As a long standing user of MRI Software’s component accounting software, Shropshire Rural Housing Association (SRHA) has most recently turned to its supplier for assistance with the transition to FRS 102. With limited resources available to the association, it was crucial to enlist MRI’s services in order to ensure a timely and smooth conversion to meet the latest audit requirements.
Founded in 1975 and with 6 full-time and 1 part-time staff in employment, SRHA is a small charitable organisation which specialises in providing appropriate and affordable housing for rent in the rural areas of Shropshire. The association, which is based in Shrewsbury and registered with The Homes and Communities Agency, completed its first housing scheme at Hadnall in 1982, building 10 bungalows and has since grown steadily, now owning 272 properties throughout the county.
SRHA has been using MRI’s software since the introduction of component accounting under SORP 2010 and during this period has benefited from not only time saving efficiencies and detailed reporting but, crucially, compliance with the latest regulations.
Given the volume of work required to facilitate the move to FRS 102, SRHA decided to ask MRI to provide support throughout the process. Rachael Fullwood, Financial Accountant at SRHA comments, “The time saved by appointing MRI to complete the conversion was extremely valuable to SRHA. It would have taken several weeks for me to personally model the conversion in Excel and enter the data manually into the system. Being a small organisation, that is time and resource we could not afford to spare.”
Fullwood continues, “Having recently undergone the conversion of the data held within MRI’s system for the move to FRS 102, we are now able to report both before and after results. Most importantly, the association can clearly identify the impact on the accounts, enabling us to show our lenders the direct effect on the covenants applied to loan facilities.”
In terms of the process involved, MRI began by reconciling the data and produced reports proving that the figures before and after the conversion had remained unchanged for existing assets. Supporting reports were also provided to demonstrate that no change had taken place when the new FRS 102 Property Grant was excluded from the database, as well as confirmation that the grant was written out successfully as part of the conversion. Verification of the closing balance for the new grant items labelled ‘FRS 102 Property Grant’ was then provided.
MRI took SRHA through the entire reconciliation process, providing peace of mind that the Net Book Values (NBV) generated by the system were correct and that they met with SRHA’s expectations. It also reconciled the Gross Book Value (GBV) back to SRHA’s opening position for 2012/12 for non-grant components and produced the GBV closing position for 2014/12, deducting acquisitions and disposals between 2013/01 and 2014/12 to arrive at this figure without issue.
Fullwood comments, “MRI’s assistance with this task has been invaluable to SRHA, making each part of the process completely stress free. In particular, to simplify running reports to exclude the old and new grant, MRI created new user codes for Asset Type, Component, Opening Grant and FRS 102 Grant. The user code utility was then used to map existing items to Asset Type based on their current component type, which enables us to report more effectively going forward.”
With MRI’s support, SRHA has now successfully completed its conversion to FRS 102 and has received high praise from its auditors in making such a smooth transition.
Fullwood concludes, “Our working relationship with MRI is second to none. It provides an excellent product, excellent customer service and excellent technical support and I can highly recommend both the product and its team to other housing associations.”