Ian Saunders of Artaius Company Services comments on the news that Companies House will accept on-line filing of accounts.

The announcement this week that Companies House will now accept on-line filing for certain accounts, is excellent news for Company Secretaries, accounting firms and their clients.

On-line systems have been promoted for a while, for example reduced fees for statutory forms and HMRC’s cash incentives for electronically completed accounts. It’s therefore a natural progression that Companies House will allow annual accounts to be submitted in this way. Essentially Companies House can now accept DCA (Tag Based) and Dormant, Abbreviated and Full, small company format unaudited
accounts, via eSoftware service.

This news relieves a great deal of the administrative and logistical burden from Company Secretaries tasked with filing of accounts. Traditional “snail mail” methods have resulted in delays, courier fees and possible late filing penalties if deadlines are missed. With plans in place to shorten the deadline between a company’s accounting reference date and the date they submit their annual accounts, electronic filing will obviously make this change a lot more achievable.

There are however cost implications for those wishing to file via this method. Company secretaries will need to have the necessary software in place and this can be expensive. This could result in smaller company service providers struggling to cover the cost.

Many people will also raise concerns over security issues. The person responsible for the filing of accounts will need to ensure the person authorising submission does actually have authority to do this.

For more information call Artaius Company Services on 020 7723 0474 or visit www.artaius.com

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Ian Saunders has managed the statutory department at Wilder Coe LLP since 1997. He is also managing director of Artaius Company Services Ltd, the specialist company formation and company secretarial arm of the Wilder Coe LLP group. Artaius Company Services currently act for more than 700 companies

Ian is responsible for company formation, compiling and updating statutory records on behalf of clients, for the stock exchange or Companies House. Ian also acts as a nominated secretary when required by clients.

Primarily working with SMEs, Ian is also responsible for company formations and statutory consultancy to a number of key sectors include accountancy and legal firms.