Note on the system of financial reporting to the University adopted at Cambridge in respect of Accounts of the Cambridge University Press
The Board of Syndics of the Cambridge University Press has a Business Sub-Syndicate. The Sub-Syndicate is composed of the Chairman of the Syndicate and the University Treasurer ex officio and four other members of the Syndicate appointed for four-year periods and retiring in rotation. There is a requirement of one 'rest' year between successive appointments to the Sub-Syndicate and the Sub-Syndicate has power to co-opt one additional member.
For accounting purposes the Cambridge University Press works on the basis of the calendar year and the Secretary aims to present the accounts before the end of May following.
The full accounts are considered by the Business Sub-Syndicate. The Secretary then prepares a detailed statement on the accounts in consultation with the Auditor and the Business Sub-Syndicate. This confidential report goes to all members of the Full Syndicate and then forms the basis of a meeting between the Secretary, the Auditor and three members of the Sub-Syndicate, and a small Subcommittee of the Financial Board of the University. The report is in the hands of the Subcommittee a week before the meeting. The Subcommittee subsequently reports back to the full Financial Board. Neither the Secretary's report nor any summary of the accounts is published. The annual report of the Syndics of the Press, published in the Cambridge University Reporter, does not touch on this subject.
The Secretary's 'Report on the University Press Accounts' consists of a brief general introduction and more detailed reports on four component sections of the accounts covering the Printing House, the American Business, the Publishing Accounts, and the central Syndics' Accounts (roughly comparable with the Oxford University Press 'General Fund'). The Publishing Accounts cover the whole publishing business of the Cambridge University Press including the editorial departments in Cambridge and the sales and promotion departments in London, and carry all depreciation of stock. The profits on the first three accounts are paid into the Syndics' Account.
The separate reports, varying from one or two pages to seven or eight pages, in the case of the Publishing Accounts, summarize the year's results with comparisons for a series of previous years. They discuss the principal points of interest in the year's figures with extracts from the comments of the Printer and London Manager.
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