How do I change to from Receipts & Payments to Income & Expenditure in Scribe?

Income & Expenditure (I&E) accounting is obligatory for councils with a turnover of £200,000 or more for at least three consecutive years. For smaller councils, this approach is optional, but some may choose to use it in order to include adjustments (accruals, prepayments, etc.) in the accounts at Year End.

Scribe operates on a Receipts & Payments (R&P) basis throughout the year, providing the option to convert to I&E at Year End when completing the annual return. Therefore, all functionalities within Scribe remain the same except for the options displayed under the Year End menu.

If you decide to transition from R&P to I&E in Scribe, please follow these steps:

1. Navigate to menu Account → Council Profile and select 'Income & Expenditure' under Accounting Type. Click Save to update this change, and the Year End menu displayed will now switch to Income & Expenditure.
   
   

2. Navigate to Menu Setup → Restate Last Year. Having updated to I&E, some additional tabs will appear here, requiring completion for the Year End reports (e.g., the Balance Sheet) to run:

   • Funds: Enter the total to be shown in Box 7. Under R&P, the figure in Box 7 is the same as in Box 8, but under I&E, it is adjusted for the VAT figure and any adjustments. If VAT is owed back to you, add this to your Box 8 figure to get the Box 7 figure. If you want to display totals for Capital or Earmarked Reserves on the Balance Sheet, enter the relevant figures and ensure the total of the three boxes equals the total entered in the Balances Carried Forward field at the bottom of the screen.

   • Assets: Unlikely to require completion but will update the Balance Sheet with figures for Work in Progress or Temporary Lendings if entered.

   • Adjustments: Enter totals of any adjustments for the previous year if required.

   • VAT: Enter the opening VAT balance here as shown under Menu Setup → Bank Balances except that if it's owed back to you, it will be a positive figure (i.e., not have a minus sign in front of it).
     
     

3. Navigate to Year End and run Calculate to update the reports with figures you have just entered. (When working in I&E in Scribe, always ensure you run Calculate before viewing Year End reports as they are not automatically updated like the other reports in Scribe). A message should appear to say that the calculations have been completed successfully. If an additional message appears stating your accounts do not balance, then something has been incorrectly entered under Restate Last Year (point 2 above).
   
   

4. If you receive an error message when calculating, it may be helpful to run the Balance Sheet as this will allow you to calculate the difference and then identify where the error lies.

When do I need to move from Receipts & Payments to Income & Expenditure?

If your gross income (Boxes 2 + 3) or gross expenditure (Boxes 4 + 5 + 6) has exceeded £200,000 for three consecutive years, you must complete the AGAR on an Income & Expenditure basis in the third year.

You don't need to wait until Year End to complete the process detailed above. Once the decision has been made to switch, you can update your account on Scribe - as Scribe only converts to I&E at Year End, nothing in your day-to-day use of Scribe will change.

What Happens to My Receipts & Payments Year End Data?

If you have submitted a year end in Receipts & Payments and then choose to update to Income & Expenditure, all your R&P data will not be lost - the annual return you see will depend on the Year End menu that you choose to access it through. If you update to I&E and then switch back to R&P, Scribe will ignore any adjustments you have entered, so you would still be able to view the annual return on an R&P basis.