Deal to Standardise NFP Accounting

All Australian charities and Not for Profit organisations will have access to a standardised set of accounting guidelines following an agreement between QUT and the new charity regulator.

Standardised accounting guidelines developed at QUT in Brisbane have been handed over to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).

Speaking at the handover ceremony, Pascoe said NSCOA has a new home at the ACNC where the valuable tool would be kept up to date.QUT’s Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake has handed over QUT’s intellectual property in relation to the  National Standard Chart of Accounts (NSCOA) to the ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe AM.

”Although use of the NSCOA is optional, adopting it would help relieve charities of a real burden in relation to accountancy and red tape," Pascoe said.

“It means all organisations will have access to an agreed set of accounting guidelines and this will save them time and money, particularly in relation to reporting to government.”

She said a recent study in Victoria, where a State-version of the NSCOA was in use, had found Not for Profit organisations had saved more than $3 million over one year.

“Commonwealth and State and Territory Government officials will discuss the use of NSCOA across jurisdictions at the next Council of Australian Governments Not-for-profit Reform Working Group meeting on June 25, 2013.

“The savings to charities from using NSCOA can be put to good use within our communities,” she said.

Finance Officer for Volunteering AustraliaJovana Juloska said: “For Volunteering Queensland, NSCOA is a fundamental tool and has become our normal way of doing business.”

Director of the Australia Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT and member of the ACNC advisory board, Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes said the NSCOA had been developed after broad consultation with the Not for Profit and Government sectors.

He said the ACPNS and the QUT School of Accountancy had developed State-based Standard Charts of Accounts for Not for Profit sectors in all individual States and Territories.

“These have been rolled into a national standard,” he said.

He said the process of developing an NSCOA had already borne positive results and many organisations had:

• Upgraded accounting systems

• Revamped financial reporting to boards

• Invested in training for both staff and boards.

He said auditors had welcomed the standardisation which would reduce costs while government departments have generally moved to voluntarily adopt the standard.

Professor McGregor-Lowndes said the NSCOA had been designed to suit small community organisations with their financial reporting requirements to governments.

He said a MOU signed between the ACPNS and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission would ensure ongoing research between the two organisations.

The ACPNS brings together academics and research students with expertise in philanthropy, Not for Profit organisations, and the social economy to benefit the community.