Guidance

Academies accounts return 2023 to 2024: guide to completing the online form

Updated 5 November 2024

Applies to England

General information - 2023 to 2024 academies accounts return

This section includes:

About the academies accounts return

This guide provides guidance to academy trusts on how to complete and submit the 2023 to 2024 accounts return (AR) to the Department for Education (DfE).

For more information about the AR read the academies accounts return.

Government departments, including DfE, prepare accounts based on International Financial Reporting Standards (as amended for the public sector context) described in HM Treasury’s Financial Reporting Manual (FReM).

The annual accounts prepared by the DfE for the academies sector is known as the Sector Annual Report & Accounts (SARA). The AR is the tool used to collect financial data to produce the SARA.

Academy trusts’ annual financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS102), known as the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), with guidance and requirements given in the Academies Accounts Direction.

As the AR and audited financial statements follow different financial reporting frameworks, there are some areas where the AR requires additional information or information that is more detailed compared to that required in the financial statements. Read the ‘Academies accounts return 2023 to 2024: additional information requirements’ from the [Academies accounts return] (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academies-accounts-return) to find detailed information on  the differences between the financial statements and the information required for the AR.

New features

Quick links - new features
1.2.1 New features AR 2023/24	1.2.2 Key areas to draw attention to when completing the academies accounts return

1.2.1 New features AR 2022/23:

As with previous years, the AR has been updated in response to user feedback and policy and regulatory changes. The main changes this year are:

Overview

DfE Sign-in role name changes - the role names of the following users have been updated.

• ‘Internal Approver’ role name changed to ‘Accounts Return Trust Approver’
• ‘Internal Preparer’ role name changed to ‘Accounts Return Trust Preparer’
• Superuser’ role name changed to ‘Approvers’

New question added to the Academy Trust Information section - this question asks for information about which actuarial firms provide the local government pension scheme (LGPS) valuation included in this AR

Statement of financial accounts (SoFA)

• Field removed - RGR011_PY –  Prior year 16 to 19 allocations. This field is removed  from Revenue Grants – DfE. This data was collected as a one-off in AR 2022 to 2023 so that we could collect the previous year figure

• New field - STF061 – ‘Other Employee Benefits’ added  to ‘Staff Costs’ table. This amount is included in ‘other employee benefits’ in the academies model accounts, note 10a as part of ‘Staff costs’

Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures

• New field - DBO061 - ‘Pension Surplus Deemed Irrecoverable’ added to Changes to the present value of the defined benefit obligation section to report any increase to the obligation required to reflect the pension surplus deemed irrecoverable under FRS102
• New field - DBO061_PY - ‘Pension Surplus Deemed Irrecoverable Prior Year’ added to Changes to the present value of the defined benefit obligation section to report any increase to the obligation required to reflect the pension surplus deemed irrecoverable under FRS102 for the previous year (September 2022 - August 2023)
• New field - FVA051 - ‘Pension Surplus Deemed Irrecoverable’ added  to Changes to the fair value of assets section. This field will be pre-populated with DBO061.
• New field - ROD101 added to ‘Reconciliation of deficit section’. This field will be pre-populated with DBO061.
• Updated field guidance for DBO070   - ‘Actuarial loss/(gain) - financial assumptions’ updated to remove reference to Pension Surplus Deemed Irrecoverable which should now be reported in DBO061- ‘Pension Surplus Deemed Irrecoverable’.
• Updated field description – SAP030 and SAP040 in the ‘Sensitivity Analysis’ table has been changed from using ‘Mortality rate’ to ‘Life expectancy rate’. The guidance also reflects this change of wording.

Benchmarking

• Guidance for  BAE230  - Educational consultancy updated to include high needs support for pupils.

Reports

Users can now access their previous years accounts returns on the accounts return index page. This is available on the right hand side of the index page under the title ‘Download Previous return’.

1.2.2 Key areas to draw attention to when completing the academies accounts return:

This section is intended to draw attention to areas where inconsistencies were noted within the submission of the academies accounts return or where more recently changes have taken place. This is to highlight where improvements can be made in the quality of the return data:

• Number of employees whose emoluments exceed £60,000 and £100,000: Ensure that for both sections, emolument bandings are selected based on total emoluments which includes salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits. It was noted that previously, in particular for the emoluments over £60,000 that employer pensions contributions were not always included when selecting the emoluments banding.
• Staff numbers: permanent and temporary staff numbers should be full time equivalent figures which differs from the requirement in the audited financial statements which requires average headcount (with an optional FTE disclosure allowed if preferred).
• COVID-19 funding: ensure that any COVID-19 grant income is disclosed in either of the following fields: RGR151, RGR152, RGR153, ORG041 or ORG042.

Academies chart of accounts (ACoA) reallocations:  Refer to After accepting the FMS submission - accounts return for information on how to manually reallocate values in the AR if you are completing the online form through automation.

Who should complete the academies accounts return?

All academy trusts with academies open at any point during the year from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024, including trusts that transferred out all their academies on 1 September 2024, are required to complete the AR online form.

Throughout this guide, the term ‘academy’ includes the following entities:

• sponsored academies
• academy converters
• free schools
• university technical colleges
• special academy schools
• alternative provision academies
• studio schools
• sixth form academies

Who is responsible for each trust’s academies accounts return submission?

These guidance notes use the terms ‘academy trusts’ and ‘trusts’ interchangeably to avoid confusion as to the nature of the reporting entity.

The legal requirement to prepare, have audited and file financial statements sits with the charitable companies (academy trusts) and arises from the Companies Act 2006. This means that multi-academy trusts (MATs), which operate more than one academy, have one corporate legal entity (the charitable company) but several operational units and trading names (the individual academies).

The requirements to file a trust’s audited financial statements and provide information to enable the the DfE to fulfil their statutory duty to prepare the SARA, fall on the trustees (directors) of the charitable companies (the trusts).

Note: although the trust assigns an external auditor approver to submit the accounts return to the DfE, the responsibility for accurate data remains with the trust’s financial accounts preparer or approver, that is the trustees.

Further help and information

This guidance is complementary to other information available to help trusts complete the AR. The additional resources and guidance available are:

Resources and guidance available	Description
AR online form guidance	This is the primary source of guidance with many tables displaying guidance text at the top of the table. Most fields have a ‘Help with’ link below the field name to provide specific guidance.
Reports	On the online form homepage, the right-hand column ‘Information and guidance on completing the Academies accounts return’ includes a drop-down box under ‘Download return’ where trusts can select a table to print or can download most of the return into Excel or PDF. You are also able to run a report for your trusts previous years accounts returns.
Online tutorial videos	To help with completion of the AR, we advise you to view these before accessing the AR as they will include tips on how to assign an external auditor, navigate the form and how to clear validations. Online videos can be found in this guidance.
AR workbook	A workbook which mirrors the AR online form as far as possible. Trusts may find it useful to complete this workbook prior to completing the online AR. However, it should be noted that this workbook cannot be used to submit the AR data, the online form itself must be submitted. The AR workbook can be found on in academies accounts return.
Academies accounts return 2022/23: Additional requirements to the financial statements	The DfE published a document outlining the main differences between the financial statements and the AR to help trusts prepare for the returns. The document can be found in the academies accounts return.
Additional pensions information	A guide and example pension actuarial results schedules are available to help trusts complete the pension sub-section. The additional pension information can be found on the AR web page.
Academies Chart of accounts	The updated standardised Academies chart of accounts (CoA) can be found in Academies chart of accounts and automating the accounts return which provides a workbook showing detailed mapping of income and expenditure into the AR online form fields. Within the document, the tab named ‘CoA structure and mappings’ tab provides support to complete the AR.
Academies Accounts Direction	The Academies Accounts Direction is used by academy trusts, their auditors and reporting accountants to prepare and audit financial statements for the accounting period ending on 31 August annually.
Academies model accounts	These are model accounts based on a fictional academy trust (Coketown Academy Trust), which helps academy trusts to see what the accounts should look like.
Framework and guide for external auditors and reporting accountants of academy trusts	Supports external auditors with their obligations to issue an audit opinion as to whether the financial statements present a true and fair view. The document may also be of interest to trustees, accounting officers and chief financial officers to help them understand the requirements, roles and responsibilities of external auditors and reporting accountants.
Help with specific queries	Any questions not addressed in the above tools and guidance should be submitted to the customer help portal  by providing an explanation of the issue and an accompanying screen shot where applicable.
Help with incorrect pre-populated data	If the pre-populated data in the academy trust information or academy information table is incorrect, email academies.SD@education.gov.uk including the trust unique provider identification number (UPIN) and details of what should be changed.
“Having trouble with this service?”	If yoou are experiencing technical difficulties with the AR online form, use the link available on the right-hand menu of the index page to report the problem. If we are already aware of an issue, it will be posted under ‘Known issues’, along with advice on how to proceed. If your issue is not listed here, click ‘customer help portal’ to report it.
Help forums	Once the AR form has launched, dial ins (by phone or through Microsoft Teams) and web chat sessions will be available for AR users to ask questions or raise issues directly with a member of the AR team. A full schedule is published on academies accounts return.

Guidance review date

This guide is only applicable to completing and submitting the AR 2023 to 2024 .

The next review of this guide will be in summer 2025.

Accounts return completion process

This section includes:

A trust should submit a return that matches the scope of its financial statements. Therefore, a trust preparing consolidated financial statements should submit a consolidated return, which includes the same legal entities (for example, trading subsidiaries, or in some cases a subsidiary academy trust).

The AR must be submitted no later than 28 January 2025

Steps to follow when completing the accounts return

Below is a summary of the steps to follow when completing the return.

Step	Action
1	Log into DfE Sign-in to either register or review and update existing information. Approvers must review user roles and approve any new positions. Register for a DfE Sign-in account
2	Log into the online forms service for academy trusts and select the accounts return online form for 2023 to 2024.
3	Where a trust has submitted an AR the previous period, we will use details from that submission to pre-populate the current year External auditor details table. If the details are correct, tick the box and mark the table as complete or edit/add the correct details. See section 3.1 for more information about setting up external auditor details.
4	Academy trust preparer/approver or external auditor preparer completes the Overview to Counterparty sections of the return. The external auditor preparer/approver cannot complete the External auditor details table in the overview section.
5	Then clear all hard validations and provide explanations (where applicable) to all soft validations.
6	If a preparer completed the return, then they should complete the preparer declaration table so that the accounts return internal approver can review the form and if happy approve it.
7	The external auditor approver reviews the form, approves and submits it to DfE when satisfied. The external auditor approver can reject the form and send it back to the accounts return approver for amendments.

Getting started – DfE Sign-in registration and roles

Quick links - DfE Sign-in registration and roles
2.2.1 DfE Sign-in registration	2.2.2 DfE Sign-in user roles within the AR

2.2.1 DfE Sign-in registration and roles:

• all preparers and approvers will need to be set up on the DfE Sign-in system to fulfil their relevant responsibilities in the AR form
• users who completed the AR 2022 to 2023 can use the same DfE Sign-in details to access AR 2023 to 2024
• new users will need to be set up, including an Approver for new trusts which should be registered at the earliest opportunity
• an approver must invite appropriate staff within their trust to register to use DfE Sign-in and assign specific roles

New external auditors must register for an external user account with DfE Sign-in. The External Auditor will then need to request access to the trust’s AR by submitting a query to DfE using the customer help portal. Once this has been checked with the trust, access will be approved. External auditors will have access to the online form once the trust has assigned a role by completing the external auditor details table in the overview section of the online form. For further information read Access the DfE Sign-in service.

