Finance

Local councils are required to prepare an ‘income and expenditure’ account and statement of balances in the format set out in the ‘annual return’ and this is completed on an accruals basis for a specific time period.

However, where a council’s gross income or expenditure is not more than £200,000 for the current year (or one of the previous 2 years) then it may instead simply prepare a record of ‘receipts and payments’. This is a much simpler form of accounting as it just records the ‘cash’ transactions when income is received and payments made.