Whether you are in a maintained school, a SAT or a MAT right now, if your role involves finance then you will play a part in audits. In this article, Clare Skinner explains how embracing your inner scout can help you to prepare for the process
For me, with the summer holidays looming, I am thinking about the preparation and checks that will fill up my August days in school in between precious down time and a short escape to France.
Year end – March or August
Hopefully you have auditors in place, otherwise you will need to procure their services. Make use of government frameworks to source experts in the sector and use local colleagues to obtain recommendations. Remember, for academies, auditor appointment is a member decision so involve the right people in this process.
Next, get them booked in
Do you want them done and dusted within a month of year end or do you prefer a little longer? What works for you and your team in term of chasing invoices, preparing prepayments and accruals etc? Consider when your governor/trustee meetings are and work backwards from there so that you can get everything signed off by them and the auditors in time for your LA or ESFA submission deadline.
Planning meetings
It is key to have a pre-audit meeting so that you know what to expect and how the audit will work. Once the audit is booked in, discuss who will be carrying out the audit itself and have an introduction meeting to build relationships. If your accounting software enables you to upload attachments to transactions, then use the planning meeting to provide read only access to the relevant members of the audit team so they can start to look at your data when works for them.
Checklists for information sharing
If you don’t get a checklist of information required from your auditors, then draw one up for yourself. This can be part of the conversation at the planning meeting and will involve headings such as:
Trustees’ Report & Governance Statement (or the LA equivalent)
Bank & Cash
Debtors & Creditors
Financial Statements (Trial Balance)
Fixed Assets
Income/Funds
Leases, provisions and commitments
Other disclosures
Payroll/Wages
Related Parties
COVID proved to me that this process can be simplified, and I share this information securely and electronically. Some auditors are happy with a One Drive folder, others have software to collect the data. Either way, remember to take a copy of it all at the end of the audit process so your records are complete.
Engage your team
Do ensure that you do not complete audit alone – share the checklist and the collation tool with the right people! As well as your finance team, use your HR, network and site colleagues to collate and prepare the data that has been requested. Make sure that SLT are fully aware of the audit dates and that all school staff are also informed. Mention the fact that, when walking the school to check for the physical presence of assets, auditors could ask anyone to explain ordering processes; much in the way that Ofsted can ask anyone about safeguarding!
Don’t make it just an annual event
We work in a cyclical environment, and it would be very easy to just deal with audit when it is booked but this makes it an ominous task for all concerned. Take the pressure of yourself, and those around you, and make it manageable; implement systems and processes that see audit preparation as part of ongoing tasks. Some people use a month end workbook for this, and others will have documents shared with relevant colleagues to collate the information, whatever works, just keep it simple.
Final checks
For me, August sees me working through the checklist to ensure that everything has been dropped into the audit folder. I then check that data that my colleagues have provided and work through the tasks that belong to me. My trustees/year-end report allows me the opportunity to reflect on the previous twelve months and all the things that the school, and I, I have achieved in that time. Audit prep allows me to review how we do things in my setting and plan for September and any changes that I want to introduce. You can do this whether you are reviewing the whole year, or just the first term of it. Finally agree the plan for each day of the audit with your auditors so you can have the relevant colleagues available for conversation as needed and there can be no surprises on what you will be asked about.
Perspective
Do remember, this is about whole school performance, not just yours as the SBP and don’t see audit as a stick to be beaten with – see it as a learning opportunity and a chance to improve best practice.
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