2.2.2 DfE Sign-in user roles within the AR:

Role	Description	Type
Approver	Can invite new users to register and allocate roles to already registered users within the DfE Sign-in system. This role is administrative and only applicable to the DfE Sign-in system.	Mandatory
Accounts return trust preparer	Can input information on the online form and send to the accounts return internal approver for approval.	Optional
Accounts return trust approver	Can input information on the online form and can approve this information. A trust can have multiple accounts return internal approvers who will have access to the AR online form at any point during the collection window.	Mandatory
External auditor preparer	Can input information on the online form to send to the accounts return trust approver for approval.	Optional
External auditor approver	Can view the return in a read only format at any point. Once the accounts return trust approver has approved the return, they can go in and review it. If happy, they can approve and submit to the DfE. If changes are required, the external auditor approver can send the return to the trust approver for amendments. Although the external auditor approver is assigned to submit the accounts return to the DfE, the responsibility for accurate data remains with the trust’s financial accounts preparer, that is trustees.	Mandatory

Throughout this guidance, the term ‘AR preparer’ refers to the accounts return internal preparer or the external auditor preparer.

2.2.3 AR navigation:

It is possible to have multiple sessions open at the same time, however only the first user (who can input information in the online form) to login will have read/write access, subsequent users will have read only access, that is they will not be able to edit any fields while the first user is online.

If another user (who can input information in the online form) requires read/write access they will need to wait until the first user has ended their session so that they can then login as the first user.

Accounts return review, approval and submission

Quick links - AR review, approval and submission
2.3.1 Reviewing the accounts return	2.3.2 Approving the AR – trust stage	2.3.3 Approving the AR – auditor stage

Once the return has been completed by the AR preparer, the AR trust approver can then review the entries made in the form.

2.3.1 Reviewing the accounts return

The accounts return trust approver should review the content of the online form by checking each screen has been correctly populated.

Reports

The online return provides a series of reports to support the accounts return internal approver in their role. The ‘Reports’ menu can be found in the right-hand side of the ‘Academy trust accounts return’ index page. Reports can be downloaded as Excel or PDF files.

Summary tables

In addition, the ‘Summary’ menu on the main ‘Academies trust accounts return’ dashboard contains the following summary tables to help trusts review the data entered into the AR:

SoFA summary: This table is populated with values from the various SoFA tables throughout the form (see table below). Trusts should be able to reconcile this SoFA to the SoFA in their financial statements. There may be genuine reasons for differences between IFRS and SORP, trusts are recommended to retain an audit trail of any such adjustments.

• Income

SoFA summary AAR reference	SoFA Summary AAR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
SSM010	Donations	DONTOT	SoFA
SSM020	Transfer on conversion from local authorities and elsewhere	TSD010 + TSD020	SoFA
SSM030	Transfer of existing academies into the trust	TSD030	SoFA
SSM040	Capital grants	CGRTOT+ CGGTOT + OCGTOT	SoFA

• Income – charitable activities

SoFA summary AAR reference	SoFA Summary AAR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
SSM050	Funding for the academy trust’s educational operations	RGRTOT + RGGTOT + ORGTOT + INCTOT	SoFA
SSM060	Provision of boarding activities	PBITOT	SoFA
SSM070	Other trading activities	OTATOT	SoFA
SSM080	Investments	INVTOT	SoFA
SSM090	Total	SSM010 + SSM020 + SSM030 + SSM040 + SSM050 + SSM060 + SSM070 + SSM080	SoFA Summary

• Expenditure

SoFA summary AAR reference	SoFA Summary AAR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
SSM100	Raising funds	CRFTOT * (-1)	SoFA
SSM110	Transfer of existing academies out of the trust	TSD040 * (-1)	SoFA

• Expenditure – charitable activities

SoFA summary AAR reference	SoFA Summary AAR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
SSM120	Academy trust educational operations	(CADTOT + CASTOT) * (-1)	SoFA
SSM130	Provision of boarding activities	(PBES010 + PBES020) * (-1)	SoFA
SSM140	Other	(OEX010 + TSES010 + TSES020) * (-1)	SoFA
SSM150	Total	SSM100 + SSM110 + SSM120 + SSM130 + SSM140	SoFA Summary
SSM160	Net income/(expenditure)	SSM090 + SSM150	SoFA Summary
SSM170	Transfers between funds	TTF070	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
SSM180	Actuarial gain/loss on pension fund	FVA080 - DBO070 - DBO080 - DBO090	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
SSM190	Valuation gain or loss on tangible and intangible fixed assets	IFC100-T + IFA070-T + TFC130-T + TFD070-T	Balance Sheet Assets
SSM200	Valuation gain or loss on investment portfolio	NCI130-T + CUI130-T	Balance Sheet Assets
SSM210	Net movement in funds	SSM160 + SSM170 + SSM180 + SSM190 + SSM200	SoFA Summary

Balance sheet summary: This table is populated with values from the various balance sheet tables throughout the form (see table below). Trusts should be able to reconcile this balance sheet to the balance sheet in their financial statements.

• Fixed assets

Balance sheet summary AR reference	Balance sheet summary AR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
BSM010	Intangible assets	IFVTOT	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM020	Tangible assets	TFVTOT	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM030	Long term non-current investments	NCITOT-T	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM040	Debtors greater than 1 year	DEBTOT-B	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM050	Total fixed assets	BSM010 + BSM020 + BSM030 + BSM040	Balance Sheet Summary

• Current Assets

Balance sheet summary AR reference	Balance sheet summary AR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
BSM060	Stock	STO010	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM070	Debtors less than 1 year	DEBTOT-A	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM080	Cash at bank and in hand	CSH010	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM090	Current investments	CUITOT-T	Balance Sheet Assets
BSM100	Total current assets	BSM060 + BSM070 + BSM080 + BSM090	Balance Sheet Summary

• Liabilities

Balance sheet summary AR reference	Balance sheet summary AR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
BSM110	Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	CRDTOT-A * (-1)	Balance Sheet Liabilities
BSM120	Net current assets	BSM100 + BSM110	Balance Sheet Summary
BSM130	Total assets less current liabilities	BSM050 + BSM100 + BSM110	Balance Sheet Summary

• Long term liabilities

Balance sheet summary AR reference	Balance sheet summary AR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
BSM140	Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year	CRDTOT-B * (-1)	Balance Sheet Liabilities
BSM150	Provisions	PMTTOT * (-1)	Balance Sheet Liabilities
BSM160	Pension liability	FVATOT - DBOTOT	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM170	Total long-term liabilities	BSM160 + BSM140 + BSM150	Balance Sheet Summary
BSM180	Net assets/(liabilities)	BSM130 + BSM170	Balance Sheet Summary

• Restricted Funds

Balance sheet summary AR reference	Balance sheet summary AR description	Calculation	AR section where the calculation reference can be found
BSM190	Fixed asset fund	RFFTOT-T	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM200	Restricted income fund	RGFTOT-T - RGFTOT-D	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM210	Pension fund	RGFTOT-D	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM220	Endowment fund	UEFTOT-A	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM230	Unrestricted fund	UEFTOT-B	Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures
BSM240	Total funds	BSM190 + BSM200 + BSM210 + BSM220 + BSM230	Balance Sheet Summary

Outstanding validation triggers: This table lists any validation errors that have not been resolved. These errors will need to be cleared before the accounts return internal approver can approve the return. Once there are no remaining validations errors, the screen will display a message to confirm this.

The AR internal approver can amend the data in the return prior to completing the approval process.

2.3.2 Approving the AR – trust stage

When all validations have been cleared and all available tables show a status of ‘Complete’, the ‘Approval and submission’ tables will become available to complete.

Step	Description
Step 1 - Preparer declaration	This is optional. If you have no AR preparer, you will need to answer ‘No’ to question 29 in the questionnaire. The questionnaire can be found in the ‘Overview’ section. The designated AR preparer, either a trust employee or an external auditor preparer, would need to confirm they have completed the AR accurately and resolved all validations. Once the AR preparer completes and approves the preparer declaration table, the AR form will become read only for them. The external auditor preparer must not also act as the external auditor approver for the same trust. No amendments can be made by the AR preparer until they revoke their approval before the academy trust approver approves the AR or the academy trust approver rejects the AR form..
Step 2 - Academy trust declaration	To be completed by a responsible finance officer within the trust. If the individual is the trust accounting officer, they should confirm ‘yes’ read the declaration that appears and click the final box to approve the AR. If the accounts return trust approver is not the accounting officer, the form will ask for confirmation that the approver has the authorisation of the accounting officer to approve the return. Once approved, the accounts return trust approver should inform the trust’s external auditor approver that the trust has approved the AR. The return will be locked in read-only mode for the internal approver. Unlocking the form - The accounts return internal approver can unlock the form for editing, providing it has not been approved by the external auditor approver, by revoking their approval on the academy trust declaration table. Trusts should only do this in conjunction with their auditors who may have completed some of their review work on the previously approved version. To unlock the form the accounts return internal approver must untick the approval box on the academy trust declaration table.

2.3.3 Approving the AR – auditor stage

Step	Description
Step 3 - External auditor approval	The external auditor approver role is to review the data which has been entered into the form to ensure that it is consistent with the audited financial statement. Also and that is has been properly extracted from financial records and presented in the AR in accordance with the guidance notes issued by the DfE. See the sample declaration below this table. If the external auditor approver has approved the AR and wants to revoke their approval, this can be done by ticking the reject option on the ‘External auditor declaration’ page.
Step 4 - Submission	Once the external auditor approver completes the external auditor approval table, the submission table will then become available for them to submit the return to DfE on behalf of the trust. Trusts should note that once the external auditor approver has approved and submitted the return, no further amendments can be made as the AR form becomes read only for every user and any subsequent issues will need to be raised by contacting our enquiry service using the customer help portal It is not possible to amend your submitted return. Subsequently, any data submitted in error could be used for further information requests such as Freedom of Information. The external auditor approver for the AR can be different to the auditor who signed off the trust’s financial statements.

Sample external auditor declaration

“INDEPENDENT REPORTING ACCOUNTANT’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS RETURN FOR COKETOWN ACADEMY TRUST FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2024

We have examined the Accounts Return, together with the audited statutory financial statements of Coketown Academy Trust for the year ended 31 August 2024 prepared under section 396 of the Companies Act 2006, and the applicable framework comprising the Charities SORP and the Academies Accounts Direction 2023 to 2024.

This report is made solely for Coketown Academy Trust in accordance with our instructions. Our work has been undertaken so that we might state for Coketown Academy Trust those matters we are required to state to them in an independent reporting accountant’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than Coketown Academy Trust, for our work, for this report, or for the conclusions we have drawn.

Respective responsibilities of the trustees and independent reporting accountant

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Accounts Return, in accordance with the requirements set out in the guidance notes issued by the Education Skills Funding Agency, and the audited statutory financial statements.

It is our responsibility to report to you our conclusion as to whether:

• information in the Accounts Return is consistent with Coketown Academy Trust ‘s audited statutory financial statements for the period; and
• where appropriate has been properly extracted from Coketown Academy Trust ‘s financial records and presented in the Accounts Return in accordance with the guidance notes issued by the Education Skills Funding Agency.

Scope

As a practising member firm of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants or other relevant accounting body, we are subject to the ethical and other professional requirements of that body.

We have not been instructed to carry out an audit or a review of the Accounts Return or of the underlying accounting records from which the Accounts Return is prepared. For this reason, we have not verified the accuracy or completeness of the accounting records or information and explanations you have given to us. Consequently, the procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, therefore, we do not express an audit opinion on the information presented in the Accounts Return nor do we express an audit opinion in respect of the underlying accounting records from which the Accounts Return is prepared.

Conclusion

It is our conclusion that the information in the Accounts Return is consistent with the audited statutory financial statements of Coketown Academy Trust for the year ended 31 August 2024 and where appropriate has been properly extracted from Coketown Academy Trust ‘s financial records and presented in the Accounts Return in accordance with the guidance notes issued by the Education Skills Funding Agency.

I understand that the data which I am submitting may be shared by the Department for Education with their service providers. If you would like to find out more about how we process your data. Visit our privacy policy for details.”

Deadline for submitting the AR - the external auditor approver must submit the completed return to the DfE by 28 January 2025.

