- Where Benefacts gets its financial data
- Converting analogue reports into digital data
- Where no financial data is available
- Benefacts accepts voluntary disclosures from nonprofits
- If this is your data
- Further questions, concerns
Where Benefacts gets its financial data
The financial information on the Benefacts website comes from the financial statements produced by nonprofits themselves, and made public by regulatory authorities.
Some of these nonprofits are companies established under the Companies Act, 2014. Some are incorporated by statute, and their accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. In the future, in either event, the financial statements of these nonprofits are a matter of public record.
In the case of companies, Benefacts (and anybody else) is able to view and download their financial statements on the website of the Companies Registration Office (CRO). In the case of publicly-audited bodies, we can access their financial statements from the Library of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Soon, the accounts of certain unincorporated charities will become a matter of public record when they are published by the Charities Regulatory Authority.
Converting analogue reports into digital data
As soon as they have been filed with the respective regulator or registrar, these documents are made publicly available as a digital image file.
Benefacts acquires these files, and re-keys financial and non-financial data from them into the Benefacts database. This source document is also published in the footer on the listings page of each nonprofit entity, as a means of assisting the public in understanding where the summary information presented on benefacts.ie has been acquired.
The data captured by Benefacts from each set of financial statements includes
Non-financial data
- The names of the companies’ auditors, bankers and solicitors
- Whether or not the company has used Charities SORP in preparing its financial statements
- Whether or not the accounts have been audited/are presented in abridged form (under the Companies Act, 2014, smaller companies limited by guarantee are now permitted to file unaudited and/or abridged accounts, with the agreement of their members)
- The average number of full-time employees in the period being reported on
- Whether or not the accounts are subject to any qualification by the auditors in making their report
Financial data
- All reported assets and liabilities (from the balance sheet)
- Total income and total expenditure for the current and prior year/period being reported
- An analysis of all reported income by source (from the income and expenditure report and the notes to the accounts)
- Reported expenditure on insurance and legal costs
- Directors’ emoluments if any
- The fees paid to auditors
Where no financial data is provided on Benefacts.ie
Sometimes, there are no financial statements published in the footer content of a nonprofit’s Benefacts.ie listing. This may be because:
1. The nonprofit entity does not disclose its financial statements on a public register
If the nonprofit in question does not provide its financial statements to a public regulatory source, then there will be no financial on their benefacts.ie listing. Only about half of the nonprofits in the Benefacts database are required by law to file their accounts with a public regulator. Read more about the nonprofit organisations in Benefacts scope.
2. The nonprofit is newly-established
The members of a new company are permitted to prepare their first set of financial statements for a period of up to eighteen months, and they required to make this return up to nine months after the end of the period being reported on. This means that a company may have been trading for 19 months before there is a set of financial statements available from the Companies Registration Office (CRO).
3. The nonprofit entity has elected to publish abridged financial statements
Since the Companies Act was updated in 2014, it is now permitted for smaller nonprofit companies (limited by guarantee) to file abridged financial statements so long as all their members agree to it. This means only their balance sheet is publicly available, and this does not yield enough data for financial analysis on benefacts.ie.
Benefacts accepts voluntary disclosures from nonprofits
If you are a nonprofit entity and would like to provide your audited financial statements for inclusion in your Benefacts listing on a voluntary basis, please contact us.
If this is your data
Benefacts captures data from many sources, including the financial data published by nonprofits via public regulators or registers. An extract is published on benefacts.ie, and the rest is aggregated and used for analysis in the “Explore” section of the website.
If you have any concerns about the quality of the data we have published about your organisation, please contact us straight away. We will discuss you concerns and, where relevant, may accept additional financial data for publication so long as this is accompanied by a letter from your Directors.
If you would like to receive a full set of the data we have collected about your organisation, contact us. We will ask for proof of identity – see our privacy policy.
Further questions, concerns
If you have concerns about how the financial data on benefacts.ie is collected, interpreted or presented, please contact us.