Charity Commission saves a bundle with online returns

The Charity Commission has revealed an online service to handle the submission of annual returns from 169,000 charities is saving the body £425,000 per year.

The Commission, which acts as a regulator and registrar for charities in England and Wales, was tasked with increasing the take up of online services in the sector in 2006.

It outsourced the project to online specialist Parity to provide a portal that would allow charities to file returns securely online and distribute information to them, based on data in each return.

The site has saved a substantial administration and paper cost overhead with more than £180,000 saved in reduced printing and postage costs, and £250,000 in reduced admin headcount and saving 18,000 man-hours per year - or around eight full-time posts.

Last year, the site was used for 70 per cent of all annual financial returns by UK registered charities.