Important points to note when completing the return

Quick links - important points
2.4.1 Form navigation and input	2.4.2 Input data for AR	2.4.3 Validations	2.4.4 Validation types
2.4.5 Clearing soft validations	2.4.6 Clearing hard validations	2.4.7 DfE Group organisations

2.4.1 Form navigation and input

• It is possible to have multiple sessions open at the same time, however only the first user (who can input information in the online form) to login will have read/write access, subsequent users will have read only access, that is they will not be able to edit any fields while the first user is online. If another user (who can input information in the online form) requires read/write access they will need to wait until the first user has ended their session so that they can then login as the first user.
• data is saved automatically every 2 minutes. Alternatively, you can save the data at any time by pressing the ‘Mark as complete’ button at the bottom left on each table.
• the AR form can be downloaded from the index page. You can download each section of the AR form (excluding the overview section) in either Excel or PDF format
• to print a specific page of the AR form, use the print facilities of the web browser you are using
• for further help and guidance, refer to the tutorial videos and the specific user guidance in academies accounts return
• to search a word on the AR screen you are viewing, press Ctrl + F, and type in your word in the search bar. For example, to find a section on ‘Pensions’ you may click ‘Open all’ to expand all sections of the index page, press Ctrl + F and search for ‘Pensions’. The word ‘Pensions’ will be highlighted wherever it appears. This functionality will also find cell references on a page. For example, if you are on the ‘Donations’ page and press Ctrl + F and search ‘DON020’, it will highlight the relevant field

Watch this tutorial video for more details about navigating around the AR online form.

General navigation guidance

2.4.2 Input data for AR

• where possible, the data used to populate the return should be taken directly from the trust’s audited financial statements without any amendments
• some entries will require some degree of aggregation or disaggregation of financial statement balances or FReM-style disclosures
• if there are differences between the disclosures in the accounts of individual trusts and those set out in the return, trusts will have to re-analyse their disclosures to fit those required by the return
• nursery numbers should be included within the trust’s total numbers in all tables with exception of the ‘Benchmarking’ and ‘Land & buildings’ tables where it would be included as part of the appropriate academy, and should also include private, voluntary and independent (PVI) nurseries if the DfE defines the school and nursery as a single entity

2.4.3 Validations

• validation checks ensure that values entered are consistent across different sections of the form
• when a validation is triggered, the validation reference will appear below the affected field which will also be highlighted in red and error details for the said validation will be available via a link at the bottom of the related cell reference
• the validation error message shows the values entered into each field within the validation, and where the validation triggers on an Academy level table, a link will be available to each academy
• the number of validation errors within each table is also displayed on the colour coded status buttons on the ‘index’ page next to each section header
• validations that have been triggered can be resolved as soon as they appear within a table, or later by clicking ‘next’ to continue with the return. Any unresolved validation errors will appear in the Outstanding validation triggers table in the Summary section

Watch this tutorial video for more details about validations.

Academies Accounts Return (AAR): Validation Introduction

2.4.4 Validation types

Validation type	Description
Hard	Occur where data in various parts of the return should match, but do not. Hard validations must be resolved by correcting the values in the return or by ticking a confirmation box when you agree with the statement displayed. Hard validations end with a ‘H’ in the format VALXXXXH.
Soft	Occur where data entered is outside a particular threshold. The value can simply be corrected if entered in error. Where the value is correct, an ‘explanation’ box will appear next to the value in question and trusts will be required to provide an explanation for the figure. Soft validations end with a ‘S’ in the format VALXXXXS.

Watch these tutorial videos for more details about clearing validations.

2.4.5 Clearing soft validations

Academies Accounts Return (AAR): Clearing soft validations

2.4.6 Clearing hard validations

Academies Accounts Return (AAR): Clearing hard validations

2.4.7 DfE Group organisations

Throughout the return, additional analysis is required so we can identify academy trust balances with designated bodies and the wider DfE group of organisations, composed of the core department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Collectively, for the period 1 September 2023 to August 2024, these bodies are referred to as the DfE group:

• Department for Education (DfE)
• Education and Skills Funding Agency (DfE)
• Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA)
• Standards and Testing Agency (STA)
• Oak National Academy
• Social Work England
• Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC)
• Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)
• Office for Students (OfS)
• Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB)
• Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
• Student Loans Company (SLC)
• LocatED

Overview table

This section includes:

The ‘Overview’ section of the AR has four tables. All four tables must be completed to proceed with the rest of the AR form.

Many of the AR tables and data entry rows/columns displayed within the AR form are dependent on information provided in the four tables within the ‘Overview’ section.

External auditor details

External auditor details will be prepopulated with the information provided in the 2022 to 2023 AR submitted by the trust. If the prepopulated data is correct, tick the box to confirm this. If the data is no longer relevant, update it by either using the ‘Add another external auditor’ link, and/or use the ‘edit’/ ‘remove’ links to the right of each prepopulated auditor details.’ If the trust did not submit an AR in 2022 to 2023, complete the external auditor details table by using the ‘Add another external auditor’ link.

Watch this tutorial video for more details about the external auditor section of the AR.

AR external auditor video

Academy trust information

Check the trust’s prepopulated data is correct and confirm by clicking the ‘Yes’ button. If the data is incorrect, click the ‘No’ button and use the e-mail link academies.sd@education.gov.uk to send the correct information to the AR team who will update the relevant details. Trusts are advised to check these details and feedback any updates to the AR team at the earliest opportunity.

Academy information

If an academy school within the trust is a teaching school hub it should report income and expenditure relating to the teaching school hub separately. Any such trust should select ‘Yes’ against the question “Is this academy school a teaching school hub?” to display additional fields relating to teaching school hub within the ‘SoFA’ and ‘Benchmarking’ sections.

The trust is required to confirm the status of each academy school within the trust. This can be done by selecting the correct status from the drop-down list which is situated below the DfE recorded status in the academy information table.

A trust should only select ‘closure in period’ where the academy school has shut down.

When the academy school has transferred to another trust, it should be classed as an ‘in period transfer out’ and where an academy school has joined from another academy trust, it should be classed as ‘in period transfer in’.

Where there is a transfer or a conversion, additional cells will be available on various tables within the AR form. The ‘Transfers and conversions’ section will also need to be completed.

Before marking the table as complete, check if the prepopulated data is correct and confirm by clicking the ‘Yes’ button. If the data is incorrect, click the ‘No’ button and use the e-mail link academies.sd@education.gov.uk to send the correct information to the AR team who will update the relevant details. Trusts are advised to check these details and feedback any updates to the AR team at the earliest opportunity.

Questionnaire

Most trusts will not have disclosures for every table in the return and completing this questionnaire tailors the return to the tables that are relevant to them.

Watch this tutorial video for more details about the questionnaire.

Questionnaire video

Trusts can change the answers to questions at any time before the form is approved. Note that doing so would also remove any associated data previously entered.

Trusts may find that certain responses are pre-populated and in a ‘read only’ (greyed out) format. This is because of the closing balances disclosed in the previous year AR.

Guidance can be found for many questions by clicking on the ‘Help’ link under the question. Additional guidance for specific questions (not included in the online form) is as follows:

Question	Guidance
Question 5 - Has the Trust incurred any loss of office payments during the accounting period?	answer ‘yes’ to this question if the Trust has made payments in the accounting period to Trustees or Accounting Officers for loss of office. Exit payments made to other members of staff are not loss of office payments for the purpose of this question.
Question 6 - Has the trust included a note for ‘Related party transactions – Trustees - remuneration and expenses’ in its annual report and accounts?	We expect most academies to have a staff member who is a trustee. Their remuneration would therefore class as trustee remuneration. This is the case even if paid solely for their substantive role (for example, as head teacher). If a trust answers ‘No’ to this question, a soft validation will trigger. If no staff are trustees, then trusts can simply state this in the explanation box.
Question 26 - Did the Trust make any losses or special payments?	Answer ‘yes’ to this question if the Trust has transactions such as cash losses, claims abandoned, administration write-offs, fruitless payments, stock losses, gifts and special payments. Special payments are payments which may fall outside of the usual planned range of activity and may exceed statutory and contractual obligations. Examples include honoraria, ex-gratia, non-contractual exit payments, severance, termination, compensation or other payments.

SoFA - income and expenditure tables

This section includes:

Trusts should be able to reconcile the SoFA in the return to the SoFA in their annual financial statements. The completed SoFA can be found in the summary section of AR dashboard.

Donations

Information to be entered here can be found in the donations and capital grants disclosure section in the trust audited financial statements.

Capital grants should not be included in the ‘Donations’ table (DON) but under ‘Capital grant income’ table below (CGR).

Any capital donations entered in this section (DON) should equal donations shown in the fixed asset tables under balance sheet assets.

A capital donation is the gift of an asset. Where cash is donated, even if it is specifically for capital purposes, trusts should record it as other donations – revenue (DON040).

Transfers on conversion are not donations and should be shown under transfers on conversion lines, not in this section.

Grants questionnaire

All questions are related to any adjustments made for grants included within the trust’s financial statements.

If the trust has any repayable cash advances, answer Yes to question 1 and provide more detail in the box provided.

Question 3 will only be relevant for those trusts who have had an in-year transfer of an academy in/out of the trust.

Capital and revenue grants

Quick links - capital and revenue grants
4.3.1 DFE (CGR and RGR)	4.3.2 DFE group (CGG and RGG)	4.3.3 Other (OCG and ORG)

DfE requires all grant income (revenue and capital) to be included within the charitable activities academy’s educational operations section.

Trusts should include capital grants in this section and not under donations.

Any re-presentation compared to a trust’s financial statements will therefore be reflected in the SoFA totals.

Academy Trusts can use the Academies chart of accounts workbook which shows detailed mapping of each type of grant into the AR form categories.

4.3.1 DfE (CGR and RGR)

Trusts should identify the correct grant heading to record income against.

Trusts are required to record DFE capital and revenue grants separately.

Teachers’ employers contribution pension grant (TPECG) should be included within field RGR150 ‘Revenue grants – DfE > Other’ until such time that it is included within GAG allocations.

4.3.2 DFE group (CGG and RGG)

DFE group grants should be used to record grants income from the departments executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) ), for example, Student Loans Company (SLC), Standards and Testing Agency (STA) and Office for Students (OfS). See section 2.4 for the full current list.

Trusts should identify the correct grants heading to record income against and may use the Academies chart of accounts workbook which shows detailed mapping of each type of grant into the AR form categories.

4.3.3 Other (OCG and ORG)

Included within this section are grants from outside the Department of Education which might include Local Authorities, other Government departments and ALBs, such as National Lottery Community Fund and Sport England.

Local authority grants, for example, special educational needs (SEN) and early years grants, are not provided by the DfE and should be recorded as ‘Capital grants’ > ‘Other’ under OCG010, or ‘Revenue grants’ > ‘Other’ under ORG010, ORG020, or ORG030. They should not be recorded under the DfE grants table or the ‘other income’ table.

There are also a small number of COVID-19 funding income streams which fall into this section such as the Coronavirus catch up funding.

Other government grants could include grants from any other government departments excluding the DfE and local authority.

Non-government grants are any grants received from non-government organisations such as charities and philanthropic organisations.

Other income

Quick links - other income
4.4.1 Transfer SOFA disclosure

Non-grant income should be detailed within this section.

Any income from educational visits and school trips should be included within ‘Non-government revenue’ (INC030).

Catering income should be split into two categories: ‘Student catering income’ (INC040) which should only include income from pupils; and ‘Catering income’ (OTA020) within the Other trading activities table which should include the income from staff and visitors.

Guidance relating to ‘Notional apprenticeship levy income’ (INC050) is available in section 5.1.1 of this guidance, within the staff and trustees information.

For ‘Teaching school hub income’ (INC060), if an academy within the trust is a teaching school hub, select ‘Yes’ in the academy information table for the said school. This field will then become available to complete.

