As we are getting closer to year end I have had several questions about Group Reporting so I thought I’d just give another run down of what this means and why I personally recommend all centres join in.
The complicated part – our centres are all tier 4 and are not required to join the Group, but can choose to join. However, our Group is still required to consolidate the centres who do not join the group. This is a statutory requirement that came about as a result of the changes to the Charities Act 2005, not as a result of the Amalgamation.
So what does this actually mean?
Well it means all centres whether in the Group or not are required to do our yearend financial reporting pack, keep Xero up to date and reconciled and provide any information requested as part of our year end audit process.
For centres that are in the Group, they will not have to file any financial information with Charities or pay the $51 filing fee as Federation will file the return on your behalf so when you see those reminders about filing deadline your Treasurer can just sit back, have a coffee and know its nothing for them to worry about.
For centres that don’t opt in they will be required to file a set of Tier 4 accounts (these can be produced quite easily out of Xero) possibly get an audit (and pay for it depending on your centres constitution) fill in the declarations and pay the filing fee. This creates extra work for your Treasurer and extra work for your centre that you would not have if you joined the Group.
But what about Grants?
This question comes up on a regular basis so lets cover this off. So far our Grantors have accepted our Group Audited Accounts without any issues. However, there is a risk they may change their rules in the future or a specific one may wish to have an audit over your centre especially if your centre is applying for a very large property Grant. In this case your centre can still get an audit done, being part of the Group does not stop you doing this.
But then why join the Group?
Because you may only get asked to do this once in every few years and in the off years you can rest easy knowing your centre won’t get deregistered as NZPF is taking care of all your reporting for you.
Sign me up – how do I join?
Simply email [email protected] with your Centres name and charities number and we will do the rest for you.
But my centre doesn’t have a charities number?
We do recommend all centres who wish to individually apply for external Grants apply for their own Charities number. Applying using NZPFs number can limit your centres chances of being granted funding as our balance sheet will be much stronger than that of your centres, it also can restrict NZPF or other Playcentre being able to apply to the same funder in future and as such should only be done in consultation with National Team.