Electronically Filing Accounts – Part 1

Electronically Filing Accounts – Part 1

With nearly 4 million companies and a further 60,000 + LLPs in the United Kingdom preparing and filing financial statements for submission to Companies House every year, the benefits of filing these documents electronically far outweigh any reason for posting them on paper. 

99% of Confirmation Statements are submitted electronically now, since it is £27 less than filing on paper. However, with no direct financial incentive electronically submitted accounts are lagging behind at only 75%, we take a look at why you should be considering filing accounts electronically:

Benefits of filing online:

• Security – submitting accounts via the Companies House gateway is very secure and the documents are near impossible to fall into the wrong hands. Paper accounts are handled manually allowing for them to be misplaced, damaged/destroyed or even worse tampered with, some may not even make it to the final destination.
• Faster = less penalties. Once submitted electronically the documents go through the automatic systems at Companies House, meaning any obvious mistakes are spotted quickly and the accounts are rejected, allowing corrections to be made before resubmitting, this can all happen on the same day. For the year 2016/17 Companies House issued nearly £92 million in late filing penalties for financial statements that did not arrive on time.
• Acknowledgement and confirmation of acceptance -  Instead of waiting for the document to go through the postal system and then the postal room at Companies House, before a paper acknowledgement is sent back, accounts can be submitted and accepted on the same day.
• Rejection rates for online filing are lower than paper – due to the checks performed as you press the submit button, accounts filed electronically are much less likely to be rejected than paper accounts. For the year 2016/17 the rejection rate for paper filing was nearly 7% compared to just over 2% for electronically submitted accounts.
• Covering letters are not required, simply submit the accounts from your final accounts preparation software.
• Save money by not having to pay postage costs, paper and ink costs are reduced along with the need to have a stash of envelopes available.
• No more walks in the cold and wet to the post box!

There is no reason not to file accounts electronically.

IRIS and PTP Accounts Production

Here at IRIS we have been very keen to allow our users the ability to file accounts electronically to Companies House introducing the feature many years ago, enhancing with further types of accounts as and when allowed by Companies House.

Nearly all types of limited company and LLP financial statements can be filed electronically using Accounts Production, with Charity accounts being accepted electronically in the Spring time.

Get an account:

To file direct to Companies House, you will need a presenter account. If filing Companies House forms, please setup a credit account, if you will only be filing accounts, an account ‘without a fee’ will be sufficient: Apply for online filing account

In Part 2 we’ll describe what you need to check and how to go about using software to file accounts electronically

Look out for our e-filing accounts webinar in mid-March which will explain how to e-file accounts to Companies House, which accounts can be e-filed and what is coming in our Spring release. More details to follow.