Trusts with one or more teaching school hubs should include all grant income under ‘Revenue teaching school hub grants’ (RGR140), ‘ITT Bursaries Grant’ (RGR130) and ‘Capital teaching school hub grants’ (CGR090).

Any income in respect of claims made under the risk protection arrangement (RPA) scheme should be shown within the ‘Other trading activities’ table (OTA050). Further details on RPA are captured in the SoFA expenditure section 4.5 of the guidance

4.4.1 Transfer SOFA disclosure – conversions and academy transfers (TSD)

The return requires trusts to disclose the financial position of academies that have moved in or out of the trust during the academic year.

Information provided in this table is required at trust level, which is validated against the detailed academy level disclosures entered in the ‘Transfers and conversions’ section.

Expenditure

Quick links - expenditure
4.5.1 Costs of raising funds (CRF)	4.5.2 Charitable activities	4.5.3 Risk protection arrangement (RPA)	4.5.4 Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
4.5.5 Other expenditure not attributable to a specific expenditure heading	4.5.6 Teaching school expenditure (TSE)

4.5.1 Costs of raising funds (CRF)

All expenditure incurred by the academy trust to raise funds for its charitable purposes, including the cost of all fundraising activities events and non-charitable trading, should be included in this section. These costs should also be included within the benchmarking section where relevant.

4.5.2 Charitable activities

These are costs incurred on the academy trusts educational operations, including support costs and costs relating to the governance of the academy trust apportioned to charitable activities.

CAS390 “Revenue expenditure from capital funding” should be used in the specific scenario where the Trust has derecognised assets under a Church Supplemental Agreement (e.g. owned by the Diocese), however has received capital funding within the year and spent this on capital improvements.

We are aware that Trusts who are in this situation do not have assets on their balance sheet and therefore cannot report capitalised costs relating to these assets. To ensure expenditure for this scenario is reported clearly, field CAS390 is available to prevent this being reported via maintenance or other premises costs.

4.5.3 Risk protection arrangement (RPA)

The RPA for academy trusts is an alternative to insurance where losses that arise are covered by UK government funds.

Academy trusts that opt to join the RPA will have the RPA fees deducted at source from their general annual grant (GAG) funding paid by DfE. In accounting terms, the contractual GAG amount, before deduction of RPA fees, should be accounted for as income. We expect trusts to make a monthly journal adjustment in their financial ledgers to gross up the GAG cash receipt to the contractual amount and thereby recording a matching expense for ‘Risk protection arrangement fees’ (CAS140) paid by the trust as educational activities.

Any income in respect of claims made under the arrangement should be shown as income in the ‘Other income’ > ‘Other trading activities’ table (OTA050) following on from trusts own entries in their financial ledgers.

4.5.4 Private Finance Initiative (PFI)

A flow chart and additional guidance is included in Section 10: Commitment under PFI to assist trusts in deciding whether PFI costs should be reported in ‘PFI support costs to Local Authority’ (CAS210) or ‘PFI service costs’ (CAS200) and whether outstanding PFI commitments should be reported in Balance sheet liabilities (PFI010 - PFI030) or non-cancellable contract disclosures (NCC010B - NCC030B).

Note that most arrangements are not held directly by the Academy Trust and per the flow chart in Section 10 should be recorded as non-cancellable contracts with the associated costs being disclosed as PFI support costs to Local Authority.

4.5.5 Other expenditure not attributable to a specific expenditure heading

Expenditure disclosed in OEX010 should not be included in the benchmarking section.

4.5.6 Teaching school hub expenditure (TSE)

If an academy school within a trust is a teaching school hub, answer ‘Yes’ to this question against the relevant academy in the ‘Academy information’ table. The ‘Teaching school hub expenditure’ table will then become available to complete. Fields will also become available within the income section of the SoFA.

Further detailed help text is available within the online AR form tables.

Provision of boarding activities (PBE)

If the trust included a note for academy boarding account (Academies model accounts: note 35) in its annual report and accounts, answer ‘Yes’ to question 8 in the ‘Questionnaire’. The questionnaire can be found within the ‘Overview’ section. Provision of boarding activities tables for income and expenditure will then become available for completion.

Further detailed help text is available within the online AR form.

SoFA - staff and trustees tables

This section includes:

Staff costs (STF)

Quick links - expenditure
5.1.1 Apprenticeship levy

This section requires the disclosure of actual costs incurred. Staff costs disclosed within the SoFA are required to be broken down by role, that is split by where staff spend most of their time.

The total wages and salaries are required to be split into three categories:

Category	Description
Teachers (STF010)	Include wages and salaries for staff with day to day teaching duties, including senior leadership team members with day to day teaching duties.
Leadership (STF020)	Include wages and salaries for senior leadership team members who do not have day to day teaching duties. Leadership would be those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of a reporting entity, directly or indirectly, including any director (whether executive or otherwise).
Administration and support category (STF030)	Include all other staff. Examples of this would be office manager, business manager, finance officers and teaching assistants

All costs in the staff and trustees table must be further split into permanent and temporary staff costs as required by accounting standards applicable to DfE and SARA.

The split between permanent (column A) and interim/temporary staff (column B) is not based on hours worked but on length of contract. Accordingly, all supply and maternity cover staff would automatically be classified as interim staff since they are employed by the trust for a specific period, which is the period of illness or maternity leave.

Part-time staff such as teaching assistants and lunch-time staff could be either permanent or temporary staff depending on the terms stipulated in their contract. For example, a teaching assistant who has an open-ended contract of employment with a trust, but may not have guaranteed weekly hours, would still be classified as a permanent staff member. However, a teaching assistant brought into a trust to cover a known staff absence would be temporary, since their contract has a set end date.

Agency staff are, by definition, temporary. The total cost of agency staff included in a trust’s accounts should be shown as temporary staff costs on the ‘Agency’ line (STF070).

The agency numbers to be reported in the AR should be based on FTE and averaged over the year.

Fixed term contract staff should be included within the ‘Temporary/interim staff’ column.

The AR form calculates the average staff costs by dividing the total basic wages and salaries (STF010-T, STF020-T and STF030-T) by the total staff numbers (SSNTOT-T), and then by the number of months to which the return relates. The average staff cost is expected to be within the range of £15,000k to £45,000. If the calculated value falls outside of this range, the AR preparer will be prompted to check the data and tick a box to confirm they are satisfied with the data entered.

Trusts are required to accrue for any outstanding holiday entitlement at the end of the accounting period. Trusts should accrue for the value of untaken holiday entitlement at 31st August 2024 for academies covered by the return.

The term ‘pay costs’ is used throughout the return to indicate all staff pay costs, including employer’s national insurance and pension contributions. Staff-related non-pay costs such as travel and training should not be included in pay costs and disclosed under another appropriate heading according to the format of the analysis being completed. Note that the AR and the trust’s financial statements differ here in that the Academies Accounts Direction asks for pension finance costs to be excluded from pay costs in the financial statements.

Where there is a total in cell STFTOT-B, trusts must disclose the number of temporary/interim staff numbers in the ‘staff numbers (full time equivalent)’ table.

5.1.1 Apprenticeship levy – STF050, INC050 and CAD040

Employers with an annual pay bill of £3 million or more are required to pay a Levy of 0.5% of their annual pay bill to the government. The levy is collected by HMRC as part of an employer existing PAYE process. This payment should be recorded in the ‘Apprenticeship levy’ line (STF050).

Employers that use their levy charge to fund apprenticeships benefit from receiving training in addition to any directly funded training. The value of the additional training between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024 should be recognised as part the employer’s financial reporting. As employers do not receive these funds directly, the amount recorded will be non-cash. Accordingly, there is a notional apprenticeship levy income category (INC050) within other income and a notional apprenticeship levy expenditure category (CAD040) within charitable activities – direct costs where this can be disclosed.

The value of the levy-training will be available to employers from their own discussions/records with approved training providers. Employers should already be aware of the agreed cost of the training prior to training starting. In addition, it is expected that the balances reported include the additional 10% match funding provided by government (STF050).

If training courses are priced above the funds available in an employer’s levy account, the employer will settle the difference directly with the training provider. These extra costs should be treated in the same way as directly funded training.

Staff numbers – full time equivalent (SSN)

This table requires disclosure of the average full time equivalent (FTE) staff undertaking a trust’s charitable activities. An analysis of all permanent and temporary staff at the trust is required, which should be split in line with the three staff cost categories in STF010, STF020 and STF030 (teachers, leadership, administration and support respectively). Review the table in section 5.1 which describes how the FTE’s should be categorised.

The staff numbers entered for permanent and temporary staff should be the average FTE for the year for each category (teachers, leadership and administration and support. This should be the total FTEs for all staff under each category per month for the 12 accounting periods divided by 12. Guidance and examples of calculating an FTE are provided below:

• calculations of FTEs should be based on contracted hours. Teachers are generally contracted and paid 12 months per year. If a teacher is contracted to work 25 hours per week then the FTE should be calculated by dividing 25 by the number of ‘standard’ contracted hours of a full-time teacher, usually 32.5 hours. Such an individual would therefore be counted as 0.77 FTE
• employees who only work part of the year (for example, those on term time only contracts) should be counted only at the time they are being paid. If someone works full time in term time only but they are paid as if they worked for the full 12 months per year they should be counted as 1 FTE
• if an employee works full time in term time only and is only paid in term time, they should only be counted for the period they work (plus any deemed paid holiday). For example, if someone works 39 weeks and has 4 weeks deemed paid holiday, they should count as 0.83 ((39+4)/52) of an FTE
• if you have 200 FTE for 6 months, you report 100 average FTE
• agency staff should be treated in a similar manner as above

Where there is a total in cell STFTOT-B staff costs, trusts must disclose the number of temporary/interim staff numbers in the ‘staff numbers (full time equivalent)’ table.

Trusts are also required to split the FTE of permanent staff disclosed in SSNTOT-A into gender and across the categories of accounting officer, staff who serve as trustees, teachers, leadership and administration and support (SGA010 to SGA050).

Trusts should ensure that each FTE is only listed against one category. Where the accounting officer (SGA010-T) or staff who serve as trustees (SGA020-T) categories are relevant, the average FTE should be recorded here rather than, for example, the teaching category (SGA030).

Number of employees whose emoluments (including off-payroll arrangements) exceed £60,000 and £100,000 (NEE)

Quick links - emoluments exceeding £60,000 and £100,000
5.3.1 Number of employees whose emoluments are between £60,000 and £100,000	5.3.2 Number of employees whose emoluments exceed £100k

Emoluments includes all remuneration, salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits such as termination payments and bonuses. All elements of emoluments should be included in the online Accounts Return when considering which banding to place staff into.

In addition, the emoluments should all be FTE and annualised except for one-off benefits. Examples have been provided below.

Note that the AR guidance differs here from the Academies Accounts Direction guidance which asks for individual Academy Trust financial statements to exclude employer pension costs from this calculation in line with SORP reporting requirements. This is a difference between the reporting requirement for Academy Trust financial statements and the online Accounts Return.

Please also include any off-payroll arrangements as defined in section 2.140 of the Academies Accounts Direction.

5.3.1 Number of employees whose emoluments (including off-payroll arrangements) are between £60k and £100k

In this section trusts should disclose FTE details on the staff whose emoluments (including salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits) exceed £60,000 per annum but are less than £100,000 per annum.

For emoluments between £60,000 and £100,000, the form requires the total number of FTE staff per £10,000 bands (NEE010-040) with the maximum banding as £90,001 – £100,000.

For example, if someone works 3 days a week, that is 0.6 (3/5) and earns £50,000 (including employer pension contributions and other benefits), then an annualised FTE emolument would put them in the £80,001 – £90,000 category as their annualised FTE emolument is £83,333 calculated as (5/3) x £50,000.

