The year end and the charity

The year turns the board's year end into dated steps, and which ones depend on how the site is run (set in Settings):

• Its own registered charity or CIO: the accounts, the independent check the law asks for at the year's income, the Trustees' Annual Report, the AGM if your governing document has one, and the annual return to the Charity Commission within ten months.
• Part of a District's or County's charity: that charity files the accounts. The board's steps are the site's figures and a report on the year, by the number of months after the year end they ask for.
• A small unregistered charity: the accounts and their check, and a report on the year. No annual return, but the Charity tab says when income means you must register.

Give the year's gross income and the page says what check the accounts need: none below £25,000 (£40,000 for years ending from 30 September 2026), then an independent examination, a qualified examiner, or an audit. Set the AGM date and the steps count back from it. Tick each one as it's done, here or in a meeting's minutes: steps falling due before a meeting go on its agenda by themselves.

Charity lists what the charity reports and when, what it keeps (accounting records for six years), and what to do when things change, such as updating the Commission's register when a trustee joins. It has the steps to register and to get HMRC recognition for Gift Aid, and a register of where the paper originals are: deeds, the lease, the declaration of trust. Dates of birth and National Insurance numbers, which the Commission and HMRC ask for, are never kept here.