Data Collections Financial Accountability

The Acquittal Certificate is updated for approved authorities in receipt of funding under the Schools Upgrade Fund (Targeted Round).

When completing Acquittal Certificates, qualified accountants need to ensure funding received under this measure is correctly captured and reported in the relevant table. 

Additional columns have been added to the Block Allocation Summary to allow approved authorities for more than one school to report how much funding under this measure was allocated to schools last year.
 

The FA collection has 2 parts:

• the Acquittal Certificate
• the Block Allocation Summary.

About the Acquittal Certificate

The Acquittal Certificate is an assurance declaration provided by a qualified person to:

• confirm the total amount of recurrent funding received by the approved authority from the Australian Government
• provide assurance that the funding was spent, or committed to be spent for the purpose of providing school education.

About the Block Allocation Summary

The Block Allocation Summary is applicable where an approved authority operates more than one school. The Block Allocation Summary reports the funding distributed to each school.
 

An Acquittal Certificate is required by all Approved Authorities in receipt of financial assistance from the Australian Government under the Act.

Only an independent accountant can submit a Financial Acquittal Certificate for an approved authority. To be recognised as a qualified accountant, you must be one of the following:

• a qualified accountant as defined in the Corporations Act 2001
• a person registered (or taken to be registered) as an auditor under the Corporations Act 2001
• person approved by the Minister for Education as a qualified accountant.

A statement about the qualified accountant’s independence from the approved authority is included with the Acquittal Certificate declaration.

There are 2 types of Approved Authorities that must complete a Block Allocation Summary:

• Approved Authority Collectives
• Approved System Authorities.

An Approved Authority Collective is a body that operates more than one school not recognised by the department as a System Authority. This type of body must distribute funding to schools as directed by the department and cannot retain any funding for administrative purposes.

An Approved System Authority is a body that operates more than one school recognised by the department as a System Authority to re-distribute funding per a needs-based funding model. This type of body may retain funding for administrative purposes.

Only users with Data Reporter or Authorised Representative roles for an approved authority can access or complete the Block Allocation Summary.

For step-by-step instructions on accessing, submitting and reviewing your FA reporting, refer to the FA user guide for accountants or approved authorities.

The FA collection is due on 30 June annually.

All FA financial data must relate to the previous calendar year. For example, the 2023 FA collection refers to data from 1 January to 31 December 2022.
 

School education means relating to provision of school education (foundation to year 12) at a school. Please refer to the Use of Recurrent funding guide for further information.

Funds are spent when paid.

An approved authority commits to spend recurrent funding where:

• an authority has entered into a new legal arrangement under which the authority will be liable to pay an amount; or
• an amount will become due or payable under a liability under a law of the Commonwealth or a State or a Territory that the authority is required to meet; and
• the payment is not yet payable.

Examples of 'spent' would include payments made in the year of funding for school staff salaries, school rent, internet charges or electricity. An example of a commitment to spend would be entering a new contract for stationery, but the stationery had not been delivered to the school by 31 December. The amounts spent or committed must be related to school education.

To find out more about Commonwealth financial assistance for schools, please refer to the Australian Education Act 2013.

To find out more about the reporting requirements for schools, please refer to the Australian Education Regulation 2013.

To find out more about schools funding in Australia, refer to the Funding for schools page on the Department of Education website.

You can save and print the Acquittal Certificate and Block Allocation Summary after submission.

For step-by-step instructions to print or save, refer to the FA user guide for accountants or approved authorities.
 

For step-by-step instructions about completing your FA reporting, refer to the FA user guide for either accountants or approved authorities.

For assistance with completing the FA collection, call the SchoolsHUB helpdesk on 1800 677 027. Available Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm (AEST).