Guidance

College accounts direction

Guidance for sixth form and FE colleges on preparing and submitting their annual report and financial statements ‘accounts’ to ESFA

From:
Education and Skills Funding Agency
Published
2 March 2017
Last updated
30 March 2022 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

College accounts direction 2021 to 2022

PDF, 336 KB, 29 pages

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Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email ESFA.GOVUK-ENQUIRIES@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

College accounts direction 2021 to 2022 (web accessible version)

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College accounts direction 2020 to 2021

PDF, 301 KB, 27 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email ESFA.GOVUK-ENQUIRIES@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

College accounts direction 2020 to 2021 (web accessible version)

HTML

Finance record for 2020 to 2021

Ref: Version 1.0 MS Excel Spreadsheet, 307 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email ESFA.GOVUK-ENQUIRIES@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Proposed timeline for upcoming college financial returns

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Letter to college accounting officers: August 2020

PDF, 85.5 KB, 2 pages

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Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email ESFA.GOVUK-ENQUIRIES@education.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

College accounts direction for the year 2021 to 2022

The college accounts direction for the year 2021 to 2022 sets out ESFA’s financial reporting requirements for further education and sixth form colleges.

The accounts direction outlines the requirements for each college to:

  • prepare audited accounts to 31 July 2022
  • submit accounts and associated documents to ESFA by 31 December 2022
  • publish accounts on the college’s website as soon as possible after signing but no later than 31 January 2023

Colleges must refer to the college accounts direction 2021 to 2022 when preparing their accounts.

If colleges have concerns about meeting the 31 December submission deadline they should contact their ESFA territorial contact as soon as possible and prior to the submission deadline.

Colleges, rather than their auditors, will need to submit all required documents by following the submission process below.

Finance record for the year 2021 to 2022

ESFA intends to issue an updated finance record for colleges to submit with their audited annual report and accounts for the college financial year 2021 to 2022. This will be published later this year.

Submitting your documents

The above documents should be submitted to the ESFA via the College financial data submissions portal.

Once a college has logged in they will be able to upload their documents by selecting the tile for ‘Annual financial statements return’. The four mandatory elements (audited financial statements, auditor’s management letter, finance record and the audit committee annual report) must initially be uploaded at the same time by colleges but can subsequently be resubmitted separately, if required. There are also options to upload subsidiary financial statements and additional supporting documentation if applicable. Colleges will receive email confirmation that their upload has been successful.

Further details are available within the submission portal. If the person responsible for submitting these documents does not have access to the IDAMS system they can request an account using the ‘I don’t have an account’ link on the login page.

Please complete ESFA’s online enquiry form if you have any questions about your submission.

Published 2 March 2017
Last updated 30 March 2022 + show all updates

  1. We have published the college accounts direction for 2021 to 2022. A full list of changes is provided in the summary.

  2. We have updated the Finance Record template and the proposed timeline for upcoming college financial returns.

  3. We have published the College Accounts Direction for the year 2020 to 2021. You can read the changes made to this document in the "What's changed in the 2021 edition" section.

  4. We have published an updated version of the finance record for 2019 to 2020. Details of the update are on the contents page of the finance record under ‘version control’.

  5. We have published the finance record for colleges to submit with their audited annual report and accounts for the college financial year 2019 to 2020, and version 2 of the college accounts direction. A list of changes made can be found in the document.

  6. We have published our proposed timeline for college financial returns during 2020 to 2021.

  7. We have updated this page to reflect the changes in deadlines for colleges to submit their documents to ESFA. The deadline for colleges to submit these documents to ESFA has now been extended to 31 January 2021. Colleges will then have until 28 February 2021 to publish their audited accounts on their website.

  8. We have published the college accounts direction for 2019 to 2020.

  9. Update to gov.uk page to provide colleges with details of the submission arrangements for the Financial Statements by the 31st December 19.

  10. We have published the college finance record template.

  11. We have published the college accounts direction for 2018 to 2019.

  12. We have updated the finance record template 2018.

  13. We have published the college finance record for 2017 to 2018, which further education and sixth-form colleges must complete and return to ESFA by 31 December 2018.

  14. College accounts direction for 2017 to 2018 has now been added.

  15. Updated section added Submitting your accounts and associated documents

  16. We've now published the finance record 2016 to 2017 template.

  17. First published.