The email: can you send the books by the weekend
It usually arrives on a Thursday. The examiner, or the chair who has agreed one with the committee, asks for the cash book, the bank statements and anything that explains the year, by Sunday. You have a shoebox of receipts, a spreadsheet with three tabs, and a Charities Online login you rarely open.
The evening before you send anything, it helps to know what the examiner is actually looking for. An independent examiner reads the year's receipts and payments against the bank, checks that the figures add up, and asks about anything that does not look right. They are not re-doing the whole year's bookkeeping. They want to see that the cash book is complete, that the balances agree to the bank, and that someone on the committee can explain the main movements.
Check your governing document and the examiner's letter of engagement before you start. They should say what format they want and by when. Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI guidance for your type of organisation sets out the wider duties. This is general information for volunteer treasurers, not legal or accounting advice.
Matching bank statements to the cash book and spotting gaps
Start with the balances, because everything else hangs off them. Take the opening balance for the year and check it against last year's closing figure. Then take the closing balance and check it against the bank statement dated on or near your year end.
Next, work through the bank statement line by line and tick each item off against the cash book. Most differences fall into a few groups:
- Items in the bank but not in your book: standing orders, card payments, bank charges and interest. These usually need adding to the cash book, with a note of what they were.
- Items in your book but not yet in the bank: cheques that have not cleared and payments that went out near the year end. These are normal timing differences, but they should be listed.
- Transfers between your own accounts, which can be counted twice if you record both sides as income or expenditure.
- Duplicates, where a payment has been entered once from the statement and once from a receipt.
Any gap that remains is a question the examiner will ask. A receipt you cannot find is better explained in a short note now than discovered by them in a fortnight. Keep a simple list of what you checked, what you corrected and what is still open.
If your cash book is kept in Vasker, it needs an internet connection, so do this at a desk rather than on a train. Whether you use Vasker or a spreadsheet, the same discipline applies: one line per transaction, one balance that agrees to the bank.
Explaining restricted funds and unusual items
A restricted fund is money given for a particular purpose. A grant towards new kit, a PTA fund for a playground, or a legacy that can only be spent on one project are common examples. The examiner will want to see that the money came in, that it was spent on that purpose, and that any balance left over is still shown against it.
If your organisation has only one pot of money, you may not need separate funds at all. If you have two or three, record each one from the start of the year rather than trying to reconstruct them in April. Vasker's Free plan covers a starter cash book with one fund. Standard covers full books with more than one.
Unusual items need a short written explanation. Examples include:
- a large one-off payment, such as a deposit on a hall booking
- a refund or a reversed payment
- goods or services given in kind, such as a donated trailer or free printing
- a cash float or petty cash that does not reconcile neatly
For each one, write down what it was, why it happened, who approved it and where the paper is. Minutes of the meeting that agreed a spend are better evidence than your memory of it. Keep the explanation with the cash book so it travels together.
When you present income and expenditure to the committee, a comparison with the previous year makes the big movements easier to explain. A rise in fundraising income or a jump in equipment costs is much less puzzling when the committee has the year before in front of them.
Using the examiner ZIP to share the pack
Once the cash book reconciles and the notes are written, you need to send the pack. Vasker's year-end tools include an independent examiner ZIP, which bundles the year-end outputs into one file to share. Plus organisations also get examiner access tooling, so the examiner can work from the same pack without a second round of emails.
Before you send anything, agree with the examiner whether they want a ZIP, a set of PDFs or a shared folder. Some examiners have their own checklist, and it is worth asking for it.
Write a short covering note. List what is in the pack, the year it covers, and anything you know is still open. Being upfront about an open item is far better than the examiner finding it. A year-end balance snapshot is useful here too, as it shows the closing position without changing the opening balances of the year it follows.
Keep a copy of everything you send. HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years, and it is good practice to keep the examiner pack for the same period.
What the examiner may still raise: no promise of a clean report
A tidy cash book does not guarantee a report with no findings. Examiners raise questions for all sorts of reasons. They may ask about a payment with no clear purpose, a balance that does not agree, a Gift Aid claim without the supporting declarations, or a fund that was spent in a way the constitution does not allow. Some of these you will be able to answer in an evening. Others need a conversation with the committee, or a look at old paperwork.
If Gift Aid is part of the year's income, check the current HMRC guidance on declarations and claims before you answer any questions about it. Vasker is listed by HMRC as commercial software for filing Gift Aid and charity repayment claims online through Charities Online. HMRC does not endorse or approve any software supplier. Nothing in a cash book or an examiner pack is a substitute for checking the rules that apply to your own organisation.
The aim for the evening before is simpler than a clean report. You want a cash book that agrees to the bank, a short list of what is explained and what is still open, and a pack that someone else can follow. That is a reasonable thing to hand over, and it gives the examiner a clear place to start.
If you want to see where your own books stand before the examiner's email arrives, start free at https://vasker.co.uk/. The Free plan (£0) covers a starter cash book with one fund. When you need examiner access tooling as well as Gift Aid and GASDS claim tooling, Plus is £119 a year.