Organisation Profile
Use this screen to manage basic information and configure accounting options that will control how the system manages the accounts for a Not for Profit (Charity) organisation.
The system supports charities and not-for-profit entities that are subject to the Charities SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) 2015. This includes Funds handling, Compliant Statement of Financial Activities SOFA 2015 (FRS102) reports and a broad range of supporting functions that include an integrated payroll and role based access control. If using the payroll, each employee will need to be allocated to a Fund, likewise if the asset or operating lease ledgers are used assets and leases will need to be allocated to a Fund.
The charity may produce SOFA reports on an accruals basis, Income and Expenditure, and/or on a cash basis, Receipts and Payments.
When all details have been entered click the SUBMIT button to store the information.
Return to the Profile as necessary to amend any information. Update as required and click SUBMIT to store.
Control - Organisation Profile
A screen with up to six tabs is displayed. To move between the tabs click on a tab directly.
- Charity details tab
- Operating details tab
- Accounting options tab
- Optional features tab
- Billing, concessions and usage tab
- Anglican Church Options
Note the Anglican Church Options tab will only be displayed if the selected organisation is Anglican PCC.
Charity Details - Legal Name
Enter the legal Name.
Charity Details - Charity Regulator
A charity registered in Great Britain will be subject to a particular charity regulator. Select the appropriate regulator from the list in the drop-down. The information is used in any gift aid filing.
- Charity Commission for England and Wales
- Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
- Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
- None/Excepted Charities
Some charities are 'excepted' from charity registration. This just means they do not have to register or submit annual returns. Apart from that, the Charity Commission regulates them just like registered charities and can use any of its powers if it needs to.
A charity is excepted if its income is £100,000 or less and it is in one of the following groups:
- churches and chapels belonging to some Christian denominations
- charities that provide premises for some types of schools
- Scout and Guide groups
- charitable service funds of the armed forces
- student unions
In practice, some of these charities' income is below £5,000, the normal threshold for registration, so they would not have to register anyway.
More information on Excepted Charities is available from this link to HMRC www.gov.uk
Charity Details - Charity Regulator Number
Enter the Charity Regulator Number.
Charity Details - Company Number
Where the charity is also a company enter the Company Number that appears on the certificate of incorporation issued by The Registrar of Companies. Once a valid number has been entered and stored the COMPANIES HOUSE button will access and display certain information stored by companies house and the relevant fields on the profile can be updated directly.
The Charity name is entered and the Trading Status is usually selected from the dropdown as Active, Principal Purpose of the charity is also entered.
Charity Details - Trading Status
Select status from list box, in most cases select ACTIVE. The other cases are specialised situations, please consult with your advisor before selecting.
Charity Details - Principal Purpose
Enter a description of the principal purpose for the Charity.
Charity Details - Date Commenced
Enter the date manually (e.g 19/12/2002) or click on calendar icon to select date from the calendar.
Charity Details - Financial Period From
The current financial period date fields are used to define the start and end of your current financial period, or an earlier period if you are inputing historic data. It is possible to set the dates to be more or less than 12 months. The system will automatically roll these dates forward when you pass your year end. However, the year will remain open for input until the year is closed.
Enter the date manually (e.g 19/12/2002) or click on calendar icon to select date from the calendar.
Charity Details - Accounts Last Made up
Enter the date that the statutory accounts were last made up to as filed at Companies House.
Charity Details - Annual Return Date (Confirmation Statement)
Enter the month and day that the company annual return is due each year. This will then be displayed as a reminder on the user home page after logging on.
Charity Details - Registered Office
The Registered Office is the address to which letters and reminders will be sent.
Return to the list of tabsOperating Details - Operating Name
Enter the operating name of the Charity as used on invoices etc.
Operating Details - Operating Address
The trading address of the Charity is the address for day to day correspondence.
Operating Details - Country
Select the country from the dropdown box. This selection has an impact as described below.
When a sales invoice or credit note transaction is entered if this country is the same as the country of the Customer then the Country line in the address is suppressed when the document is prepared for printing.
