As part of year end, you must submit a Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) Return to your LA or to the DfE via COLLECT. The CFR Return is built into the Reports section of Access Education Finance and includes the latest year-end validations.

If you need help with income, expenditure and validation steps, see Complete CFR Income, Expenditure And Other Validation.

For file generation and COLLECT exports, see Generate And Export CFR Returns.

Give Users Access To CFR Reports

To run a CFR Return, your access profile must allow it.

In Access Education Finance, click System Set-Up.
Click Users & Access Profiles.
Select the relevant access profile.
Under Report – CFR Reports, select View from the drop-down.
Click Submit to save the changes.

Any user with that access profile can now open the CFR Return wizard.

Open The CFR Return Wizard

⚠️Important: Before running the CFR Return, make sure the correct financial year is selected at the top right of Access Education Finance.

In the year selector (top right), select the appropriate year.
Click Reports.
Click CFR.
Click CFR Return.

The CFR Return wizard opens on the first page (header details).

Complete CFR Header Details

On the first page of the wizard, review and complete:

School Type	Populated from details on the School Details page and none editable.
LA Number	Populated from details on the School Details page and are editable if incorrect.
DfE Establishment Number	Populated from details on the School Details page and are editable if incorrect.
School Name	Populated from details on the School Details page and non-editable.
Contact Name	Populated from details on the School Details page and are editable if incorrect.
Email Address	Populated from details on the School Details page and are editable if incorrect.
Phone Number	Populated from details on the School Details page and are editable if incorrect.
Year	The year you are completing the CFR return for.
Accounting Method	This is Accruals.
De minimus level for capitalising expenditure	To be entered based on the LA’s guidance.
Federated submission?	Tick to indicate this submission is on behalf of multiple schools within a federation.
Figures for a complete Financial Year	Tick if for a full year (CFR Return will not upload if not ticked).
A Rates Exempt School	Tick if Rates Exempt
School involved in preparation of CFR Return	Tick if school involved.
School's insurance policies/premiums have been purchased centrally (at no cost to the school)?	Tick if true.

When everything is complete:

Click Next, or
Use the tabs at the top to navigate to the next section.

📌Note: You can click Save at any time within the wizard.

Configure A Federated Submission (If Required)

If your CFR Return is on behalf of a federation:

On the first page, tick Federated submission?.
The Federated submission screen opens.
For each school in the federation (excluding the reporting school), enter:
- LA code – Must be 3 characters.
- Establishment code – Must be 4 characters.
Enter at least one federated school when Federated submission? is ticked.
Click Submit to return to the main CFR wizard.

You will now see a blue Federation Schools button. Use this to re-open the federated schools screen:

Click Federation Schools.
Amend LA or Establishment codes as required.
Click Submit to save your changes.

Complete The Balances Section

Click Next or select the Balances tab at the top of the wizard.

Enter balances using your year-end figures and CFR guidance.

Code	Includes	Excludes
B01: Committed Revenue Balances	Committed cumulative balance of income (including committed balances from previous years). Unspent voluntary income brought into public accounts for specific purposes. Earmarked public funds under the LA’s scheme. Unspent and committed pupil-focused extended school funding and/or grants. Unspent current-year pupil premium grant.	Amounts already spent this year (these belong under expenditure headings). Balances in trust funds or other non-public accounts. Uncommitted balances (B02). Community-focused school balances (B06). B01 cannot be negative. Commitments cannot exceed available balances. Any negative position should be entered under B02.
B02: Uncommitted Revenue Balances	Uncommitted cumulative balance of income, including previous years’ uncommitted balances, minus revenue expenditure and any LA clawback.	Capital revenue balances (B03, B05). Committed balances (B01). Community-focused balances (B06).
B03: Devolved Formula Capital Balance	Devolved formula capital, including roll-over from previous years.	Other capital balances (B05).
B05: Other Capital Balances	Sum of all other capital balances not already accounted for – this includes capital funding received during previous financial years from specific grants which no longer exist, e.g. unspent capital allocations from the standards fund.	Balances that appear in the framework in B01 to B03.
B06: community-focused school revenue balances	Any unspent community-focused school balances. Any carried forward community-focused school balances from previous years.	Pupil-focused extended school balances (see B01 or B02).

Code	Description
B07: Identification of capital loans to the schools	Enter the outstanding amount of any capital loan which the school has an agreement to repay. This is ordinarily a loan from the local authority. This is a memorandum item that doesn't impact the way B05 (other capital balances) is calculated.
OB01: opening pupil-focused revenue balance	Sum of B01 + B02 from previous financial year.
OB02: opening communityfocused revenue balance	Value of B06 from previous financial year.
OB03: opening capital balance	Sum of B03 + B05 from previous financial year.

Overview of Reports

Set Up Access And Start A CFR Return