5.3.2 Number of employees whose emoluments (including off-payroll arrangements) exceed £100k

Total emoluments including salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits should be disclosed per £10,000 bands with the maximum banding as £380,000+, which again, should be the FTE annualised emoluments as outlined in the section above for the number of employees whose emoluments are between £60k and £100k. For each banding above £100,000, trusts should use a separate row for each individual within these bandings. They should disclose:

• the relevant job title from the drop-down options in column B. If the exact title does not appear on the list, select the closest role based on the descriptions provided. If you cannot see a relevant job title or description, select ‘other’ and provide a brief description of the individual’s responsibilities.

Job role	Additional guidance
Chief Executive Officer or equivalent	Typically, the most senior figure within a multi or single academy trust. They are unlikely to have day-to-day teaching duties.
Headteacher/Principal	Typically, a senior leader who spends most of their time leading and managing the academy.
Deputy/Assistant Headteacher – business lead	Typically, a senior leader who spends the most of their time leading and managing the academy.
Deputy/Assistant Headteacher – predominantly teaching	Typically, a senior leader and who spends the most of their time teaching.
Chief Financial Officer or equivalent	Takes responsibility to manage the trust finances and will not have teaching duties.
Other	For roles not described above, including predominantly teaching and specialist roles, please provide further details.

• the FTE position of an individual is between 0.01 and 1. For example, if an employee works 4 days a week, that is 0.8, and the pro-rated total emolument (including salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits) is £85,000, then the annualised FTE emolument would put them in the £100,001 – £110,000 banding as their annualised FTE emolument is £106,250 calculated as (5/4) x £85,000. 0.8 should be declared in column D – FTE
• their contracted annual salary (FTE) in the relevant £10k banding should be declared in column F (on the same basis as the overall band in column A). If salary is £0, which would be unusual, the trust must provide an explanation in column I – Comments to explain why the employee has received no salary.
• their employer pension contributions (FTE) in the relevant £10k banding. If this is not applicable, select £0 in column G (on the same basis as the overall band in column A). If £0 is selected the trust must provide an explanation in column I – Comments to explain why no pension contributions are included.
• the total of all other benefits received by the individual (this should include bonuses, benefits in kind, termination payments and any other one-off monetary payments) in the relevant £10k banding should be declared in column H, any one-off payments should be as paid and not averaged. If this is not applicable, select £0.

Employer’s National Insurance Contributions should not be included in emoluments.

Exit packages – non civil service schemes (EXP)

Exit payments are payments made to an employee or office holder by their employer on leaving the organisation. Examples of staff exit packages include compensation payments which are made on termination of employment, payment in lieu of notice, redundancy, severance or unplanned loss of employment or loss of office. Exit payments may include:

• cash lump sums – such as a redundancy payment which is normally calculated based on the salary at the point of exiting the organisation and length of service
• early access to unreduced pensions – for employees close to the relevant pension scheme’s normal pension age some employers offer the option to take early retirement on a pension with the reduced amount for early payment being met by the employer, or otherwise enhanced, in place of or in addition to a cash lump sum compensation payment
• non-financial and other benefits – in a smaller number of instances, employers may offer other benefits such as additional paid annual leave at the end of an individual’s employment

DfE discloses breakdowns of employee exit packages agreed during the period of the accounts. Consequently, the consolidated SARA also requires trusts to provide similar disclosures in line with guidance issued by HM Treasury for public sector bodies Annex 4.13 Special payments- Managing public money

FReM-compliant disclosures are split between civil service and non-civil service exit schemes, although it is expected that only non-civil service schemes will be applicable to trusts. The value of the packages disclosed is the total cost including pension contributions, split by the contractual element of the package and the non-contractual element, and not just sums paid directly to the departing employees.

Any non-contractual element of exit packages reported must also be included as a special payment in the ‘losses and special payments’ table as detailed in the balance sheet funds and other disclosures section (field LSP010). This table becomes available to complete when the answer to question 26 ‘Did the trust make any losses or special payments? in the Questionnaire table is “Yes”.

Non-contractual exit packages are payments which are made outside of normal statutory or contractual requirements.

Loss of office payments (LOP)

If trusts make any loss of office payments to the accounting officer, or any other trustee, then these are required to be disclosed here.

Related party transactions: trustee remuneration (RPT)

If a trust has related party transactions (RPTs) to disclose for trustee remuneration, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 6 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table. The relevant tables will then become available under the ‘SoFA’ > ‘Staff & trustees’ heading to enable completion of the trust’s RPT trustees information. If the trust has no RPT trustee remuneration, then question 6 should be answered accordingly and the tab will not be visible.

The information requested on remuneration payments to trustees by the number of FTE trustees receiving payments of £1 to £60,000 and then in £10,000 bands up to £380,000+ has been updated. Remuneration should include salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits such as bonuses. The disclosures required here are:

• number paid as trustees: the FTE number of trustees where the remuneration is a result of their role of trustee in column A, that is purely in their capacity as a trustee which does not include other roles they carry out in the trust, e.g. headteacher
• number paid as staff: the FTE number of trustees where the remuneration is a result of a role they carry out in the trust in column B e.g. headteacher
• once the trust has selected the total remuneration banding overall, they must then confirm that salaries have been included in the remuneration in column C for all FTEs in the banding. If salary is not included, the trust must provide an explanation in column G – Comments to explain why this is the case
• once the trust has selected the total remuneration banding overall, they must then confirm that employer pension contributions have been included in the remuneration in column D for all FTEs in the banding. If employer pension contributions are not included, the trust must provide an explanation in column G – Comments to explain why this is the case
• once the trust has selected the total remuneration banding overall, they must then confirm whether other benefits if applicable have been included in the remuneration in column F for all FTEs in the banding

Use the on-screen help text when considering which staff fall within ‘Number paid as trustees’ and ‘Number paid as staff’ columns. It is uncommon for a trustee to be paid in their role as trustee – in most cases most trustees are paid as members of staff for example in their role as a headteacher.

Trusts should note that a staff member receiving remuneration above £60k and serving as a trustee should be disclosed in both this section and the staff emoluments disclosure (NEE). The banding emoluments selected in both sections should be the same as the requirements to include salary, employer pension contributions and other benefits are the same for both disclosures.

For completeness, trusts should enter the average number of non-staff trustees who are unpaid into category ‘Number of unpaid non-staff trustees’ (NUT010), for example, if an individual is identified as an unpaid non-staff trustee for 9 months during the 12-month accounting period, 0.75 (9 months/12 months) should be reported in NUT010 and not 1.

Off payroll arrangements

Where a trust has entered into (or continues to have) an off-payroll arrangement, please ensure you answer ‘yes’ in the questionnaire table in the overview section of the online form (Question 7) and then complete the off-payroll arrangement table in the SoFA – Staff and trustees sub-section.

An off-payroll arrangement is where an individual is paid for work completed not through the trust payroll; for example, they may be paid via a private service company. Note - this section is not intended to capture temporary staff paid by invoice via an employment agency or curriculum services such as peripatetic teachers. Further details are included in the help text for OPA010/OPA020 within the online form.

Balance sheet assets

This section includes:

Intangible fixed assets (IF)

Quick links - intangible fixed assets
6.1.1 Amortisation periods (IAP)

If a trust has included a note for intangible fixed assets (Academies model accounts: note 14) in its annual report and accounts, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 9 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table. The relevant intangible fixed assets tables will then be available for completion. If the trust has no intangible fixed assets, the question can be answered accordingly, and the table will not be visible.

The return requires separate disclosures of intangible fixed assets:

• additions
• transferred in on conversion of academies from Local Authorities/ in on conversion – elsewhere/ in on existing academies joining the trust/out on existing academies leaving the trust (where applicable)
• donations
• disposals
• revaluations
• reclassifications

Under the SORP, trusts should disclose software fixed assets in column A, all other intangible fixed assets should be disclosed in column B.

As well as the closing net book value (NBV), the SARA will also have to disclose the split of the NBV by the owner of the intangible fixed asset in the asset financing table, including assets owned by the trust, finance leased or on-balance sheet PFI schemes. All trusts should provide an analysis of their closing net book value accordingly.

6.1.1 Amortisation periods (IAP):

Trusts should enter the periods of the useful economic lives used to calculate the amortisation charges as disclosed in the trusts accounting policies note.

For example, if a trust’s accounting policy is to amortise software over 5 years, the value to be entered is 60 (5 years x 12 months).

If trusts have a range of periods for any single asset class, they should disclose both the lower and upper ranges in the rows provided.

Alternatively, if trusts use a reducing balance methodology for an asset class, they should enter the rate used in the row provided.

Investment assets (current and non-current)

If the trust holds investment assets, the AR preparer must ensure the correct asset types are available on the AR form for current and/or non-current investments. Asset types will be pre-populated in the AR form based on 2022/23 closing balances. Therefore, if the trust has new asset categories in year, the preparer must also select the appropriate asset type on question 10 for non-current investments and question 11 for current investments within the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table. Columns within the current and non-current investments tables will then be available for all relevant asset types for completion.

Two tables are provided for investments, one for non-current investments (longer than one year) (NCI) and one for current investments (held less than one year) (CUI). Both tables require the same level of disclosure and include two broad categories of investments:

• investments carried at market (fair) value
• investments carried at cost

The investment asset classes appear in more than one place as asset class can be accounted for under either cost or market value depending on the individual circumstances.

A summary of the assets that we expect to find within each asset class is given below:

Asset class	Description
Subsidiaries	Companies wholly owned by the trust but not included in the trust’s consolidated financial statements, which is why the shares held are recorded as investments. In addition, we would expect the subsidiaries to be limited by shares with all issued shares owned by the trust. Subsidiaries are only carried at cost.
Investment properties	Properties owned by a trust that are not used in the furtherance of their educational activities, such as rental houses and flats. Under SORP such assets can be carried at either cost (depreciated) or fair value (non-depreciated).
Shares	Shares held by the trust but not subsidiaries. These shares should be held for investment purposes (capital growth or dividend income). Therefore, these shares can be carried at either cost (unlisted private companies) but more likely at market value (listed public limited companies such as e.g. FTSE100 or FTSE250). In all cases the percentage of shares held will not be significant compared to the number the investment has issued otherwise the non-subsidiary classification would not be permitted.
Corporate bonds	Securities that operate in a similar manner to loans. A trust owning a bond will receive interest income (coupon) and on the maturity of the bond will receive the face value of the bond. Like shares, bonds can be either held at cost (generally issued by an unlisted private company without a secondary market) or at market value when issued by a public limited company.
Managed funds	Listed investment funds that allow investors to buy in by acquiring individual units. Temporary, uninvested cash balances held by the money manager should be classified as unit trust funds.
Cash term deposits	Bank accounts that have set maturities and often offer restricted access rights. For instance, a trust with surplus cash may want to use the surplus cash wisely by investing it until it is needed. Fixed term accounts often offer attractive interest rates since the banks know how long the cash will be deposited with them for. These bank accounts are accounted for as market (fair) value as the cash is effectively fair valued.
Other	A generic asset class for all other asset types held by a trust such as art, which could be carried at either cost or fair value; or derivatives, which are specialised financial instruments which are designed to perform specific tasks such as mitigate foreign exchange risk. All derivatives are carried at fair value.
Endowments	Endowments are not an asset class. Endowment refers to restrictions a trust may have holding and/or using the investment’s income stream. Endowments do not feature in SARA’s FReM-based accounts.

Tangible fixed assets (TF)

Quick links - tangible fixed assets
6.3.1 Asset financing	6.3.2 Depreciation periods per accounting policies (TDP and CAP)

The trust must select the asset types included in the tangible fixed assets note (Academies model accounts: note 15) in its annual report and accounts. Asset types will be pre-populated in the AR form based on 2022/23 closing balances. Therefore, if the trust has new asset types in year, the preparer must select the appropriate asset category/categories on question 12 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table. Columns for the relevant tangible fixed asset types will then be available for completion.

