Pension Fund Accounting and Reporting Training Course

Participants can maintain controlled fund accounting records and complete core period-end reconciliations.

• Fund accounting chart structure for contributions, benefits, investments, and expenses
• Accrual basis recognition versus cash movements in bank accounts
• General ledger controls: journals, approvals, supporting evidence, and audit trails
• Allocate administration costs using documented bases and governance approvals
• Reconcile administrator records, custodian statements, bank accounts, and ledger balances
• Period-end close timetable with ownership, dependencies, review, and sign-off
• Identify errors through suspense accounts, exception reports, and reconciliations

Participants can account for contributions accurately and investigate collection and allocation exceptions.

• Recognise employer and member contributions under scheme rules and due dates
• Test contribution completeness against payroll, remittance schedules, and membership movements
• Account for contribution receivables, late-payment interest, refunds, and write-offs
• Reconcile payroll deductions to cash receipts and individual member allocations
• Control AVCs, transfers-in, tax relief, and third-party remittances
• Investigate contribution exceptions using ageing analysis and root-cause categories
• Document contribution collection controls for trustees and external auditors

Participants can account for benefit payments, transfers and related liabilities using controlled processes.

• Validate retirement, death, transfer, and refund payments against authorised benefit rules
• Calculate defined contribution account values, unit prices, and transaction cut-offs
• Record defined benefit pension payments, commutations, and survivor benefits
• Process transfers-out using discharge documentation, settlement dates, and member records
• Separate accrued benefit liabilities from unpaid claims and administrative payables
• Reconcile benefit payroll to bank files, tax deductions, and member status
• Apply maker-checker controls to beneficiary changes and payment instructions

Participants can account for pension fund investments, income, costs and fair-value movements.

• Classify investment assets under IFRS 9 business-model and cash-flow tests
• Measure listed securities at fair value through profit or loss
• Use IFRS 13 valuation hierarchy for quoted, modelled, and unobservable investments
• Accrue interest, dividends, management fees, and performance-related charges
• Account for pooled funds, derivatives, collateral, foreign exchange, and corporate actions
• Reconcile custodian holdings to investment manager reports and general ledger
• Analyse realised gains, unrealised movements, income yield, and transaction costs

Participants can prepare IAS 26 pension plan financial statements and supporting note disclosures.

• Prepare statement of net assets available for benefits under IAS 26
• Present changes in net assets available for benefits clearly
• Draft notes for investment policies, related parties, and significant estimates
• Disclose funding policy and actuarial information for defined benefit plans
• Apply materiality judgements to aggregation, classification, and note disclosures
• Distinguish IAS 26 pension plan reporting from IAS 19 employer accounting
• Map financial statement line items to trial balance and disclosures

Participants can interpret actuarial information and communicate funding movements to trustees.

• Interpret actuarial valuation reports, funding assumptions, and contribution recommendations
• Compare discount rates, mortality tables, salary growth, and longevity assumptions
• Track funding level movements from investment returns, benefits, and assumption changes
• Connect actuarial liabilities to scheme accounts without conflating measurement bases
• Review going-concern assessments, recovery plans, and employer covenant evidence
• Report defined benefit funding risks to trustees using clear sensitivity analysis
• Reconcile actuarial data extracts with membership and payroll records

Participants can design and assess accounting controls that support trustee oversight and audit assurance.

• Design control matrices for contribution, benefit, investment, and reporting cycles
• Segregate duties between administrators, finance staff, custodians, and approval authorities
• Maintain audit evidence for estimates, reconciliations, valuations, and manual journals
• Assess operational risks through risk registers, control owners, and indicators
• Manage related-party transactions, conflicts registers, and trustee expense approvals
• Plan internal audit testing around high-risk assertions and control failures
• Respond to audit findings with actions, due dates, and accountable owners

Participants can prepare decision-useful trustee reports and controlled regulatory submissions.

• Calculate investment return using time-weighted and money-weighted methodologies
• Separate gross returns, fees, taxes, currency effects, and benchmark variance
• Analyse asset allocation, manager performance, liquidity, and concentration exposures
• Prepare trustee dashboards with funding, cash flow, membership, and investment metrics
• Explain material period movements through variance analysis and management commentary
• Produce regulatory returns from controlled source data and validation checks
• Set reporting calendars for trustees, regulators, auditors, and service providers

Participants can organise an annual pension fund reporting cycle and target priority process improvements.

• Build annual reporting plan from close milestones and statutory deadlines
• Prioritise reporting improvements using risk, effort, ownership, and timetable criteria
• Apply review checklists before trustee approval and financial statement issuance
• Coordinate auditor requests through evidence logs, status tracking, and escalation routes
• Document accounting judgements, policy elections, and unresolved reporting issues
• Create a personal implementation plan for the next reporting cycle