SORP 2026 — the updated rulebook for how charities prepare accruals accounts — applies to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026. It does not apply at all if your charity does receipts-and-payments (cash) accounts. If you do accruals accounts, the size of the change depends on your tier — Tier 1 (income up to £500,000) sees the least, and the main new duty for every tier is an honest paragraph on your charity's impact. A separate reform of audit and examination thresholds starts 30 September 2026 (England and Wales only) — don't confuse the two dates.
What is SORP 2026, and who publishes it?
SORP 2026 was published on 31 October 2025 by the Charities SORP-making body — a joint committee of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Scottish regulator OSCR, and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI), with its accounting rules approved by the Financial Reporting Council. It's the updated version of the Charities SORP, the standard that tells charities how to prepare accounts on an accruals basis (recording income and costs when they're earned or owed, not just when cash moves).
It's a UK-wide document — the same start date and the same rules apply whether your charity is registered in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.
Does this even apply to your charity?
Work through these three steps in order. Most trustees can stop at step one.
Step 1 — do you do receipts-and-payments (cash) accounts? If yes, stop here: SORP does not apply to your charity at all. Cash-based accounts record money in and money out as it happens, rather than accruing income and costs — and because SORP is a standard for accruals accounting, it simply doesn't reach cash accounts. Whether your charity is still eligible to use cash accounting is a separate question, set by your regulator, not by SORP.
Step 2 — if you do accruals accounts, which tier are you in? SORP 2026 introduces three tiers, based on income, so that reporting is more proportionate to a charity's size:
- Tier 1 — income up to £500,000
- Tier 2 — income between £500,000 and £15 million
- Tier 3 — income over £15 million
Step 3 — what changes for your tier. The higher the tier, the more detailed the new requirements. All three tiers pick up the impact-reporting change below; Tier 2 and Tier 3 charities are more likely to be affected by the lease and contract-income changes too, simply because they're more likely to have material leases or service contracts.
The what-changes-when timeline
Four dates matter here, and they're easy to run together. Keep them separate:
- 31 October 2025 — SORP 2026 is published.
- 1 January 2026 — SORP 2026 starts applying, to accounting periods starting on or after this date. Anything starting before stays on the current SORP.
- 30 September 2026 — a separate reform of the audit and examination thresholds takes effect, for accounting years ending on or after this date (England and Wales only — see below).
- Your charity's own first affected year-end — worked examples:
- Year-end 31 March: the period starting 1 April 2026 is your first under SORP 2026, so your first SORP 2026 accounts cover the year to 31 March 2027.
- Year-end 31 December: the year that began 1 January 2026 is already your first affected period.
The difference between "starting on or after" and "ending on or after" is exactly why the two 2026 reforms get confused. SORP cares when your accounting period begins. The threshold reform cares when your accounting year ends. Work out your own two dates before you worry about either.
The three tiers, and what each actually has to do
Tier 1 (income up to £500,000). The simplest tier, and the one most small charity boards will be in. The impact-reporting change below applies to you; leases and contract-income rules are less likely to bite if your charity doesn't hold significant leases or exchange-based service contracts.
Tier 2 (income £500,000–£15 million). Everything Tier 1 has, plus a higher chance that the lease and income-recognition changes are material to your accounts — worth raising directly with your treasurer or examiner.
Tier 3 (income over £15 million). The fullest reporting requirements, including the lower cash-flow statement threshold described below.
Headline changes trustees should know
Impact reporting is now a "must" for every tier. Under the outgoing SORP, describing your charity's impact — what difference your activities actually made — was "encouraged." SORP 2026 makes it a requirement for all three tiers. This is a genuine tightening, not a rewording: your trustees' annual report needs a real paragraph on impact, not a passing mention.
Leases move onto the balance sheet (the summary of what your charity owns and owes). Under a new accounting module, most operating leases — office rent, vehicles, equipment — now have to appear there as assets and liabilities, rather than being treated as a simple annual cost. If your charity leases anything of size, expect your balance sheet to look different, with both assets and liabilities higher than before. This is an accounting presentation change your treasurer and examiner will handle; your job as a trustee is to know it's coming so the numbers don't alarm you.
A five-step method for recognising income from service contracts. If your charity has income from exchange contracts — for example, being paid to deliver a service, as opposed to receiving a grant or a donation — there's now a structured five-step method for working out when that income counts as earned. This one is squarely an ask-your-accountant item; it doesn't touch grant or donation income.
A new disclosure area: ESG. The trustees' annual report now has a new element covering how the charity responds to and manages environmental, social, and governance matters. There's no verified rule yet that says exactly what each tier must include here — treat it as a new section to be aware of, not a fixed checklist to complete tonight. No action is needed from you tonight.
