ACAD 4.1 – Schedule of Professional Services: Assurance Opinion on the August 2018 Accounts Return
This schedule should be read in conjunction with our standard terms and conditions of business. The purpose of this schedule to our engagement letter is to set out the basis on which we are to provide an Independent Reporting Accountant’s Report in connection with the requirements outlined in guidance published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. This schedule also outlines the respective responsibilities of the trustees and the firm (Fawcetts LLP) in respect of this assignment.
These terms and conditions apply to the report to be provided for the period ended 31 August 2018.
1 Responsibilities of trustees and the firm
1.1 Preparation of the Accounts Return in accordance with the requirements set out in the guidance issued by the Education and Skills Funding Agency will be your responsibility, as the academy trust’s trustees. You will also be responsible for ensuring that the academy trust maintains adequate accounting records. You will, on request, supply us with confirmation of matters affecting our work which are dependent upon your judgement as trustees.
1.2 The completed Accounts Return must be approved by the academy’s accounting officer prior to the submission of our report.
1.3 Save as set out within the scope of our work section below, we will not seek to establish the accuracy, completeness and reliability of any of the information or documentation made available to us. We have not been instructed to carry out an audit of the Accounts Return, and the procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, we do not express an audit opinion on the information presented in the Accounts Return.
1.4 Our audit work on the financial statements of the academy is carried out in accordance with our statutory obligations and is subject to the terms and conditions outlined within the ‘Schedule of professional services: Audit of the financial statements’ which forms part of this engagement letter. Our engagement in respect of the Accounts Return assurance report will not be treated as having any effect on our separate duties and responsibilities as the academy’s external auditors.
1.5 To the fullest extent permitted by law we do not and will not, by virtue of our reports or otherwise, assume or accept any duty of care or liability under this Accounts Return engagement to the academy or the Education and Skills Funding Agency or to any other party, whether in contract, negligence or otherwise in relation to our audit of the academy’s financial statements.
2 Scope of our work
2.1 We will conduct relevant work in order to issue a conclusion in accordance with guidance issued by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The conclusion sets out whether the information in the Accounts Return is consistent with the academy trust’s audited statutory financial statements for the period ended 31 August 2018 and where appropriate has been properly extracted from the academy trust’s financial records and presented in the Accounts Return in accordance with the guidance notes issued by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
2.2 Our report will be in the format as published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Our report is not to be used for any other purposes or disclosed to any other person without our prior written consent. We consent to the report being provided to the Education and Skills Funding Agency though to the fullest extent permitted by law we owe no duty of care to the Education and Skills Funding Agency and we will not be liable to Education and Skills Funding Agency, Department for Education, National Audit Office or any other parties for any reliance they choose to place upon the report.
2.3 You may have also asked us to help you prepare the Accounts Return in accordance with guidance issued by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. We will compile the Accounts Return for your approval based on the audited financial statements, the accounting records maintained by you and the information and explanations given to us by you. In carrying out this work we will make enquiries of management and undertake any procedures that we judge appropriate.
2.4 We have agreed that, under this engagement, we will not perform an audit or any verification procedures other than those which are set out within this scope section. If we were to perform additional procedures or if we were to perform an audit of the Accounts Return or any other more limited review, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you.
2.5 Our work will be based on the assumption that information provided to us by the management of the academy is reliable and, in all material respects, accurate and complete. We will not subject the information contained in our report to checking or verification procedures except to the extent expressly stated. This is normal practice when carrying out such limited scope procedures, but contrasts significantly with, for example, an audit. Even audit work provides no guarantee that fraud will be detected. You will therefore understand that the services are not designed, and are not likely, to reveal fraud or misrepresentation by the management of the academy trust. Accordingly we cannot accept responsibility for detecting fraud (whether by management or by external parties) or misrepresentation by the management of the academy.
3 Limitation of liability
3.1 Our services as set out above are subject to the limitations on our liability as set out in the paragraph included within our standard terms and conditions of business. These are important provisions which you should read and consider carefully.