Services

US GAAP Reporting For Universities.

Do you have American students studying at your university? If reporting thresholds relating to student loans are breached you may be required by the U.S. Department of Education to prepare financial statements under US GAAP.

US GAAP reporting.

With increasing numbers of US students completing or supplementing their higher education in the UK, there are important implications for how universities report their annual accounts.

All UK universities are obliged to publish an annual report and statement of accounts, as stipulated by Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the UK (UK GAAP). However, universities that offer places to US students may in some cases have to prepare financial statements under the US GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles) to be filed with the US Department of Education.

Get in touch

Reporting thresholds

The requirement to prepare financial statements under US GAAP only becomes mandatory if a university’s intake of US students has borrowed an aggregate of $3 million from the American government to fund its overseas study. A summary of the reporting thresholds is in the table to the left of this text.

Until recently, this only applied to a handful of universities in the UK, but due to the recent increase in the numbers of American students, more now find themselves in a position of needing to prepare US GAAP compliant financial statements in addition to their UK GAAP compliant financial statements.

Find out how we can support your finance team

Supporting universities with US GAAP

At Scrutton Bland, we have experience of working with UK universities and US GAAP, allowing us to compile accounts for universities with a large quota of American students. Our team also stays up to date with all changes to US GAAP regulations, which can impact universities’ annual reporting requirements.

By engaging Scrutton Bland to complete this process on their behalf, universities, and their finance departments, can save time and money that would otherwise be spent getting up to speed with the complexities of US GAAP. We will ease the burden placed on internal resources, allowing for an increased focus on the fundamentals of day-to-day operations. Universities will also benefit from added peace of mind that US filing deadlines will be met in a timely manner and communications with auditors will be managed efficiently.

Our specialist university team makes us unique among other advisory firms, both on a regional and national level. With our knowledge of higher education and the intricacies of accounting in the sector, including US GAAP, we are well positioned to assist universities that have a large cohort of US students, or may do in the near future.

The team

Meet the team.

View all team profiles

Chris Kelly

Corporate Finance Director

As a Corporate Finance Director Chris has over 20 years experience in helping local businesses.

Niall Decort

Corporate Finance Executive

Niall is a Corporate Finance Executive based in our Ipswich office.

Ben Gallington

Corporate Finance Manager

Ben works as an Corporate Finance Manager and is based in our Ipswich office.

Mark Smith

Corporate Finance Director

As a Corporate Finance Director, Mark has over 30 years of experience in managing financial transactions for businesses.

Luke Morris

Corporate Finance Partner

Luke is a Partner and leads our Corporate Finance team.

James Thurkettle

Corporate Finance Director

James works on business valuations, disposals and acquisitions, and specialises in US/UK GAAP conversion work in the education sector.

Alexandra Canham

Corporate Finance Manager

Alex is a manager within the Corporate Finance team.

“We engaged Scrutton Bland to complete the first year conversion of our UK Financial Statements into the required format for US GAAP, which were also subject to audit. We found Scrutton Bland, especially James and Ben, to be responsive; pragmatic and knowledgeable, consequently our Financial Statements were delivered on time with Scrutton Bland dealing with all audit queries.”

Queen Mary University of London

By your side.

At Scrutton Bland, you’ll always have at least two points of contact, so that you can get in touch with the team and receive the highest level of service. Meet our team.