A checklist for filing your Year-end Accounts
Filing your accounts isn’t just a formality, it’s a legal requirement and doing it in the right order saves a lot of time, energy and stress! Of course, the filing deadlines are important, but so is knowing at what point they CAN be filed.
We sometimes see accounts being filed by clients before the Independent Examination has been completed, or if a Charitable Company different accounts filed with the Charity Commission than are filed with Companies House! This can cause serious problems. To help, here’s an overview of how the process works when Beeston-Clarke Accountants are your examiner - what should actually happen and when, and the steps you need to take.
Step 1: Gathering the information
The first stage is pulling everything together:
- Financial records and bookkeeping for the year
- Trustee Annual Report (TAR)
- Draft accounts (if being prepared in-house)
This information forms the foundation for both the accounts preparation and the independent examination.
Step 2: Preparing the accounts
Once the information is ready, the accounts preparation begins (if we undertake the preparation on your behalf). This involves formatting the financial statements correctly, ensuring compliance with the relevant SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice), and pulling through narrative details from the TAR.
Step 3: Independent Examination
If required, an Independent Examiner then reviews the combined accounts and Trustees Annual Report. Their role is to check that everything is consistent, reasonable, and in line with current legislation following the Charity Commission Directions for an examination (CC32). They may ask questions or request further clarification during this stage and may also need to consider any matters of material significance and reporting to the Charity Commission.
Step 4: Draft accounts and trustee review
When the preparation and examination work is complete, draft accounts are sent to the trustees for review and approval. At this point, we also provide the Charity Commission submission questionnaire for completion and approval if we’re handling the submission on a client's behalf. Trustees have the chance to review, query, and approve the documents before anything is finalised or submitted.
Step 5: Trustee sign-off and examiner sign-off
Once trustees are satisfied, they formally approve the accounts and sign them (we usually send these for electronic signature, but others may ask for ‘wet’ signatures). The Independent Examiner then completes their final review and signs off.
Only after both approvals and signatures are in place are the accounts ready to file.
Step 6: Filing the Accounts
Companies House (for charitable companies): Accounts are currently submitted by post. It can take a couple of weeks for them to appear on the public record. We normally send these by Special Delivery and track when they have actually been received at Companies House.
This is due to change from April 2027 when all accounts must be filed electronically – watch this space for more information as we find out!
Charity Commission: Accounts are filed online alongside completion of the online Annual Return.
Step 7: Final Checks
We don’t stop once the submission is made. We check both Companies House and the Charity Commission to make sure the accounts appear on the record.
To receive a copy of our ‘Preparing for your Year-End and Independent Examination’ checklist, email team@beestonclarke.co.uk noting your year-end date e.g. March or December.