Trusts should complete the tangible fixed asset table using the following asset classification:

• freehold land and buildings
• leasehold land and buildings
• leasehold improvements
• plant and machinery
• furniture and equipment
• computer equipment
• motor vehicles
• assets under construction (AUC)

Trusts should note that a further split of the land and buildings figures at academy level will be required in the land and buildings tables.

The return requires separate disclosure of tangible fixed assets:

• funded through the Free Schools programme, priority schools building programme or school rebuilding programme, for example assets constructed by the DfE and transferred to the trust
• funded from other DfE Group capital grants
• funded from other sources
• transferred in on conversion of academies from local authorities/ in on conversion – elsewhere/ in on existing academies joining the trust/ out on existing academies leaving the trust (where applicable)
• donations from non DfE bodies
• disposals
• revaluations
• reclassifications

Any transfers of land and buildings which occur during the period should be disclosed as either a transfer in or a transfer out. The same treatment should be taken within the land and buildings section too.

As well as the closing net book value (NBV), SARA will also have to disclose the split of the NBV by the owner of the tangible fixed assets in the asset financing table, including assets owned by the trust, finance leased, or other occupation route, or on-balance sheet PFI schemes. All trusts should provide an analysis of their closing NBV accordingly.

Note that under SORP software has been reclassified as an intangible fixed asset and therefore should be disclosed under that heading.

6.3.1 Asset financing

If an asset under construction is donated and is not owned, finance leased or on BS PFI contracts then there is no requirement to disclose this information within the academies accounts return.

6.3.2 Depreciation periods per accounting policies (TDP and CAP)

Where there is a closing balance in the cost table for the asset, trusts are required to enter the periods of the useful economic lives used to calculate the depreciation as disclosed in the trusts accounting policies note, for example, if a trust’s accounting policy is to depreciate buildings over 50 years, the value to be entered is 600 (50 years x 12 months).

If trusts have a range of periods for any single asset class, they should disclose both the lower and upper ranges in the rows provided.

Alternatively, if trusts use a reducing balance methodology for an asset class, they should enter the rate as a whole number used in the field provided.

Where a trust has either freehold or leasehold land (but no buildings) they should insert the number ‘0’ into the single period or minimum of range (months) line and select the tick box to confirm that the value related to land in the validation that will be triggered.

There is a new requirement for trusts to confirm the minimum value above which they capitalise an asset, by asset type. If the value is between £500 and £2,000, the AR preparer should tick the relevant box. For a value over £2,000, the AR preparer is required to key the value into the field provided. This table should only be completed if the asset had a closing cost balance in the cost table

6.3.3 Revaluation of land and buildings

If an academy follows a policy of revaluation of tangible fixed assets, please disclose as defined in section 3.59 of the Academies Accounts Direction.

Land and buildings

This section includes:

Trusts are required to provide information in respect of their land and buildings to fulfil the DfE’s external audit requirements. These tables are in addition to the ‘Land and buildings collection tool’ (LBCT) return that trusts will have recently completed to identify all the land and buildings assets for each academy in the trust.

Any transfers of land and buildings which occur during the period should be disclosed as either a transfer in or transfer out. The same treatment should be taken within the balance sheet assets section too.

The figures disclosed within the land and buildings section should match the figures disclosed within the balance sheet assets.

For trusts who receive assets and/or incur liabilities for an academy school before they join or after they leave the trust, allocate changes in values to the ‘Centrally held’ table. The Land and buildings section for Single Academy Trust (SAT) will now be prepopulated with data entered by trusts in the tangible fixed assets tables.

Centrally held assets

Centrally held assets include balances held by the trust such as head office buildings which are not associated with any academy. The AR preparer should answer ‘Yes’ to Question 15 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table if the trust holds any such assets, the centrally held table will then be available for completion.

If all land and buildings assets are located at an academy site, answer ‘No’ to this question in the questionnaire.

If there is an opening balance within the centrally held section of land and buildings which relates to an academy, make an adjustment on the fields Adjustments made to opening balance. Adjustments made to opening balance.

Academies

In the balance sheet assets tables, the total tangible fixed assets values for the trust must be included. The land and buildings tables require a breakdown of this total for each academy in the trust.

This information enables the DfE to track movements at the academy level when adjusting for additions, disposals and impairments, and when commissioning valuations of individual academies. This data is also used when an academy moves in or out of a trust, as it enables the DfE to adjust valuations held for changes in the structure of a trust.

The values being asked for are for freehold land and buildings, leasehold land and buildings, leasehold improvements and assets under construction for each academy within the trust.

If for some reason there is an opening balance within the academy which relates to the trust centrally or to another academy within land and buildings, make an adjustment on the fields named Adjustments made to opening balance.

Land and buildings totals

All the information disclosed in the land and buildings totals tables should agree with the totals disclosed in the tangible fixed asset tab in the balance sheet assets section.

Note, if there are any inconsistencies between the data entered in the section and the data in any other sections, validations may be triggered on this table. As the totals table sums up the figures from the centrally held and academies tables, any amendments to clear the validations will need to be made on either the centrally held and/or the academies tables.

Balance sheet liabilities

This section includes:

For Commitment under PFI continue to section 9.

Creditors

If the trust has included a note for creditors, amounts falling due in greater than one year(Academies model accounts: note 19) in its annual report and accounts, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 16 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the appropriate column within the creditors table will then be available for completion.

All amounts owed, accrued or deferred by the academy trust should be included under this heading at their settlement amount. The amount owed must be split between amounts falling due within one year and amounts falling due after more than one year.

Loans

If the trust has any loans, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 17 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the loans tables will then be available for completion, however, if there are any opening balances bought forward from the previous year’s AR, question 17 will be greyed out and the table will already be available.

Balances owed on loans are brought together and analysed by loan movement (LMT) and loan maturity (LAN).

Loan movement reconciles the opening and closing balances on loans through providing details of new borrowing, repayments and interest charges. The loan maturity analyses the outstanding loan over time periods.

Salix loans should be recorded as Other (column C) in the loan movement table.

Loan interest paid to DfE group and to others is separately disclosed in the ‘charitable activities – support costs’ table within the SoFA menu (CAS220 & CAS230).

Provisions

If the trust holds any provisions, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 18 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the provisions tables will then be available for completion, however, if there is an opening balance bought forward from the previous year, question 18 will be greyed out and the table will already be available.

Whilst FReM requires an analysis of provisions by type, DfE is satisfied that provisions are immaterial to SARA, so the analysis is not required.

The department also requires a maturity analysis across the three financial reporting time periods provided, which are less than one year (PAN010), between one year and five years (PAN020), and greater than five years (PAN030). The totals here must agree to those in the provision class given previously.

Contingent liabilities

If a trust has included a note for contingent liabilities (Academies Model accounts: note 30) in its annual report and accounts, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 19 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the contingent liability table will then be available for completion, however, if there are any opening balances bought forward from the previous year, question 19 will be greyed out and the table will already be available.

To support accurate consolidation for contingent liabilities, the trust must supply details of movements under a list of common headings including potential repayment of grants, disputed invoices, contract termination costs and unrecovered fees. If none of those applies, then the ‘other’ heading should be used. Note that the return will ask trusts to provide sufficient description of the ‘other’ closing balance to allow DfE to understand the underlying issue.

It is not expected that trusts will have contingent assets.

Commitment under PFI

Quick links - Commitment under PFI
9.1 Scenario 1: Most likely – the academy trust gives the local authority a contribution towards their PFI	9.2 Scenario 2: Highly unlikely – the academy trust is the grantor on the PFI contract	9.3 Scenario 3: Unlikely – the academy trust gives the local authority a contribution towards their PFI but also has a secondary contract with private sector contractor for PFI

The flow chart below summarises the options for reporting PFI commitments within the academies accounts return and the guidance in this section below this chart provides more detail.

Note: It would not be expected that the same arrangement would be disclosed both as a non-cancellable contracts disclosure in boxes NCC10B to NCC030B and in the PFI liability table in boxes PFI010 to PFI030. For the purposes of completing the academies accounts return, report the arrangement in one place or the other in line with the guidance per the flow chart.

If the trust has a PFI arrangement where the academy trust is the signatory to the PFI contract, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 20 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the ‘Commitment under PFI’ table will then be available for completion within the balance sheet liabilities table heading. If ‘Yes’ is selected to question 20, then the AR preparer will be asked to verify this answer, as the local authority is the signatory in most cases.

PFI liabilities are required to be split between ‘Off-balance sheet PFI’ (column A) and ‘On-balance sheet PFI’ (column B). Should a trust’s PFI contracts have been deemed to be on-balance sheet, they will have recognised an associated liability for the future costs in ’Finance lease charges’ (CRD160).

Some academy trusts occupy premises which are subject to a private finance initiative (PFI) contract with a third party, private sector contractor. These PFI contracts exist where public sector bodies (in most cases local authorities) act as grantors to the PFI arrangement, that is the private sector body (the operator) is granted the right to construct and operate the infrastructure on behalf of the public sector. The DfE expects that in most of these cases the main signatory of the PFI contract and the owner of the freehold site will be the local authority making the local authority the grantor of the PFI contract, not the academy trust.

Three scenarios are provided below to aid trusts in reporting PFI commitments in the AR.

Scenario 1: Most likely – the academy trust gives the local authority a contribution towards their PFI

Accounts Return action in scenario 1:

Questionnaire > Question 20

• Does the trust have a PFI arrangement where the Academy Trust is the signatory to the PFI contract?
• Answer is No

The service concession contract (A) is between local authority and PFI contractor, so no disclosure is required.

Any expenditure on supporting agreements (B) should be disclosed as follows:

• SOFA > Expenditure > Support > PFI support costs to local authority > CAS210
• Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures > Other > Non-cancellable contracts > NCC010-B to NCC030-B
• Benchmarking > Expenditure > Professional Services - Other (PFI)

In most situations, academy trusts are not party to the service concession contracts themselves but do enter into supporting agreements with their local authorities.

Under the terms of such secondary agreements, academy trusts may be required to support their main PFI contract holder (their local authority) through making contributions to their costs, such as facilities maintenance, these costs should be expensed as incurred since there is no lease and/or asset recognised.

However, since the secondary agreement signed by the academy trust covers the same 25-year period as the PFI agreement, there are long term commitments which should be disclosed as part of the academy trust’s financial statements, but not as PFI liabilities.

Recognising the site as an asset:

• where academy trusts occupy sites that are managed this way, under a PFI held by the local authority, a useful indicator in whether to recognise the site as an asset on an academy trust’s balance sheet is to confirm with the local authority (the grantor) whether the local authority recognises the site as its asset
• where the local authority recognises the PFI site, at least for the duration of the agreement, consideration should be given as to whether it is reasonable for an academy trust to also recognise it as an asset applying the controls tests set out in FRS102
• where a local authority has recognised the site as an asset, and the academy trust has not, on completion of the PFI agreement we would expect the local authority to donate the site to the academy trust under the existing long-term lease and for it to then be recognised on the balance sheet. See diagram below to illustrate

Scenario 2: Highly unlikely – academy trust is the grantor on the PFI contract

Accounts Return action in scenario 2:

Questionnaire > Question 20

• Does the trust have a PFI arrangement where the Academy Trust is the signatory to the PFI contract?
• Answer is Yes

Any expenditure on service concession contract (A) should be included in:

• SOFA > Expenditure > Support > PFI service costs > CAS200
• Balance Sheet Liabilities > Commitments Under PFI contracts > PFI010 to PFI030
• Benchmarking > Expenditure > Professional Services – Other PFI

Scenario 3: Unlikely – academy trust gives the local authority a contribution towards their PFI but also has a secondary contract with private sector contractor for PFI

Accounts Return action in scenario 3:

Questionnaire > Question 20

• Does the trust have a PFI arrangement where the Academy Trust is the signatory to the PFI contract?
• Answer is No

The service concession contract (A) is between local authority and PFI contractor, so no disclosure required.

