Oldham Community Accountancy
Service
A guide to the Statement Of Financial Activities (SOFA)
Overview of the SOFA
The SOFA is a single accounting statement that shows all incoming
recourses and resources expended:
 By activity;
 By fund.
At a minimum it should show:
 Where resources came from;
 What they are spent on;
 Different types of fund separately;
 Comparative for previous years.
The standard format for a SOFA is set out by the Charity Commission in
their Accruals Accounting Pack (Ref: CC17(a)) which is available from the
Charity Commission website.
Basically the SOFA details all the income and expenditure of the Charity
over the course of the financial period and is used for organisation
preparing accruals accounts
Incoming Resources
This section of the SOFA details all the income (money generated) in the
year. Within the SOFA your charity’s income will be analysed into a
number of categories, detailed below is a description of what income
should go in each category:
Category
Voluntary Income
Activities for generating
funds
Investment income
Description
This includes income which is given to the
charity on a voluntary basis. This will include:
 Gifts and donations
 Grants for general purpose
This includes income generated by activities
with an aim to raise funds for the charity.
This will include:
 Fundraising events
 Shop income
 Providing any goods or services that
are not within the charitable objectives
This will include any bank interest or
dividends received from investments.
Incoming resources from
charitable activities
Other incoming resources
This includes income generated by activities
carried out in achieving the charities
objectives. This will include:
 Grants to be used in undertaking the
charitable objectives
 Providing any goods or services inline
with charitable objectives
This will include any income that does not fall
within any other category.
Resources Expended
This section of the SOFA details all the expenditure (money paid out) in
the year. Within the SOFA your charity’s expenditure will be analysed into
a number of categories, detailed below is a description of what
expenditure should go in each category:
Category
Costs of generating
voluntary income
Fundraising trading costs
Investment management
costs
Charitable expenditure
Governance costs
Other resources expended
Description
This includes all the costs incurred in raising
the voluntary income.
This includes all the costs of performing the
activities to raise funds for the charity. For
example any costs of organising a fundraising
event.
This will include any management fees your
have to pay for any investments.
This includes all expenditure incurred in
carrying out the charities objectives.
This includes any costs of the general running
of the charity, i.e. costs incurred even if the
charity carried out no activities. This will
include:
 Legal & Professional Fees
 Accountancy Fees
 AGM Costs
This will include any expenditure that does
not fall within any other category.
Charities Under the Audit Threshold
Charities that are under the audit threshold, i.e.:
 Gross income less than £500,000, and
 Gross assets less than £3,26m
can choose to analyse their income resources and resources expended by
using either:
 The “activity” categories (as set out in the Charities SORP,
explained above); or
 A “natural” classification
The “natural” classification analyses income and expenditure into
categories that you will be more comfortable with such as Salaries, rent,
light and heat, etc. Detailed below is an example of the categories that
could be used with the “natural” classification analysis:
Incoming resources:
Donations
Fundraising Events
Shop Income
Bank Interest
Fees for Charitable Services
Grants
Resources Expended:
Wages & Salaries
Rent & Rates
Insurance
Repairs & Maintenance
Light & Heat
Telephone & Internet
Printing, Postage & Stationary
Legal & Professional Fees
Bank Charges
Restricted and Unrestricted Funds
Whichever way you choose to analyse incoming resources and resources
expended you will have to remember to split restricted funds from
unrestricted funds, ensuring you match the restricted income resources
with the restricted resources expended.
For more information on restricted and unrestricted funds, please see the
“A guide to reserves” fact sheet available on the website.
For more help and information
Please contact Oldham Community Accountancy Service
Tel: 0161 652 2344; E-mail enquries@ocas.org.uk
Website: www.ocas.org.uk