The Thursday email
The email arrives on a Thursday afternoon. The examiner needs the bank statements for the year, the cash book, and a list of restricted funds, and would like them by the following week. You search one inbox, then a second, then the shared drive. Somewhere there is a PDF of the March statement, a spreadsheet tab called "final v3", and a note about the church hall deposit that you think was agreed at a committee meeting in the autumn.
Most treasurers have had some version of this. The pack takes an evening or two to assemble. Without a folder, it takes most of a week and a fair amount of goodwill.
What an examiner pack is
The examiner pack is the set of papers you give the independent examiner so they can check the figures in your year-end accounts. It is not the accounts themselves. The accounts are the summary your committee and members see. The pack is the evidence behind that summary.
The examiner reads the accounts, then asks how each number was reached. Your job is to make that easy. You are not writing the accounts or explaining the tax position. You are gathering what already exists, putting it in order, and noting anything unusual before anyone asks.
If you want to know what the examiner will ask for, read the existing guide, Charity independent examination: what the examiner will ask for. This piece covers the other side: how you build the folder and hand it over.
The core contents
For a small charity, church or PTA, the core of the pack is usually:
- Year-end bank statements for every account the organisation holds, covering the full financial year, with the opening and closing balances clearly visible.
- A reconciled cash book for the same year, showing that each bank line matches an entry and that any differences are explained. A reconciliation that ties to the closing bank balance is the single most useful page you can put in front of an examiner.
- Income and expenditure for the year, with the prior-year figures alongside. Examiners and committees both read a comparison quickly. A large movement with no note on it invites a question.
- Fund balances, including any restricted fund. Show what was received, what was spent and what is left, so the examiner can see the restriction has been respected.
- Receipts and invoices for larger items, such as a boiler repair, a hall hire contract or a grant payment. You do not need every till receipt, but the bigger one-off costs should be easy to find.
- Minutes recording that the accounts were agreed. The committee minutes should show when the accounts were presented and that the committee agreed them. Keep the signed copy or the extract of the minutes in the folder.
If you are a sports club or a Scout group registered as a charity, the list is the same. If you are a community amateur sports club (CASC), check with your own governing guidance, because the reporting requirements can differ.
Gift Aid and GASDS papers
If you claim Gift Aid, the examiner will want to see that the claims tie to the income. Put these in their own section:
- Declarations, whether paper, online or verbal, for each donor whose gift you claimed on.
- Claim records, showing the gifts included in each claim, the dates, and the amounts claimed.
- The claim summary for the year, reconciled to the Gift Aid figure in the income and expenditure.
If you also use the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS), keep the collecting-tin or small-donation records in the same section. GASDS is a top-up on qualifying small cash donations without individual declarations. It is subject to HMRC rules and caps, and it does not replace declarations for named regular gifts.
HMRC expects Gift Aid records to be kept for at least six years. Keep the declarations and claim records for that period, even after the examiner has signed off. This is general information, not tax advice. Check current HMRC guidance on Gift Aid declarations, records and GASDS, because the detail can change.
Arranging the pack so a stranger can follow it
The examiner may not have met you, and your successor may have never seen the books. Build the folder so that either of them can follow it without a phone call.
Start with one index page. It should list each section, what it contains, and the page or file reference. Then use one folder per section:
- Bank statements
- Cash book and reconciliation
- Income and expenditure, with prior year
- Funds
- Receipts and invoices
- Gift Aid and GASDS
- Minutes and approval
Add a short note to any section where something is unusual. A grant received late, a refund reversed, a transfer between accounts, or a cheque cancelled in the year should each have a line of explanation. The examiner will ask about these anyway. Answering them in advance saves time and shows the books are under control.
Name files with the date and the subject, for example "2025-10 bank statement main account". Avoid "final v3".
What the Plus examiner ZIP gathers
On Vasker's Plus plan, the examiner ZIP gathers the year-end material held in the system. That includes the income and expenditure with prior-year comparison, the annual return figures, and the claim records for Gift Aid and GASDS that were built in Vasker. The treasurer handover ZIP covers the rest of the handover pack.
It does not replace your paper. You still need to add the things that only exist on paper or in committee records:
- Paper receipts and invoices for larger items, scanned or filed
- The signed minutes recording that the accounts were agreed
- Bank statements from the bank, if you want the originals in the folder
- Any declarations you collected on paper, if they are not already recorded in the system
- Notes on anything unusual in the year
Using the ZIP does not guarantee an examination with no findings. It saves time on the assembly, but the examiner still reaches their own conclusions.
Pre-send checklist for the evening before
Run through this the evening before the pack goes to the examiner:
- [ ] Bank statements cover the full year for every account
- [ ] Cash book closing balance matches the bank statement closing balance
- [ ] Income and expenditure totals match the cash book
- [ ] Prior-year figures are the same as last year's signed accounts
- [ ] Each restricted fund balance is explained
- [ ] Gift Aid claim totals tie to the Gift Aid income line
- [ ] Declarations and claim records are in the folder for the six-year period
- [ ] Minutes recording that the accounts were agreed are included
- [ ] Index page matches the folders
- [ ] Notes on unusual items are attached to the right section
If you cannot tick a line, write a short note explaining why. Examiners prefer a clear note to a silent gap.
Set up the cash book now
The pack is much easier to assemble if it builds through the year rather than in the last week. If you are starting a new cash book, or moving from a spreadsheet, create your free account and set up the cash book now. Each month's reconciliation then becomes the first page of the pack, not a task you put off until the examiner emails.
This is general information for UK volunteer treasurers, not legal, tax or accounting advice. For your own organisation, check the guidance from the Charity Commission (England and Wales), OSCR (Scotland) or CCNI (Northern Ireland), and current HMRC guidance on Gift Aid and GASDS.