Any expenditure on supporting agreements (B) should be disclosed as follows:

• SOFA > Expenditure > Support > PFI support costs to local authority > CAS210
• Balance Sheet Funds and Other Disclosures > Other > Non-cancellable contracts >NCC010-B to NCC030-B
• Benchmarking > Expenditure > Professional Services – Other PFI

Balance sheet funds and other disclosures

This section includes:

Funds

Types of funds	Description
Restricted general funds	Comprise of funds (except fixed asset funds) received with restrictions imposed by the funder/donor and include grants from the DfE group. Within this section the information disclosed will be at the trust level. However, within the benchmarking section the restricted general funds will need to be disclosed per academy school.
Restricted fixed asset funds	Restricted fixed assets funds are resources which are to be applied to specific capital purposes imposed by funders where the asset acquired or created is held for a specific purpose.
Unrestricted income funds	This type of fund represents those resources which may be used towards meeting any of the charitable objects of the academy trust at the discretion of the trustees. Within this section the information disclosed will be at the trust level. However, within the benchmarking section the unrestricted income funds will need to be disclosed per academy school.

These tables require a breakdown of opening balances, incoming resources, resources expended, trust transfers, gross transfer between funds and other gains, losses and transfers.

Pensions

Quick links - pensions
10.2.1 Pension schemes	10.2.2 Pension finance costs	10.2.3 Major assumptions for pension	10.2.4 Other pensions disclosures

10.2.1 Pension schemes

Additional guidance can be found on the AR web page to assist trusts with completing pension’s disclosures which include:

• ‘Guide to pensions section of the Academy accounts return’
• examples mapping the ‘Actuaries reporting pension cost statements’ (also known as the results schedule) to the AR

Most of the pension disclosures are as required by SORP. For the purposes of the SARA, the different pension schemes need to be classified by scheme type (for example, defined benefit and defined contribution). Other than the scheme analysis, all other disclosures should be available from the trust’s financial statement pension disclosures or actuarial report.

There is an additional analysis of the SoFA pension charge to allow DfE to correctly aggregate the charges for the different scheme types. In addition, defined benefit SoFA charges will need to be analysed out between contributions payable for the period and the FRS17 adjustment.

Trusts are required to break down employer pension contributions further according to the scheme type in the pension commitments note. We expect that most trusts will only have two pension schemes: Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and a Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

10.2.2 Pension finance costs

The total of the ‘Breakdown of SoFA pension charge’ table (BPC050) under the ‘Balance sheet funds and other disclosures’ dashboard heading is validated against the pension costs shown in the ‘SoFA’ > ‘Staff costs’ table (STF060). The SoFA pension charge includes pension finance costs. Therefore, trusts need to include pension finance costs in the staff costs note, even if the trust has legitimately chosen not to include pension finance costs as part of staff costs in their published financial statements.

10.2.3 Other pensions disclosures

Trusts should note the required format of entering data differs from table to table. The data format is indicated against each row and column label requiring input. For example: fields within ‘Breakdown of SoFA pension charge’ table (BPC) specify entries in £000 whilst the ‘Employee contributions’ table (ERC) specifies entry as a percentage.

Related party transactions

If the trust reported RPTs in the note for related party transactions (Academies model accounts: note 33) in its annual report and accounts, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 25 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the related party transactions tables will then be available for completion.

Disclosures in these tables relate to transactions with related parties. The payments ‘To a related party’ table is to capture transactions where the related party has provided goods or services to the trust and the trust has paid them for those goods or services. The payments ‘From a related party’ table is to capture transactions where the trust has provided goods or services to the related party and the related party has paid the trust for those goods or services.

RPT trustee remuneration is captured in ‘SoFA’ > ‘Related party transactions: trustee remuneration’ table and should not be disclosed in this table, however, if a trustee received remuneration and also has other transactions with the trust, then these may appear in both sections.

This section should not include disclosures of transactions with government bodies, including DfE.

If the trust has no disclosable RPTs in either the ‘to’ or ‘from’ category, add a row and select the ‘no payments’ option from the dropdown list (RPV010 or RPF010) then click ‘Mark as complete’ to proceed.

Leases

Quick links - leases
10.4.1 Operating lease commitments (COP)	10.4.2 Finance lease disclosures

It would not be expected that the same arrangement (at the same values) appears in both the operating leases table and the PFI liabilities table. Each arrangement should be reported in one place or the other.

Furthermore, it would not be expected that the same arrangement (at the same values) is duplicated in both the operating lease table and the non-cancellable contracts table. Each arrangement should be reported in one place or the other.

For example, if any PFI arrangements where the Trust’s Local Authority is the signatory to the PFI agreement (see section 10, scenario 1) have been reported as operating leases in the trust’s financial statements, for the purposes of the annual return they should be excluded from the operating leases tables in the ‘Balance sheet Funds & Other Disclosures’ section of the annual return (COP0101 to COP030 and OLA010 to OLA090) and reported in the annual return in the ‘Non-Cancellable Contracts - Other Government’ fields (NCC010B to NCC030B).

10.4.1 Operating lease commitments (COP)

An operating lease is a lease in which rental payments (usually monthly) are made by the trust to enable use of an asset without acquiring ownership of that asset. It is a type of lease in which the contract period is shorter than the useful economic life of the asset. Costs associated with operating leases are classified as expenses, not assets as is the case with finance leases.

Under SORP, there is no longer any difference between the operating lease commitment disclosures required of academy trusts and those required by SARA. The remaining cost of a lease must be apportioned across time periods ‘Within one year’ (COP010), ‘Within two and five years inclusive’ (COP020) and ‘Over five years’ (COP030).

Example: Operating leasing commitment

Lease A (below) has ten years remaining with an annual cost of £10,000, so all three time periods would have disclosures relating to the lease: £10,000 in ‘within 1 year’; £40,000 for ‘2 years to 5 years’ and £50,000 for ‘more than 5 years’:

• lease A – 10 years remaining at £10,000 per year
• lease B – 4 years remaining at £5,000 per year
• lease C – 2 years remaining at £15,000 per year

Lease time period remaining	Lease A (£000)	Lease B (£000)	Lease C (£000)	Total (£000)
Within 1 year	10	5	15	30
Within 2 and 5 years	40	15	15	70
Over 5 years	50	-	-	50
Total	100	20	30	150

10.4.2 Finance lease disclosures

A finance lease (also called a capital lease) is a type of lease in which the trust has sufficient control over the asset and a substantial share of the economic risks and returns from the change in the valuation of the underlying asset. The lease will therefore run for most of the useful economic life of the asset.

The disclosures required for finance leases are similar to those required for operating leases. We do not expect there to be many trusts with finance leases as they are classed as a form of borrowing, but the disclosures are included for completeness.

Other

Quick links - other
10.5.1 Losses and special payments (LSP)	10.5.2 Agency arrangements (AA)

10.5.1 Losses and special payments (LSP)

Losses and special payments include items such as cash losses, claims abandoned, administration write-offs, fruitless payments, stock losses, gifts and special payments. Special payments are payments which may fall outside of the usual planned range of activity and may exceed statutory and contractual obligations. Examples include honoraria, ex-gratia, non-contractual exit payments, severance, termination, compensation or other payments.

If the trust made any losses or special payments, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 26 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire table’, the losses and special payments table within the ‘Balance sheet funds and other disclosures’ > ‘Other’ dashboard heading will then be available for input.

All bodies producing accounts under FReM are required to disclose losses and special payments under the terms of the HM Treasury publication Managing Public Money. The scope of the disclosure requires trusts to capture payments that fall into the categories provided for inclusion in the SARA.

It is important to note that any non-contractual element of the exit packages reported in the SoFA section must be reported here as a special payment. Settlements on court cases are only contractual if it is a court ruling, if it is settled during litigation this is considered non-contractual.

Non-contractual staff payments should be labelled as follows:

Non-contractual staff payment type	Action
Severance payments	Label as ‘non-contractual – severance’.
Restructuring/redundancy payments	Label as ‘non-contractual – severance’.
Compensation, for example. payment for damage to property/harm to a person	Label as ‘non-contractual- compensation’.
Ex gratia payments	Label as ‘non-contractual – ex gratia’.
Anything noted as ‘other non-contractual’ in the exit packages table	Label as ‘non-contractual – other’.

For more information regarding losses and special payments refer to:

• losses and write-offs – annex 4.10 of Managing Public Money
• gifts – annex 4.12 of Managing Public Money
• the Academies Trust Handbook, previously known as the Academies Financial Handbook

Details on when the loss or payment occurred (recognition date) should also be provided. If the payment or write-off has not yet occurred as at the balance sheet date, leave the ‘payment date’ cell blank.

10.5.2 Agency arrangements (AA)

If a trust has included a note for agency arrangements (Academies model accounts: note 34) in its annual report and accounts, the AR preparer must answer ‘Yes’ to question 27 in the ‘Overview’ > ‘Questionnaire’ table, the agency arrangements table within ‘Balance sheet other funds and disclosure’ > ‘Other’ will then be available for input. However, if there is an opening balance bought forward from the previous year, then question 27 will be greyed out and the table will already be available with the prepopulated balances.

This table captures any circumstances where trusts are managing/holding funds on behalf of others even when the trust has no discretion on how the funds are used. Under the SORP, trusts are required to disclose such funds in their accounts as a note for agency arrangements and the new table in the return is designed to capture the content of this note.

Transfers and conversions

This section includes:

A list of all academies within the trust is pre-populated in the ‘Academy information’ table where trusts are required to complete the status of each trust. Based on this, the return will create the relevant tables to be completed within the transfers and conversions section of the return.

The ‘Transfers and conversions’ tables aim to capture all assets and liabilities transferred into new academies from their local authorities or elsewhere in more detail. Similar information is captured for existing academies moving between trusts in the relevant sections. For MATs, the return will create a table to be completed for each relevant academy as identified in the academy information page.

Most transferred assets and liabilities are the land and buildings housing the school and the LGPS deficit. The level of disclosures presented in the financial return provides DfE with enough information to support its disclosures.

The total assets and liabilities transferred are validated against the ‘SoFA’ > ‘Transfers’ table. Tangible and intangible fixed assets and investments transferred are validated against the relevant categories as are pension scheme surpluses or deficits transferred.

Completion of this section is only required for the first accounting period after the academy transfers or the school converts. The balances disclosed should be those immediately after conversion or at transfer and not those as at the period end.

In period transfer in

There are several ways in which an additional school may be transferred into an existing academy trust, including:

• a constituent academy in a MAT moving to another MAT
• a SAT moving to an existing MAT, resulting in the SAT becoming inactive

Where an academy trust has become inactive due to its academies being re-brokered to another academy trust, we would expect both academy trusts to work together to produce the AR and financial statements of the inactive academy trust.

The transferring and receiving academy trusts should both account for the transfer in the same accounting period. Academy trusts should formally agree the same transfer date to apply. It is important for parliamentary accountability purposes for transfers not to be reported in differing periods by transferring and receiving academy trusts, as this leads to mismatches on consolidation.

Both sides of any transfer of an existing academy are required to present similar disclosures setting out the assets and liabilities transferred. Consequently, it is expected that both academy trusts involved in the academy transfer should formally agree the value of transferred balances.

If there is a mismatch between the net book value being transferred out and the fair value being recognised by the transferring in trust, both sides should be clear on what has transferred, and why there is a difference. This should be included in the adjustments column in the receiving trust.

Where there are transfer ins for the trust, the trust’s opening balances will not reflect this. any values relating to the transfer in should be reported in the fields labelled transferred in within the relevant tables.

In period transfer out

Academy trusts that transfer out academies should include a summary of the assets and liabilities that have been derecognised, reflecting the assets transfer agreed with the receiving academy trust within this page.

The transferring and receiving academy trusts should both account for the transfer in the same accounting period. Academy trusts should formally agree the same transfer date to apply. It is important for parliamentary accountability purposes for transfers not to be reported in differing periods by transferring and receiving academy trusts, as this leads to mismatches on consolidation.