Operating Details - Contact Phone
The primary contact telephone number for the Charity. This will be printed below the business address on Invoices, Credit Notes and Customer Statements.
Operating Details - Contact Fax
The primary contact fax number for the Charity. This will be printed below the business address on Invoices, Credit Notes and Customer Statements.
Operating Details - Web Address
The web address for the Charity. This will be printed below the business address on Invoices, Credit Notes and Customer Statements.
Operating Details - Email Address
The primary contact e-mail address for the Charity. This will be printed below the business address on Invoices, Credit Notes and Customer Statements.
Return to the list of tabsSoFA Type Reporting Selection
Select the SoFA Reporting format; either Income & Expenditure (Accruals Basis) or Receipts & Payments (Cash Basis). This selection controls the SoFA format offered under the Reports menu it does not means that transaction input is constrained in anyway, so normal accruals activity such as sales and purchases ledges are still available even if R&P is chosen.
If for any reason the other form of the SoFA report is required simply temporarily change the selection and produce the report.
Accounting Options - Liberty Accounts Start Date
Enter the date from which transactions will be entered on Liberty Accounts. This will usually be the start of your financial period. For those starting midway through a financial year then enter that date.
Accounting Options - Lock Opening Balances
A user may, optionally, lock the opening balances to prevent edit once they have been entered and balanced. In order to allow a change un-tick the lock state box. Note opening balances will be locked automatically when the first accounting period on the system is closed.
Accounting Options - Transaction Lock Date
The transaction lock date can be used to prevent users adding or editing transactions for any date up to and including the transaction lock date. This can be useful where monthly or quarterly management accounts have been produced and it is desirable to prevent subsequent changes to data in the periods concerned.
If no date is entered users can add or edit transactions for any date after the end date for the last financial year to have been closed.
If the date is before the end date for the last financial year to have been closed it will be ignored and the year end date will be used.
Enter the dates manually or click on the calendar icon to select date from calendar.
Accounting Options - Charge Schedule
Select Month end, Year End or Manual from list box. This indicates when batch programs apply charges for asset depreciation and operating lease costs. It will also determine the date when a reversing journal entry will reverse. If you expect to produce monthly financial reports, select 'Month end'
Accounting Options - Track VAT
If the organisation is VAT registered it needs to track the VAT element of transactions. To turn on vat tracking tick the track VAT tick-box.
Selecting Track VAT will automatically create the appropriate VAT control accounts if they do not already exist for the organisation. If the organisation deals with foreign VAT other than standard EU acquisitions you will need to add the foreign VAT tracking accounts using Add from Standard Accounts under the Accounts menu.
On completion of the organisation profile; where track VAT has been selected the user will be requested to compete the VAT configuration. See VAT Configuration for more information.
Use ledger codes in data input
Tick this box to allow the use of ledger codes when selecting accounts for posting accounting data. See Ledger Codes for more information.
Return to the list of tabsFREE OPTIONS RECOMMENDED FOR MOST
Optional Features - Asset Register
Enable the Fixed Asset Register with automated depreciation.
Optional Features - Budgets
If enabled, budgets may be created either by directly inputting or from derived by rules from historic data. Budget comparison reports are available.
Optional Features - Donor Ledger and Gift Aid
Enables the use of integrated donor ledger with gift aid filing.
FREE OPTIONS - SELECT AS REQUIRED
Optional Features - Branches/Activity Tracking
Enable analysis of transactions to branches and/or activities.
If these options are enabled the Profit & Loss Reports can be prepared at branch and/or activity as well as for the total organisation.
Optional Features - File Uploads
Tick this box in order to activate the ability to use CSV format files to upload information to the system.
The Information that can be uploaded is:-
- Customer Standing Data - accessed via the Sales menu
- Supplier Standing Data - accessed via the Expenses menu
- Sales Invoices and Credit Notes - accessed via the Sales menu
- Supplier Bills and Credit Notes - accessed via the Expenses menu
Optional Features - Operating Lease Register
Enable the Operating Lease add-in with automated periodic charging to profit and loss.
