Completion of SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position
This form must be completed on an annual basis by all trustees of Small APRA Funds (SAFs) and Single Member Approved Deposit Funds (SMADFs).
If a superannuation entity has no items to disclose, the form can be left blank as D2A recognises blanks as zeros; however it is still required to be submitted as part of the annual return.
Note: All forms included in the SRF 300 series should be submitted together as an annual return, not individually as separate forms.
Purpose
This form collects specific financial information on the financial position of the superannuation entity. Information reported in this form is important, as it forms part of APRA’s monitoring and analysis framework for individual superannuation entities and the industry.
This Guide has been prepared to assist in the completion and lodgement of SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position. For ease of use, the Guide has been split into three main sections as follows:
Lodgement and validation of and changes to SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position;
General guidance – this guidance provides principles that should be applied to all items throughout SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position; and
Instruction guide for specific items – this guidance should be applied to the specific items which relate to each superannuation entity.
Lodgement and validation of SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position
Lodgement and authentication codes
This form must be completed and lodged to APRA by a corporate or natural ‘person’ (trustee director or administrator), and not by the superannuation entity as the entity is not a ‘person’.
Once SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position has been completed and submitted to APRA, an authentication code is generated in D2A from information entered into the form. The authentication code and date submitted appear in the footer of each page of the return (‘return’ equates to all 8 forms). Any change of information entered or resubmission of the return will result in a change to the authentication code. The authentication codes and date submitted should be used by auditors to determine that the four forms audited (SRF 300.0 Statement of Financial Performance, SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position, SRF 320.0 Exposure Concentrations and SRF 330.0 Transactions with Associated Parties) have been submitted.
A receipt indicating successful lodgement of the return will be provided via email. There may be a slight delay in a receipt being provided if the submission is made in the last week of October. Do not resubmit your return however, as the receipt will be generated.
Validation and calculation of totals
When data is entered into the form, the total balances (in the greyed out cells) will not be calculated automatically. The total items will only calculate when the form is validated. Clicking on the word 'validate' in the top left hand corner of the screen and selecting ‘OK’ will result in the total items being calculated and the validation rules appearing for review.
There are three types of validation rules as follows:
Warnings: Confirmation rules – this rule requires the user to provide confirmation that the data entered into an item is correct, for example that a negative number is correct and should not be positive. To provide confirmation the user should click the confirm box and provide a brief description in support of the item.
Note: Descriptions entered for warnings may not always appear if the return is validated more than once. There is no need to re-enter the description as D2A has saved this description and the comments will be lodged with the return.
Error: Mandatory rules – this indicates an error in an item, for example a description and a value must be included in a table. These errors must be corrected before the return can be lodged.
Cross form validations – this also indicates an error and must be corrected before the return can be lodged, for example Totals disclosed in SRF 310.1 Selected Disclosure of Investments must agree with the investments reported in item 3 ‘Investments’ on SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position.
Changes to SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position
As detailed above, any change of information entered or resubmission of the return will result in a change to the authentication code. SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position is one of the four forms which requires audit, with a copy of the audit report being provided to APRA together with the annual return. If an amendment is made to the return after the audit report relating to the return has been submitted to APRA, then a copy of the amended return must be:
Lodged with APRA; and
Forwarded to the auditor of the return. The auditor will then consider the magnitude and significance of the amendment to the returns in order to assess whether the audit report will have to be re-issued.
General guidance for completion of SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position
Please read document “Reporting Requirements and General Instruction Guide” before completing this form.
Important!
Unless otherwise indicated, report all items on the form as positive numbers. SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position must not be considered in terms of the double entry accounting method. Positive numbers are required throughout the form, even in relation to a credit entry, to enable the validation calculations to be generated accurately. Liability balances should only be reported as a negative number if a loss has occurred. All negative numbers will have to be confirmed by the user and a description provided in line with the Warnings validation as described above.
Important!
Report all balances in the tables throughout the form as positive numbers.
Important!
Report all disclosures rounded to the nearest thousand dollars. Do not use decimal numbers i.e. when dividing the value to obtain a rounded balance to the nearest thousand dollars, ensure that the figure is whole. Do not show cents.
Important!
There is no materiality limit applied to the disclosure of amounts within SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position. All balances must be recorded. ‘Other’ items cannot be omitted based on materiality levels, but must disclose amounts that cannot be shown in the standard classifications. Each superannuation entity should use its own judgement in grouping items into meaningful categories.
Important!
The amounts disclosed within SRF 310.0 Statement of Financial Position should be reconcilable with the balances disclosed within the superannuation entities’ trial balance and/or financial statements prepared under current Australian Accounting Standards.
Zeros are not required where there is no dollar value for an item. If there is no balance for an item, leave it blank, as D2A recognises blanks as zeros.
Basis of accounting (cash vs. accruals):
Items on this form should be reported on a basis consistent with the accounting treatment (cash or accruals basis) adopted by the superannuation entity. APRA would ordinarily expect that regulated superannuation entities are ‘reporting entities’, and will therefore apply an accruals basis, in accordance with the requirements of current Australian Accounting Standards and the guidance in APRA Superannuation Circular No. V.A.2.
For example, where a receivable or payable is recognised at period end under the entity’s accounting policy, the cash amount received or paid during the period should be adjusted by adding the receivable/payable amount at the end of the current period and subtracting the receivable/payable amount at the end of the previous year.
Netting off of amounts:
Unless otherwise specifically stated, institutions are required to disclose data on a gross basis, with no netting, even where the institutions comply with the prerequisites for netting outlined in current Australian Accounting Standards. For example:
contributions should be reported before deducting contributions tax, entry fees, deferred entry fees, commissions, management fees and any other ongoing fees or charges deducted from the contributions received (where applicable to the superannuation entity); and
investment expenses should be disclosed before deducting separately identifiable direct investment expenses.
Direct vs. indirect investments:
Certain items on this form distinguish between ‘directly held’ investments and those which are not directly held.
Directly held investments are those made by the superannuation entity in its own name, as part of the internal investment management function, and investments held via individually managed mandates/portfolios where the decision-making function regarding the making and redeeming of particular investments within the portfolio may rest with the investment manager. This includes investments held by a custodian where these are held in Trust for the entity and the superannuation entity retains the decision-making function regarding the making and redeeming of particular investments within the portfolio.
Disclosures regarding directly held investments and investments in individually managed mandates/portfolios are required to be disclosed on a look-through basis i.e. the underlying investments in the portfolio must be analysed and reported separately.
Investments that are not directly held include underlying investments that are held with external investment managers (such as investments in PSTs or unit trusts)
Investments held with external investment managers should be disclosed under the appropriate category (for example a PST would be disclosed under item 3.7) but a look-through basis is not required.