Hi Suzanne,

I work as an Accountant/Internal Auditor for a heritage organisation in the
UK.

Echoing Dan's posting and your reply, I would approach any updating of your
chart of accounts with extreme caution: it could end you up in a whole load
of trouble! I personally don't see any intrinsic difference in requirements
between this century and the back end of the last and the more you play
around with categories the more you lose the benefit of comparatives and who
wants to churn through prior years doing re-statements, unless legally
required to do so, as a result of a change in legal reporting requirements?

Using different categories for budgeting than for accounting sounds like a
recipe for disaster, I agree with you, Dan! I'm therefore pretty worried
that you say that "organizations frequently use different categories for
budgeting than they do for accounting" : that's not my experience this side
of the pond, anyway...

I think it's worth distinguishing in this discussion between "core" and "one
off" codes: your core codes should be kept as consistent year on year as
possible. For projects or activities of finite duration however, it may well
be worth setting up one off codes and those will be unique to each
organisation: however the trade off is that the more codes you have, the
more complex your analysis becomes, so tread with caution!

However, if the nature of your organisation's activities has changed
radically and your chart of accounts has not kept pace with that, then I
could see that as a good reason for revisiting them...

Hope that's some help.

Kind Regards,

Jerry Symonds - Senior Internal Auditor
Historic Royal Palaces
Surrey
England

Echoing
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "HHSDIRECTOR" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] chart of accounts


> Thanks. We're proceeding with caution, which is why we're hoping for other
> standards of comparison.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
> Of Dan Prives
> Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 4:28 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] chart of accounts
>
> Since one of the functions of the chart of accounts is to provide
> consistency in financial presentations over time, the idea of updating
> a chart of accounts is somewhat problematic.  It needs to be
> approached with some care.
>
> The process should include a restatement of prior years' financial
> results using the new chart, going back as far as the organization
> ususally does for planning purposes (say, three to five years).
>
> I've also found that organizations frequently use different categories
> for budgeting than they do for accounting.  If this is the case, how
> the new accounts relate to existing budget categories is another area
> that will need to be addressed.
>
> Regards,
> Dan Prives
> Where Most Needed
> The Charity Industry Blog
> http://www.wheremostneeded.org
>
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