Optional Features - Personnel P11D Expense & Benefit Tracking
Enable tracking of employee expenses and benefits for P11D online filing and reporting purposes.
Note that the Use Payroll box also needs to be ticked.
Optional Features - Sales Quotes
Tick this box in order to activate the ability to prepare and manage sales quotes
Quotes can be prepared, accepted and converted to sales invoices
Optional Features - Cash/Card Takings
Tick this box in order to activate the ability to record till takings across different payment types and record deposit to the bank account.
Optional Features - Track Rechargeable Expenses
Tick this box in order to activate the ability to associate an expense payment for recharge to a specific customer.
With this ticked when a payment transaction is being created the line item can include a customer selection. If not ticked the customer selection will not be displayed.
Optional Features - Vehicle Register
Enables the Vehicle register and employee allocation function. This would usually be associated with managing and reporting employee P11D returns
Optional Features - External Document Storage
Enables users to store a link to an image of the document retained by an external provider such as "Dropbox" for more information see Document Storage
Optional Features - Multi-Site Sales Documents
Enables sales documents, Quotes and Invoices, to be addressed from multiple sites with each with there own contact and address details. For more information see Sites,Departments and Activities
Optional Features - Use Departments
Enables the use of Departments for analysis and reporting. For more information see Sites,Departments and Activities
The system uses the general term Department, but users may configure an alias if preferred.
Optional Features - Use Activities
Enables the use of Activities for analysis and reporting. For more information see Sites,Departments and Activities
The system uses the general term Activities, but users may configure an alias if preferred.
CHARGEABLE OPTIONS
The following options are charged at the prevailing rates.
Optional Features - Payroll
Enables the fully integrated payroll.
This box also needs to be activated if the tracking of employee/director expenses and benefits for P11D purposes is required even if payroll is not being used.
For multi-site payroll tick the box.
Optional Features - Internal Document Storage
Enables an integrated document storage facility, in which the image is stored and managed directly on the system database see Document Storage for more information.
This box also needs to be activated if the tracking of employee/director expenses and benefits for P11D purposes is required even if payroll is not being used.
Optional Features - Group Link Key
A group organisation can be set-up by giving this key to the organiser of the group. The group organisation will not have access to your accounts, but will be able to produce reports which will aggregate data from all accounts in the group. Follow this link for more information Group Organisation.
Billing, Concessions & Usage - Send Invoice to User
Select the User who is to receive the monthly invoice for the Liberty Accounts service. The invoice will be emailed to the email address associated with the User Name.
N.B. we only permit one invoice to be sent to one address.
Billing, Concessions & Usage - Alternative Billing email
If you wish to override the default email address used for the invoice, to send it direct to your bookkeeper for example, you may enter the preferred address in this field.
N.B. we only permit one invoice to be sent to one address.
Clicking the INVOICE HISTORY button displays a list of all monthly invoices from Liberty Accounts for use of the service.
Billing, Concessions & Usage - Monthly Transaction Average
Average monthly number of transactions posted is displayed as a measure of system usage.
Billing, Concessions & Usage - Monthly Transaction Average
A concession exists to allow Not-for-Profit entities to benefit from a referrals scheme.
Return to the list of tabsAnglican Church Options
For Anglican Churches that comply with the Church Accounting Regulations 2006 and are required to produce a Return of Parish Finance. Details of the parish that appear on the return are entered on this tab.
Related Topics
In the situation of an existing organisation being set up on the system it will more than likely mean opening balances will need to be entered. Follow the link for more information.
Dealing with Church Collections
Most churches will have at least weekly collections of cash, cheques, gift-aid envelopes and perhaps card reader postings. This topic Regular Church Collections and Cash/Undeposited Receipts offers some help for dealing with the mix of income in an efficient manor for both the user and the system.
Return to the list of tabs