Both sides of any transfer of an existing academy are required to present similar disclosures setting out the assets and liabilities transferred. Consequently, it is expected that both academy trusts involved in the academy transfer should formally agree the value of transferred balances.

Transfers on conversion

An additional school may be acquired by an academy trust through conversion (for example of a maintained school to an academy). For any newly converted academies, this page will ask you to summarise the value of all classes of assets and liabilities transferred on conversion.

Incoming resources and resources expended on conversion to an academy are shown in the SoFA. The SARA will have to provide extensive disclosures covering the entry of new trusts and new academies for existing trusts.

This section will also be used to support the production of a consolidated cash flow statement. The movement of opening to closing balance sheet items used in cash flow statements will need to be adjusted to reflect the ‘new’ assets and liabilities received by the sector through schools converting.

Benchmarking

This section includes:

Additional information is required at academy level so that the DfE can publish data that will help academies benchmark their financial performance. Academies can use tools such as View my financial insights and the Schools financial benchmarking to do this.

Watch this tutorial video for more details about benchmarking navigation.

Benchmarking navigation

Benchmarking overview

The accounting and disclosure framework underpinning the benchmarking return is not fully aligned with that which underpins a trust’s statutory financial statements. The divergence in terminologies and treatments generates differences between the financial return and benchmarking return elements of the AR. Consequently, we do not expect a trust’s retained surplus or deficit for the two returns to agree.

This guidance is supplementary to the ‘Help’ text within the online form. Therefore, both sets of guidance should be referred to when completing the benchmarking tables. Further information is also available to help trusts complete the benchmarking tables:

• Academies chart of accounts – the CoA structure and mapping tab shows what income and expenditure items should be disclosed under which benchmarking categories

If the trust is a SAT, most of the data will be prepopulated within the benchmarking section. These figures will be taken from other sections of the AR form. Refer to the chart of accounts document for help with mapping of figures from other sections of the form.

Completion of benchmarking tables

The benchmarking tables require a more focused analysis of staff costs, with different sub-categories to the SoFA. Notably, staff costs allocated as ‘leadership’ in the staff and trustees table within the SoFA should be included as ‘teaching staff’ in the benchmarking tables if they are also a qualified teacher, other leadership staff are likely to fall within the Administrative and clerical support category.

Any pension costs included are limited to employer pension contributions and cash payments made to reduce the pension deficit.

In addition to pension finance costs, all other non-cash items such as depreciation are to be excluded from the benchmarking tables. Capital spending must not be included in the benchmarking return.

For SATs, most data in the Benchmarking tables is pre-populated from the SoFA and Balance sheet funds and other disclosures sections. SATs will need to complete the remaining fields that have not been pre-populated.

The tables below set out how we have computed pre-populated benchmarking fields. This includes income, expenditure and closing balances.

SAT Benchmarking Tables- Income

• Grant Funding

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAI010	DfE revenue grants	(RGRTOT) - (RGR090 + RGR011 + RGR130 + RGR140 + RGR151 + RGR152 + RGR153)	RGR130 + RGR140
BAI011	16 to 19 Allocations	RGR011	No input required
BAI020	Other DfE Group grants (revenue)	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAI030	SEN	ORG010	no input required
BAI040	Other income	ORG020 + ORG030	no input required
BAI050	Grants for trust activity	RGR090	no input required
BAI060	Other grants	ORG040 + ORG050	no input required
BAI061	COVID-19 government funding	RGR151 + RGR152 + RGR153 + ORG041 + ORG042	no input required

• Other revenue income

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAI070	Government source (non-grant)	INC020 + INC050	no input required
BAI080	Academies	INC010	no input required
BAI090	Non- Government	INC030	no input required

• Self-generated income

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAI100	Income from rentals and lettings	OTA010	View help in AR
BAI101	Other income from facilities and services	OTA030	no input required
BAI110	Income from catering	OTA020 + INC040	no input required
BAI120	Receipts from supply teacher insurance claims	OTA040	no input required
BAI130	Other income - revenue	OTA050 + OTA060 + PBITOT	no input required

• Donations, investments, Funds inherited on conversions/transfers Contributions from Academies to Trust

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAI140	Donations and/or voluntary funds - revenue	DONS020	no input required
BAI150	Investment income	INVTOT	no input required
BAI160	Funds inherited on conversions/transfers	View help in AR	no input required
BAI170	Contributions from Academies to Trust	View help in AR	no input required

SAT Benchmarking Tables - Expenditure

• Staff costs

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAE010	Teaching staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE020	Supply teaching staff - extra note in guidance	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE030	Education support staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE040	Administrative and clerical staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE050	Premises staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE060	Catering staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE070	Other staff	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE080	Indirect employee expenses	CAD020	no input required
BAE090	Staff development and training	CAD030 + CAD040 + CAS030	no input required
BAE100	Supply-teacher insurance	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE110	Staff-related insurance	View help in AR	View help in AR

• Maintenance of premises & Other occupancy costs

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAE120	Maintenance of premises	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE130	Cleaning and caretaking	CAS090	View help in AR
BAE140	Water and sewerage	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE150	Energy	CAS130	View help in AR
BAE160	Rent and rates	CAS100 + CAS120	View help in AR
BAE170	Grounds maintenance	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE180	Other occupation costs	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE190	Special facilities	CAS080 + PBE020 + PBE030 + PBE050 + PBE060 + PBE100	View help in AR

• Educational supplies and services

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAE200	Learning resources (not ICT equipment)	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE210	ICT learning resources	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE220	Examination fees	CAD090	View help in AR
BAE230	Educational consultancy	CAD120	View help in AR
BAE240	Agency supply teaching staff	View help in AR	View help in AR

• Other supplies and services & Funding costs

Reference	AAR description	Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAE250	Catering supplies	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE260	Auditor costs	CAS270 + CAS280 + CAS290	View help in AR
BAE270	Other insurance premiums	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE280	Administrative supplies - non educational	View help in AR	View help in AR
BAE290	Direct revenue financing (revenue contributions to capital)	RFF070-T	View help in AR
BAE300	Professional services - non-curriculum	CAS250 + CAS260 + CAS261	View help in AR
BAE310	Professional services - Other (PFI)	CAS200 + CAS210	View help in AR
BAE320	Interest charges for loan and bank	CAS220 + CAS230 + CAS240	View help in AR

• SAT Benchmarking Tables - Closing balances

Reference		Academy-A	Teaching School-B
BAB010	Total revenue income	BAITOT-A	BAITOT-B
BAB020	Total revenue expenditure	BAETOT-A	BAETOT-B
BAB030	Closing balance (Restricted and Unrestricted Funds)	View help in AR	View help in AR

Non-teaching agency costs should be disclosed in the heading they relate to. For example:

• a trust may settle an invoice for using the service of a cleaner. In the benchmarking section, this cost would be reported under BAE130 – Cleaning and caretaking (academy) or BTE130 – Cleaning and caretaking (MAT central services).
• for ground maintenance this cost would be reported under BAE170 - Grounds maintenance (academy) or BTE170 Grounds maintenance (MAT central services.
• for security services this cost would be reported under BAE180 - Other occupation costs (academy) or BTE180 occupation costs (MAT central services

MAT central services table and academies table

Quick links - MAT central services and academies tables
12.3.1 MAT central services table	12.3.2 Academies table	12.3.3 Funds inherited on conversion or via transfer from an existing academy (BAI160)

12.3.1 MAT central services table

The income and expenditure for a MAT’s central structures and services should be allocated in this table except for of ‘DfE Revenue grants’ (BTI010) and ‘Other DfE grants (Revenue)’ (BTI020): all DfE grants must be allocated to individual academies in the ‘Academies’ table in the first instance.

Any GAG pooling/contributions from academy allocations towards MAT central costs should be included on the row ‘contributions from academies to the trust’.

MATs may provide services from their central service across their academies, often but not exclusively, funded by a contribution to the centre from each academy’s budget. Details of all central income and expenditure, and any retained reserves, should be recorded on the table for the MAT central services.

If the trust includes its subsidiaries within the consolidated financial statements, the subsidiary values should be included within the benchmarking tables. If the subsidiary is controlled by an individual academy, report the data alongside that academy in the academies table, if not, allocate to central services.

When producing the benchmarking information, the DfE will allocate central service costs across academies based on pupil numbers.

For transfers and conversions transactions outside of the accounting period in which the academy transferred/converted:

• pre-opening income and expenditure relating to an academy school which is going to open within the next period, should be included within the MAT central services table
• or post closure income and expenditure, relating to an academy school closed within the previous accounting period, should also be included within the MAT central services table

12.3.2 Academies table

In addition to benchmarking guidance above which also effects the ‘Academies’ table, note the following:

• trusts must report academy income and expenditure at individual academy level. The names of each academy within the trust are pre-populated within the ‘Select academy’ drop down box at the top of the screen. Select an academy name and complete the table generated for that academy, then repeat this process for each academy within the trust
• teaching school hub income and expenditure will also be reported separately in this table. Within the ‘Overview’ > ‘Academy information’ table the preparer must select ‘Yes’ for question ‘Is this academy school a teaching school hub?’ if appropriate for that academy. An additional column in Benchmarking and other related fields in the SoFA will then be displayed so that teaching school hub income and expenditure may be reported separately from the academy

12.3.3 Funds inherited on conversion or via transfer from an existing academy (BAI160)

For an academy classed as ‘in period transfer in’ in the Academies table, the value of revenue assets held by a predecessor school should include the ‘Value of current investments’ (TTI060-A), ‘Stock’ (TTI070-A), ‘Total debtors less than one year’ (TTIS14-A), ‘Debtors more than one year’ (TTI120-A), ‘Cash at bank and in hand’ (TTI130-A), ‘Total creditors less than one year’ (TTIS050-A), and ‘Total creditors more than one year’ (TTIS060-A).

For an academy classed as ‘newly converted member’, the value of revenue assets held by a predecessor school should include ‘Current investments’ (TNC060), ‘Stock’ (TNC070), ‘Total debtors less than one year’ (TNCS030),’Debtors more than one year’ (TNC120), ‘Cash at bank and in hand’ (TNC130), ‘Total creditors less than one year’ (TNCS050) and ‘Total creditors more than one year’ (TNCS060).

Note: the value for intangible fixed assets, tangible fixed assets, non-current investments (cost/fair value), provisions and pensions should be excluded in both above scenarios as capital items should not be disclosed on the benchmarking tab.

Benchmarking totals table

Data input into the ‘MAT central services’ and ‘Academies’ tables is summarised in the ‘Benchmarking totals’ table. Validation errors may be triggered in this table if the values input do not match data provided elsewhere in the AR. Refer to the validation help text and the mapping spreadsheet to help you understand the reason for any validations.

All the totals are prepopulated and cannot be edited. The total can be edited only by changing the cells which make up the total.

Note: if there are any inconsistency between the data entered in the section with data in any other related sections, validations may be triggered on this totals page. As the totals table sums up the figures from the MAT central services and academies tables, any amendments to clear the validations will need to be made on either the MAT central services and/or the academies tables.

Counterparty

Completion of the counterparty tables is necessary to identify transactions and balances between trusts and allow us to eliminate transactions within the academy sector.

Transactions and balances with other academy trusts should be reported under a single counterparty which will aggregate the sum of all balances with other academy trusts.

Privacy notices 

This section explains how the Department for Education (DfE) uses personal information in academy trust data collections. This includes information you give to us, or information that we may collect about you. 

We receive your personal data from the online forms you complete. This is part of the information telling us how your Trust budgets and spends its money.

The aim for this project is to provide an online service for Trusts to send their financial data to the department. 

This is a requirement from the HM Treasury to account for the spending of public funds. 

You can find out more about how we use your data in: 

Privacy information: education providers’ workforce, including teachers 

Privacy information: stakeholders