Academies Accounts Direction, Financial statements and Coketown

Accounts Direction

The Academies Accounts Direction is used by academy trusts, their auditors and reporting accountants to prepare and audit financial statements for the accounting period ending on 31 August annually.

In addition to the Accounts Direction, two further documents have been published:

1. a model set of accounts for academy trusts (known commonly as the “Coketown model”)
2. an auditor framework and guide, primarily for use by academy trust external auditors and reporting accountants.

The primary users of this Direction will be those involved in the preparation of the annual report and financial statements. It is also relevant to accounting officers, external auditors and reporting accountants of academy trusts.

Financial Statements

The financial statements are submitted via the online coversheet, found here: https://form.education.gov.uk/service/asc

The link below to the guide explains how to submit your academy trusts audited financial statements, auditor’s management letter and your annual summary internal scrutiny report to the DfE.

Academies accounts direction 2024 to 2025

It is important that you provide us with accurate information on the coversheet. We use the information you provide from your audited financial statements, auditor’s management letter and annual summary internal scrutiny report, to understand any significant issues faced by your trust and the sector more widely.

This is part of our assurance framework for the use of public money. The benefit of you using the accounts submission coversheet is to enable us to provide more timely feedback on our findings, supporting your trust and the sector more widely.

Additionally, you may find a saved copy of your submitted coversheet useful to give to your board of trustees, as it provides a summary and highlights key areas of interest.

Coketown

Academies model accounts 2024 to 2025

These model accounts help academy trusts to see what the accounts should look like.

This document contained within the above links has the same contractual status as the Direction, as compliance with both documents is a requirement of an academy trusts funding agreement.

As a single company, academy trusts must produce a single set of accounts combining the results of all the academies within the academy trust. Where academy trusts with multiple academies are required to make specific additional disclosures, these are also included. In other disclosures, it is expected that all narrative included is applicable to all component academies.

Last updated on 04 November 2025 15:53