CONTENT HUB

YOUR SAY REVIEWS

“Though the work is efficiently done communication is not as good as it should be. Often emails are not responded to and require reminders which we find very frustrating. CP should introduce a service level requirement that correspondence is at least acknowledged within 48 hrs max and should aim for 24hrs.”

“The audit manager was off sick during the audit and there was no communication for a couple of week. Then this has caused the delay of the audit and consequently the board meeting had to change a couple of times. However, the board meeting still took place before the deadline of ESFA submission deadline.”

“I never give 5 stars as there is always room for improvement. The 4th star has been omitted as I am still waiting for my year end journals in order that I can close the financial system for the old financial year 20/21 (we are now into month 6 of 21/22). I liked Inflo and the interaction on teams with your junior members who were really keen and friendly. We were appreciative of Andy visiting in person to present our accounts to the governing body. Responses to our emails are very slow, this could be improved greatly.”

“areas as previously shared including, lateness of information coming back to us / some communication issues / lack of communication and information prior to audit week due to your staffing issues.”

“Ultimately I think the audit was fine, but I know Covid impacted the team and our experience. Illness can always be a problem and so it is worth having some resilience. But the ultimate management tool is communication, and I’m not clear that worked as well as it might. “

“The actual audit itself was good. The issue is to keeping to deadlines. We have not received the final, clean version of the audit (financial statement and management letter) until the day of our governing body meeting. This was similar to the previous year.”

“The level of service has not been so good over the last year. I think this is a combination of staff who know our school leaving and covid”

Would have been 3.5 stars if could. Why that number – Audit, good partner and senior manager support, audit team the usual issues – different team members asking for info that has already been provided, asking the same question a week later when there has been a change in team members. Would be nice to have the same team throughout the audit as opposed to chopping and changing all the time and not knowing who is coming and when. Tax – no problems except with the billing system!!

“Generally helpful and proactive approach from the team. Improve by drawing bigger issues to a prompt close.”

“We have generally had a good working experience of CP and found their engagement and professionalism of a high standard. Unfortunately, due to absences caused by Covid infections at CP, a critical deadline has been missed which has had the potential to affect the reputation of our organisation. It is, however, recognised that this is an external pressure outside of the control of CP. “

“Always received support when asked. Last year one of your colleague recommended a provider for Data Protection Internal controls which went really well”

“I value the conversations and the advice received from CP. They have developed a deep understanding of our Trust situation and provide challenge and support appropriately. This year end was disappointing due to delays in receiving final audit documentation (COVID related) which had a knock on effect on the Trust’s financial reporting and gaining approval from the Finance committee and FGB for year end sign off..”

“We are always appreciative of the support/service Cooper Parry provide. Due to Covid we did have a little difficulty with staff absence at CP for our year end accounts but we did get there in the end. We have, over the years, enjoyed face-to-face contact with CP; this has proved invaluable, building relationships for our knowledge and understanding and resolving any issues and process we have needed support with. It would great to get back to a hybrid of virtual and onsite collaboration again. “

“We always manage to hit deadlines for audit, Accounts and returns but only just and I know the Board would welcome more time to review accounts prior to agreement. Audit adjustments are not always clear and communication on reasons is sometimes very slow. At one school, there is a background conversion between our PSF nominals and your audit ones so a mapping exercise so that we can see exactly which of our nominals you are referring to in your groups is critical in us understanding and looking at differences in order to answer questions on the accounts. Communication can be quite slow. The Inflo tool is amazing and works really well for all of our schools.”

“1) Done well: Audit of the 2020-21 financial statements completed on time, including the submission of both the financial statements and the AAR to the ESFA by the set deadlines! We really enjoyed welcoming back the audit team on site (20% of fieldwork time), as it greatly facilitates the audit process and helps to answer audit queries efficiently. We value the fact that the Audit Director is very knowledgeable about our SAT. We very much appreciate how friendly and approachable the Cooper Parry Team are. 2) How to improve: This year, due to the long-term absence of the Audit Manager (communicated to us fairly late), the whole audit process was stretched to the 11th hour, causing added stress to both the Finance Team and our Governors (including the Accounting Officer). From our perspective, it often felt like we were a small SAT for Cooper Parry, perhaps a long way behind larger MATs in terms of priorities. Next year, we are looking forward to completing earlier submissions to the ESFA with the support of Cooper Parry. On another note, we liked working with Inflo (a big improvement on the year before), except that all Finance Team members experienced cases of missed notifications from Inflo.”

“Audit process with no central BST team was vexing, as I kept being asked for things I knew nothing about and was sure my CFO had already sent before leaving the academy trust. Due to the workload of the CP team there can sometimes be a delay in responding to urgent queries. Apart from that, we love you!”