Risks of Inaccurate Financial Reporting in Charitable Organizations, Companies and NPOs
Mohammed Yasin, CPA, CGA
1-23-2024
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In an ideal world, every charity, company’s and NPO’s financial reporting would always be 100% error-free. Financial statements contain vital information about an organization and company’s health, and internal and external stakeholders need to be able to rely on their accuracy to make critical stewardship, management, and investment decisions with confidence. Unfortunately, inaccurate reporting can sometimes occur, either due to unintentional error or — in the worst situations — deliberate fraud. Inaccurate reporting can have painful and costly consequences, including poor business and investment decisions, donation, regulatory fines, and reputational damage. Understanding the causes, risks, and ways to mitigate errors can help organizations and companies avoid financial reporting inaccuracies and the problems they can cause.
External stakeholders, such as members, investors, shareholders, and creditors, use a charity, company and NPO’s financial reporting to evaluate its financial health and creditworthiness. Other external shareholders Include regulatory agencies like the Canada Revenue Agency and banks, which require financial reporting for legal and compliance reasons. Internal stakeholders, such as charity’s President and company’s CEO and other top managers, use financial reporting to gauge performance and inform decision-making, and as a foundation for building budgets and projections.
Whether it’s used for external or internal reporting purposes, the underlying financial data must comply with accounting standards such as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), used in the Canada or the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), used in many other countries. External reporting of the core financial statements plus other required schedules and documents must follow strict guidelines defined by regulatory agencies and GAAP/IFRS reporting standards. Internal financial reporting typically includes the core financial statements but can also be customized to meet the needs of internal stakeholders.
How Does Financial Reporting Go Wrong?
Many financial reporting errors are accidental. Given the plethora of standards and regulations governing financial reporting, combined with the pressure for timeliness, it’s easy to see how charities, companies and NPO’s can make mistakes. But there are also examples of deliberately inaccurate financial reporting by unscrupulous characters. Whether unintended or not, errors in financial reporting can have serious consequences.
Causes of Inaccurate Financial Reporting
Many factors can contribute to inaccuracies in financial reporting, including staff, error-prone manual processes, and inconsistent accounting methods.
1.Inadequately trained or incompetent staff across charitable organizations and companies can directly and indirectly cause accounting errors.
2.Accounting personnel who are not up to date on accounting standards and regulatory requirements. GAAP and guidelines change frequently.
3.Manual processes. To err is human. Manual processes increase the likelihood of simple accounting mistakes, such as transposing digits, misplacing a decimal point, double-counting or failing to record an activity in a ledger.
4.Unclear communication between those setting accounting policy and those responsible for implementing it can cause errors. Examples of disconnects include misunderstandings about how to handle accounting estimates, such as reserves for possible bad debt.
5.Poorly integrated financial systems can create data havoc, resulting in errors through improper mapping of information between different systems and the need for manual intervention in the flow of data.
6.Inadequate review processes can result in errors slipping through, such as imbalances in intercompany accounts. This is often the result of poor time management, inadequate resources or misplaced priorities.
7.Inconsistent accounting methods among departments or subsidiaries can cause errors in financial statements.
8.Chart of accounts misuse. Incorrect treatment of transactions, such as miscoding an invoice in the accounts payable process or misclassifying expenses as revenue, are errors that can obscure financial reporting.
9.Fraud. Schemes in which employees deliberately misstate or omit information in financial statements.
Impact of Inaccurate Financial Reporting
Financial reporting inaccuracies can have far-reaching consequences for charities, companies and NPOs, as well as for investors and other external stakeholders.
1.Wasted time and resources. Charities, Companies and NPO’s can spend a significant amount of time trying to track down and fix financial reporting errors and dealing with the consequences. It’s frustrating for everyone involved and can lead to strained relationships, as well as job dissatisfaction.
2.Bad decisions. Inaccurate information can lead to poor decisions. This is especially important when it comes to internal financial reporting, which is often the basis of operational decisions, such as product pricing, as well as workforce hiring and firing decisions.
3.Fines and penalties. Inaccurate or late reporting can lead to penalties and fines from the CRA and local authorities.
Charitable Organizations
A registered charity must keep adequate books and records. A charity›s books and records must allow the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to:
•verify revenues, including all charitable donations received.
•verify that resources are spent on charitable programs; and
•verify that the charity›s purposes and activities continue to be charitable.
What are the responsibilities for properly maintaining books and records?
A registered charity is responsible not only for keeping books and records, but for maintaining, retaining, and safeguarding these records as follows:
•If the charity hires a third party to maintain its records, the charity is still responsible for meeting all requirements. Third parties include bookkeepers, accountants, Internet transaction managers, and application service providers.
•The charity should keep all its books and records in one area for easy access. This will make it easier for the charity in the case of an audit or when there is a change to the governing board.
•The charity should also keep copies of its books and records in a separate location (preferably off-site) for backup purposes.
•The charity is responsible for making its books and records available to CRA officials. These officials are authorized to inspect, audit, or examine a charity›s records, as well as make or have made copies of any records, including electronic records.
Inadequate books and records
•Keeping adequate books and records is essential to the sound financial management of a charity, builds trust with the donor community, and is necessary to maintain registered status. Adequate books and records allow the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to verify donations made to a charity and to ensure proper use of charitable resources. Inadequate books and records can range from minor oversights on the part of a charity, to very serious infractions, including records that are deliberately altered, destroyed, hidden, or not collected in order to conceal non-compliance.
Key Takeaways
Accurate reporting in financial statements and other documents is vital for internal and external stakeholders, who rely on the information to make critical management and investment decisions.
•Inaccurate financial reporting can be due to unintentional mistakes or, in some cases, fraud.
•The risks of inaccurate financial reporting include bad operational decisions, reputational damage, economic loss, penalties, fines, legal action and even bankruptcy.
•Charities, Companies and NPO’s can ensure accurate financial reporting by employing a network of internal controls, fortified by financial software that helps prevent and detect errors.
What are the consequences of improper record keeping?
• Failure to keep adequate books and records may result in the suspension of a registered charity›s tax-receipting privileges, or the loss of its registered status.
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