aid declarations, if you claim the relief.
If your club or group is not a charity, the rules can be different again. A community amateur sports club (CASC) or a parent teacher association (PTA) is not automatically a registered charity, so check your own constitution and regulator before assuming the thresholds above apply.
How this product helps
Most of the time an examiner spends on a small charity is spent finding things. Vasker is built around that. The cash book keeps a running record of receipts and payments against your funds, and the bank reconciliation is done as you go rather than in the last week of March. When the examiner asks why a figure moved, the answer is already in the books.
At year-end, Vasker produces the income and expenditure report with a prior-year comparison, the figures for your annual return, and a year-end balance snapshot. The snapshot does not rewrite your opening balances, so last year's accounts still say what they said.
The Plus plan, at £119 a year, adds the examiner ZIP, which bundles the year-end reports and supporting records into one pack, and examiner access tooling. A treasurer handover ZIP is included too, so the next volunteer does not start from a login nobody documented.
For a smaller organisation, the Free plan at £0 gives you a starter cash book with one fund. Standard, at £59 a year, covers full books, members, subscriptions, reports and grant matching. If Gift Aid and examination are the reason you are looking, the Plus plan is the one that includes the examiner pack.
A few practical points. The cash book needs an internet connection, so this is not an offline bookkeeping tool. Every account uses two-factor authentication. If you also claim Gift Aid through Vasker, the sender's Government Gateway password is typed only at claim submission and is not stored by Vasker. Nothing HMRC does in relation to the software means it has checked or backed Vasker, and the examiner still makes their own judgement.
Next step
If you are preparing for an examination this year, start with the free account. Enter this year's bank transactions, set up your funds, and see how far the cash book gets you before the examiner's list arrives. You can upgrade to Plus when you are ready to produce the examiner pack.
Create your free account and work through the year-end checklist at your own pace. Questions about the product can go to [email protected].
This is general information for UK volunteer treasurers. Check current Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI guidance for your charity, and speak to your independent examiner about what they need from you.