And a longer tail of smaller changes. The official summary of changes also covers areas like reporting on volunteers and how the reserves figure is presented — refinements your preparer will work through rather than duties landing on you. If you want the full authoritative list, it's the SORP-making body's own summary-of-changes document (linked in the sources below); the four changes above are the ones most likely to reach a trustee's meeting agenda.
Don't confuse this with the other 2026 change
A second, separate reform is landing in the same year, and it is not SORP. It's a DCMS-led change to the accounting thresholds, and — unlike SORP itself — it applies in England and Wales only. It takes effect for accounting years ending on or after 30 September 2026:
- Independent examination required above £40,000 income (was £25,000)
- A professionally qualified examiner required above £500,000 income (was £250,000)
- Receipts-and-payments accounts permitted below £500,000 income (was £250,000)
- A full audit required above £1.5 million income or £5 million in assets (was £1 million income / £3.26 million assets)
- The same £1.5 million audit threshold applies to group accounts (was £1 million)
Notice the direction of travel: every threshold has gone up, which means more small and medium charities become eligible for the lighter-touch options — cash accounting, examination rather than audit — not fewer. If you're currently just over one of the old thresholds, it's worth checking whether the new ones move you into a simpler regime.
Keep the two reforms mentally separate using their dates: SORP starts 1 January 2026, for periods starting then. The threshold reform starts 30 September 2026, for years ending then, England and Wales only.
Your trustees' annual report — still yours to approve
Whatever SORP 2026 changes in the detail, one thing doesn't move: the trustees must approve the final text of the annual report, and one or more trustees must sign and date it. That's the board's job, not the accountant's — you can delegate the drafting, but not the approval.
Under the current rules (before the September 2026 threshold changes take effect), a charity with income under £500,000 and assets under £3.26 million can prepare a simpler trustees' annual report, and a charity with income under £25,000 only has to send it to the Charity Commission if asked. Those figures apply now; the threshold reform above will move some of them later in the year, so date whichever version you're relying on when you check it.
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Mistakes to avoid
Panicking over a reform that doesn't touch you. We see this often: a trustee reads "the new SORP" somewhere and assumes it's another compliance burden landing on the whole board. If your charity does receipts-and-payments accounts, it genuinely isn't — the first, calmest question to ask is which type of accounts you prepare, before reading any further.
Leaving it all to the treasurer and never asking a single question. SORP's mechanics are the treasurer's and examiner's job, but the board still approves the annual report, and "which tier are we in?" is a fair question to put on a meeting agenda once, not a technical one.
Conflating the two 2026 dates. SORP from 1 January 2026 and the DCMS threshold changes from 30 September 2026 are different reforms with different scope — one is UK-wide, the other is England and Wales only. Getting the dates and the geography mixed up is the single most common confusion in this area.
Frequently asked questions
Does SORP apply if we do receipts-and-payments accounts? No. SORP only governs accruals accounts. If you do cash-based receipts-and-payments accounts, check with your regulator whether you're still eligible for that — but SORP itself doesn't touch you.
When is our first affected year? The first accounting period starting on or after 1 January 2026. If your year-end is 31 March, that's the year ending 31 March 2027. If your year-end is 31 December, it's the year that began 1 January 2026.
Do we need to hire an accountant because of SORP 2026? Not because of SORP alone — putting the new rules into practice is your preparer's job. The trustee's job is one question to the treasurer: which tier are we in, and do our leases or contracts change anything?
Is the new SORP the same as the audit-threshold changes? No — two separate reforms. SORP 2026 starts from 1 January 2026, for accounting periods starting on or after that date. The DCMS threshold changes start from 30 September 2026, for accounting years ending on or after that date, and only apply in England and Wales.
What should trustees ask the treasurer or examiner? Three things: which tier we're in, whether we have leases that now need to go on the balance sheet, and whether the trustees' annual report already has an honest paragraph on our impact — that's now a must, not just encouraged.
Does a small charity below the audit threshold need to care? If you do accruals accounts: yes, lightly. Tier 1 is the simplest tier, and its biggest change is the impact paragraph in your annual report. If you do receipts-and-payments accounts: honestly, no — SORP doesn't apply to you at all.
SORP 2026 itself applies UK-wide, from the same joint Charity Commission (England and Wales), OSCR, and CCNI body, on the same date everywhere. The DCMS threshold reform described above applies to England and Wales only — Scottish and Northern Irish charities should check their own regulator's guidance on audit and examination thresholds separately.
Want to keep the decisions behind your accounts somewhere the examiner can find them? See what your charity minutes should include and running your first trustee board meeting. Or browse the full guides library and try it with your board.