Design and execution of bespoke testing when a particular assurance conclusion is required, or comfort sought by trustees or directors in a particular area of risk. So the Board can be assured there is a strong control environment surrounding the procedures necessary to undertake mission and beneficiary-related work.

Internal controls reviews.

There is limited guidance on internal audit for charities, with mostly only large organisations in the sector having established, year-round provisions and cyclical reviews. Trustees of smaller charities can still benefit from the insight into their control environment that scrutiny from a third-party can deliver.

For small to medium-sized charities Thoroughfare can:

• Design programmes of testing to give Trustees assurance that their day-to-day finances are conducted with the appropriate controls in place, which reduce the risk of impropriety, non-compliance or fraud.

• Make useful recommendations for improvements in the design or operation of controls.

• Report on instances where controls had broken down or there was non-adherence with established policies and procedures.

Work could focus on any areas below:

• Financial oversight — review of the format of management accounts for improvement, assessment as to the quality (timeliness, accuracy, relevance) of financial data presented to Trustee Boards and/or relevant Sub-Committees. This could include a review of branch-level activity where a charity operates over a number of different locations, for example schools, parishes or community groups.

• Financial planning and budgeting — review of the sufficiency of forward planning, whether cash flow forecasts are appropriately prepared and to what extent underlying assumptions are prudent, and the effectiveness of budgetary control.

• Related party transactions — review of the adequacy and effectiveness of controls around conflicts of interest, policies around declarations of interest and the extent to which staff and Trustees engage with these, how the entity ensures related party transactions are identified and disclosed where appropriate.

• Payroll — procedures for authorisation of amendments, sufficiency of review of payroll prior to payment, oversight by senior staff or Trustees, any considerations around the use of temporary staff and how they are procured, any informal working arrangements which give rise to risk, sufficiency of HR salary-related documentation.

• Non-payroll expenditure — effective delegation of authority, tender procedures, payment controls and mitigation of fraudulent payment risk.

• Income streams — assessment of controls in place around collecting and recording income, to prevent fraud or loss, or error in the financial statements.

• Fixed assets — review of the fixed asset register kept for accounting purposes, consideration of wider controls around physically security, and monitoring for asset impairment.

• Other balance sheet accounting — controls around cut-off, reconciliations, credit control, accurate recording of liabilities, adequacy of credit control procedures to ensure validity of debtor balances.

Thoroughfare produces a full written report detailing the work performed and the findings, for discussion with management or Board members as appropriate.

Other assignments including third-party assurance.

Please enquire below regarding other assurance engagements including grant audits. For academy trust internal scrutiny please visit a dedicated page found here.