Reporting for your organisation

All organisations need to provide certain information to others about their activities, which is also known as reporting. This information usually describes your financial situation and/or how well your organisation is performing in other ways, such as the level of service you provide for your clients.

Some of your reporting will be done within your organisation to your management committee or members. Other types of reporting will be for those outside your organisation such the general public, funding bodies or the Office of Fair Trading.

Some information will be a legal requirement while other reports might be required as part of a funding or service agreement. You might also want to develop reports that are not a requirement but may improve the way your organisation works.

For all of your reporting, you will need to decide what information you need to collect, if there is a particular way that it needs to be provided to others and when it will be required. If you are unsure, you might need to check if you need to complete a special form or provide specific information for your reports.

Your organisation might need to provide some or all of the following reports:

  • financial reports
  • audit reports
  • annual reports
  • performance reports

Financial reports

The members of the management committee are responsible for how the organisation operates and this includes its financial management. The treasurer is responsible for helping the management committee to make good financial decisions by providing accurate financial reports in a way that everyone can understand.

Organisations with paid staff might be able to employ someone to prepare these financial reports, but the treasurer is responsible for ensuring that they are correct. The treasurer is also responsible for making sure that there are proper bookkeeping processes to allow the information to be collected.

A basic financial report would show the amount budgeted or estimated for that month and the year to date. It would also show the actual amount spent or received with an explanation for any amount that is much greater or less than expected.

It is important that the management committee has up-to-date information, so a financial report might be prepared for each management committee meeting each month, if possible. This will help the management committee to learn about any serious financial difficulties as soon as they occur and take any action needed.

If your organisation receives funding, the monthly financial report might also include income and expenditure for each funded program or project as well as amounts for the organisation as a whole.

Audit reports

Under the Associations Incorporation Act, the management committee will need to provide members with a financial statement for the financial year at each annual general meeting. This financial statement will include income and expenditure for the year, as well as a balance sheet that shows any assets such as cars and liabilities.

The financial statement is the responsibility of the treasurer who will need to make sure that it meets any special requirements of the Office of Fair Trading. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may also need to have your financial statements audited or checked by a qualified auditor.

After your (audited) financial statement have been accepted by your members at the annual general meeting, you will then need to send it within a certain amount of time to the Office of Fair Trading with your completed Annual Return form and the required fee.

Annual reports

Management committees will usually present an annual report to their members at the annual general meeting. This report describes the organisation’s main activities and achievements for the year. There is no required format for an annual report. You might decide to prepare just a few written pages or a much larger document.

An annual report allows members and others not directly involved such as the public or funding bodies to understand the work of your organisation in more detail.

Annual reports can include some/all of the following information:

  • organisation’s purpose and why it was started
  • management committee members
  • President’s report
  • Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) report
  • main activities and achievement for the year
  • planned activities for the following year
  • financial and other management committee reports
  • financial statements

Performance reporting

Most organisations will collect information about the services they provide, their administration and their management processes. By using good measures, you can learn how well you are using your resources and what you are achieving from year to year. You will probably also need to collect information about your organisation’s performance to ensure that you are meeting any legal or other requirements.

It is usually the role of the management committee and any paid staff in a management position to decide what measures that you will need to use, what information they provide and how to improve the performance of the organisation.

If your organisation receives funding, you might be required to provide reports as part of your service or funding agreement. These reports might need to be provided in a special format that will probably include some of the information that you already collect as well as additional information about the funded project or program.

Further information:

Note: You can access the following Department of Communities information by registering at the Management Support Online website.

Last updated 2008-02-21