Academies Financial Handbook 2014 Published

As academies and their advisers gear up for August 2014 year ends, they will need one eye on upcoming changes outlined in the recently released Academies Financial Handbook 2014, which becomes effective on 1 September 2014.

Academies Financial Handbook 2014, published by the Education Funding Agency, updates the financial framework for academies for the 2014/15 academic year. Further to making changes to the ordering and clarity of requirements from previous editions, there are quite a number of changes that academies will need to be aware of as they enter the new academic year.

For example (and as would be expected), connected party transactions is an area where enhanced rules introduced in the 2013/14 year have been revisited and refined. There are some interesting new rules relating to the content and website publication of members' and trustees' relevant business and pecuniary interests. There is also the introduction of a de minimis threshold of £2,500 which, in part, relaxes the 'at cost' connected party transaction requirements that many academies have struggled with this year.

To find out more, the updated handbook which includes an extensive and comprehensive list of all changes can be found here.

I'll be taking a more detailed look at the key changes in our academies update courses and conference in September. Also keep an eye out for our webinar on the subject later this year.