Alternative reporting

Some corporations that have to lodge a financial report and an audit report with the Registrar are eligible for alternative reporting. This means that these corporations can provide the Registrar with the reports they give to their funding bodies along with some other information instead of a financial report and an audit report.

The CATSI Regulations say which corporations are eligible for alternative reporting. These corporations:

  • receive at least 90% of their income from funding bodies 
  • are required to give a funding body or bodies, one or more annual reports accounting for the expenditure of the funding by the corporation over the full financial year 
  • are registered as small or medium but earned less than $5 million in income 
  • are not required by the accounting standards to prepare consolidated financial statements for the financial year.

Corporations don’t have to prepare consolidated financial statements if they don’t control another entity like a subsidiary. 

If a corporation is eligible and choses alternative reporting, it does not need to seek permission from the Registrar.

The CATSI Regulations say that if a corporation is going to give the Registrar their funding body reports, they must give the Registrar all of the reports. They also have to give the Registrar:

  1. a copy of any audit reports of the funding body reports
  2. an income and expenditure statement for any income and expenditure that is not included in those funding body reports
  3. a balance sheet reflecting any assets or liabilities not included in those funding body reports
  4. a declaration by the corporation’s directors that:
    • is made in accordance with a resolution of directors and specifies the date of the resolution 
    • states if there are reasonable grounds to believe the corporation will be able to pay its debts when they become due and payable in the directors’ opinion 
    • is signed by a director of the corporation. 

This means that the corporation will need to also prepare and lodge:

  • an income and expenditure statement for any income that is not grant funding such as from selling goods or services
  • a balance sheet for any assets and liabilities that are not reported in the funding body reports, such as vehicles that are owned by the corporation or any loans the corporation has.

A corporation’s reports are published on the Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations and are available for the corporation’s members and stakeholders. 

The lodgement of these separate income and expenditure statement and balance sheet ensures that a corporation’s members have a full picture of the corporation’s financial story – not just that from funding bodies. 

If a corporation does not or cannot give all of these documents to the Registrar, it will need to lodge a financial report and an audit report instead.

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