Charity hoping for Xero remedy
A Wellington charity says new financial reporting rules will force it to pay for an accountant to prepare reports for the Charities Commission or spend days fiddling about with spreadsheets.
Bronwen Evans, executive director of the New Zealand Association of General Surgeons (NZAGS), believed many other charities that use Xero for their accounting might be in the same boat.
However, a solution may now be in sight. About 5000 non-profit organisations that have operating expenses of less than $2 million a year will be obliged to file detailed annual accounts in a prescribed format with the Charities Commission for the first time this year.
The new reporting requirement for socalled ‘‘Tier 3’’ charities is designed to ensure the public can have confidence in their bona fides.
Evans said its version of online accounting service Xero did not allow it to report its accounts in a form that was acceptable to the commission.
It could only do that by paying extra for an accounting firm to produce the report using the required template, she said.
The alternative was for NZAGS to file accounts using an Excel spreadsheet, which the charity believed could waste up to a week of someone’s time.
‘‘What annoys me is Xero have these templates, but are not making them available for small businesses or charities,’’ Evans said. Its response had been arrogant and condescending, she said.
‘‘When I asked why I could not have the template, I got told, ‘We would not understand them.’’’
Evans said that, like other charities, the NZAGS had to watch its pennies.
‘‘I have a qualified accountant working for me who would be quite capable of using the template. What would it hurt to allow charities that need this template to have it?’’
Xero spokeswoman Alex Mercer indicated that might be possible.
‘‘On the back of the new Charities Commission reporting requirements, we’re actively looking for a solution for our clients, including the possibility of offerings for charities and not-forprofits to access the reporting templates,’’ she said.
Charities Commission chief executive Lesa Kalapu said she had not been aware of any complaints.
She encouraged any charities that had issues with the new reporting requirement to make contact.
The new reporting regime would benefit charities in the long run by improving public confidence in them, she said. ‘‘Before the standards came in, information was quite haphazard,’’ she said.