How are lodge financial accounts supervised and audited?

Lodge financial accounts are supervised through committee review, formal audit, and annual reporting to the membership. Historically, financial oversight, the passing of bills, and the examination of income and liabilities fell to a lodge's Permanent Committee or Audit Committee, which submitted signed annual reports to the lodge for adoption 12.

In present-day practice, financial accounts for Metropolitan, Provincial, or District Grand Lodge funds must be kept regularly, produced annually at a specified meeting, and audited each year by auditors elected to that office, as the United Grand Lodge of England specifies. Unless a firm recognized under the Companies Acts is chosen, these elected auditors must be Master Masons, according to the United Grand Lodge of England. Where rules require an audit, a professionally qualified accountant or auditor fulfills the requirement by carrying out a formal examination of the accounts and certifying that it has been completed, as set out by the United Grand Lodge of England.

Members of a lodge audit committee are elected annually from among the lodge's own membership, as laid down in the Book of Constitutions of the United Grand Lodge of England. Guidance from the United Grand Lodge of England specifies that brethren chosen for the committee should generally be senior members of the lodge, ideally with professional or practical experience in accountancy or bookkeeping; appointing solely junior members is discouraged unless they have relevant accounting expertise.

A similar requirement applies in other jurisdictions, where accounts prepared by the Treasurer are examined by an audit committee elected from within the lodge, as an article on the Regional Grand Lodge of Northern India's website notes.