Has your entity put in the work required to be ready to put its best foot forward when the gun goes off? I certainly hope so!
So, what is PBE FRS 48, what does it require and where should you go for further information?

What is PBE FRS 48?

PBE FRS 48 Service Performance Reporting establishes new requirements for Tier 1 and 2 public benefit entities (PBEs) to select and present service performance information. Reporting service performance information is an important way for PBEs to let their stakeholders (i.e. funders, volunteers, donors, clients and service recipients) know what they set out to achieve and how they have performed.

Key terms and requirements

• Service performance information - information about what an entity has done during the reporting period in working towards its broader aims and objectives, together with supporting contextual information
• Contextual information (para 15 (a)) - information about why the entity exists and what it intends to achieve over the medium to long-term
• Information on what you have achieved during the reporting year (para 15 (b)) - this doesn’t have to cover all of your entity’s activities, however it should include your main activities and link to your longer-term objectives
• Disclosure of judgements (para 44) - you need to disclose the key decisions you made to determine which information you report, in what detail and how this information is presented
• Performance measures - qualitative (i.e. satisfaction measures) and quantitative (i.e. number of goods and services delivered) measures that demonstrate what your entity has achieved. These should be relevant to your stakeholders, able to be reliably measured and reported and understandable, comparable and verifiable.

Key Dates

Build your team

We often get asked, who should prepare the Statement of Service Performance?

Probably the quickest answer is ‘anyone but the accountant’. Your Statement of Service Performance should report quite broadly on how your entity is performing and what is seeks to achieve in the longer-term. As such, your board, trustees and management team should be involved in discussions on what you decide to report. If you have a communication specialist on your team or someone with experience in this area, it would be great to get them involved early on too, to help frame up the best way to report this information so that it is engaging to read.

Another key person to include on your "Service Performance Reporting (dream) team" is your auditor. Service Performance information needs to be auditable, and it is definitely a good idea to talk to your auditor early on in the process to ensure that information you are intending to report will "pass muster". As an ex-auditor I assure you that your auditor is likely to have some good ideas of what you should (and possibly shouldn't) be reporting so make sure to reach out to them early on.

Ones to watch

For the last few years, CA ANZ has been running annual Charity Reporting Awards where, just like the Olympics, those who have been at the top of their game have been publicly recognised. For 2021 the awards went to the following entities:

If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at how these entities have reported their performance for some ideas. The Annual Reports and Performance Reports (for Tier 3 and 4 entities who have been required to report service performance information since 2015) can all be found on the Charities Register.

Where can you find more information?

We have prepared an information sheet on Service Performance Information. 

The XRB has also prepared a comprehensive guide to help entities adopt this new standard. You can find this guide on the XRB website here. The guide includes examples to help illustrate how this information can be reported.

At Baker Tilly Staples Rodway, we are passionate about helping charities report their performance information and have a lot of experience in doing so. If you would like some help in preparing your first ever SSP please get in touch. We would love to be part of your team to make this happen.