Guidance

Academies chart of accounts and automating the accounts return

Financial data structure and guide for automating academy trust financial returns.

Applies to England

Documents

Academies chart of accounts 20252024 to 20262025

Academies chart of accounts 20242023 to 20252024

Details

This

Academies guidanceaccounts isreturn for academytrusts trusts.

using automation

The academies chart of accounts isreturn the(AR) Department2023 forto Education’s2024 (DfE)submission standarddeadline forhas financialnow datapassed.

Trusts that underpinshave not submitted will still be able to access the academies accountsform return anduntil budgetFriday forecast28 return. March 2025 when it will become read only.

The ‘guideAR 2023 to adopting2024 thewill academiesremain chartavailable ofto accounts’trusts explainsin howread toonly usemode.

AR theand academiesfinancial statements login

Introduction to the chart of accounts.

accounts

The ‘academiesacademies chart of accounts’accounts spreadsheets(CoA) provideis the accountDepartment codesfor andEducation’s show(DfE) howstandard theyfor mapfinancial todata DfEthat underpins the academies AR’s financialand returns.budget forecast return (BFR).

Introduction to automation

TheUsing ‘accountthe codesacademies guidance’CoA, showsDfE whathas shoulddeveloped beautomation includedtechnology into help reduce the accountburden codes.

Youof cansubmitting useyour automatedfinancial information. This technology enables you to electronically submit your trial balance data directly from theyour academiesfinancial chartmanagement ofsoftware accounts(FMS) directly to DfE., Wewhere it will then usebe itused to pre-populate:

  • pre-populate a large percentage of your accountsAR, return
  • draft financial statements
  • one thirdand ofBFR.

    If you are thinking about upgrading your financial management system so you can use automation, you should review the budgetinformation forecaston return

Choosing a trust’s financial management system.

Introduction to draft trust financial statements

TheTrusts ‘detailedthat usersend guide’automated anddata ‘quickto automationpopulate guide’the explainAR howcan also use this worksdata andto howproduce an auto-populated draft trust financial statement. The template is also available to doview it.on this page and can be used for manual population.

YouFor canmore useinformation, see the ‘draftQuick trustautomation financialguide statementand template’section to6 populateof the documentDetailed manually.user guide for automating the academies AR and draft financial statements.

Webinars, workshops and Q&A sessions

We hostare now hosting our webinars and dial-in sessions on Eventbrite. You can view plannedthe sessions currently planned and book your space at at DfE academies academies chart of accounts and automation.

Further

Examples enquiries

Academies chart of accountssessions orwe automation

run include: 

For

  • introduction queriesto about the academies chartacademies ofCoA accountsand orautomation
  • dial-in automation,sessions contactthroughout usthe viayear 
  • academies the customerCoA helpmapping portal.workshops 
  • automation-focused Putwebinars eitherwhile ‘Academiesthe chartAR ofform accounts’is orlive 
  • technical ‘Automation/APIacademies CoA atupdates during the topsummer 
  • webinars oftailored yourto enquiry,auditors 
  • FMS ascomparison appropriate.

    matrix teach-ins

Financial

You managementcan softwareview provider

Forthe DfE power querieshour session on academies CoA that we delivered in September 2023 if you wish to find out more about financialthe managementacademies softwareCoA providers,and contactautomation uswithout viawaiting our supportto service.attend a webinar. This information is still relevant.

Updates

You can also view the Academies CoA technical updates video, which details the 2024 to 2025 updates and actions for trusts.

On this page

Published

This 14page Mayincludes 2019

Lastthe updatedfollowing 13attachments:

  • a Junequick 2025 guide href="#full-history">+for showacademy alltrusts updates
    1. Addedthe 'Academiesacademies chartCoA, which includes a summary of accountsupdates 2025since the previous version

    2. 2 academies CoA spreadsheets for financial years 2023 to 2026'2024 and 'Academies2024 chartto of2025; accounts:you accountshould coderefer guidanceto 2025the ‘information’ worksheet to 2026'.find Removedout 'Academiesmore chartabout the structure of accountsthe 2023CoA
    3. a tospreadsheet 2024'providing andguidance 'Academiesfor charteach ofincome accounts:and expenditure account code guidancewithin 2024the toacademies 2025'.CoA
    4. 2 Updateduser 'Guideguides tofor adoptingautomating the academies AR: one quick guide and one detailed guide
    5. the draft trust financial statements template

Further enquiries

Academies CoA enquiries

If you have further questions about the CoA, you should contact us using the customer help portal. You should put ‘Academies chart of accounts'.accounts’ at the top of your enquiry.

Automation enquiries

If you have further questions about automation, you should contact us using the online customer help portal. You should put ‘Automation/API’ at the top of your enquiry.

FMS provider enquiries

If you have further questions about FMS provider enquiries, you should contact us using our Zendesk helpdesk.