I have to send a hard copy set of CIC accounts to Companies House (as CIC34 report and filing fee has to be sent with them) that were signed by the directors today but I have since spotted that two of the note references on the balance sheet are wrong.
Will they accept the hard copy accounts with tippexed manual corrections to the note numbers? Or should I get directors to re-sign the balance sheet?
Filing deadline is 31 December so cutting it a bit fine to find out the hard way.
Related resources
Replies (30)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
My guess is they wouldn't, but who knows. You still have a fair bit of time left.
Why not submit online anyway?
Thanks but sadly they are not eligible to file online (have intangible assets and want to file filleted accounts).
Ah Tippex. I remember it well.
Do you know what you get if you combine [***] with Tippex?
A massive correction.
This is not a terribly helpful comment. Neither I, nor my client, were looking for sympathy thank you.
Instead I was hoping someone might have been in this situation and have some useful knowledge or information to share.
There are still 3.5 weeks before the deadline, which is plenty when Royal Mail do a next day guaranteed delivery by 1pm, but with a mandated manual filing regime I have no control over how fast or slow Companies House will open the post or process it. I could have sent it in October but if they have a backlog and deal with it in January I am in the same predicament as sending it now.
I can just get the offending page re-signed this week before I post it but I was hoping to see if that was absolutely necessary before I had to arrange a special trip back to the client to do it.
I think they log the post bags on day received so as long as it's there you're ok regardless of how long it takes them to actually open it and process. Send it tracked and you'll have your proof.
You know what?
I'd wager that they're more likely to accept them uncorrected. The Tippex will just draw attention to the error.
Or you could just bring forward the ARD by a day.
I agree. Companies House simply don't check this sort of thing. They have a five 'checklist':
Name of company is right.
Company number on the balance sheet
Balance sheet signed
Balance sheet dated
Either audit exemption claimed, or there is an audit report
They don't check anything else. I've seen plenty of rubbish filed. Tick the five boxes above and they'll accept it.
I suggest as time is of the essence file an un -Tippexed set and then file an amended set later. Both will remain on the record but it can be done in your time
Alternative suggestion.
Re-order the notes so they match the references given in the balance sheet.
And voila.....no error.
Sadly not (unless rules have changed since I last checked) as there are intangibles in the balance sheet and they want to file filleted rather than full accounts
Did you send the CIC34 form and filing fee separately or does your software allow you to add these as an attachment?
I manage to file CIC accounts online?
Is it because you have complexity that you cannot?
It's about ten years since I acted for a CIC but the excuse at the time was that there weren't enough CICs to justify writing the software to deal with online filing.
Maybe that's changed.
They may not even notice.
My cousin once filed a set of accounts with Companies House and the Balance Sheet didn't agree, guess what? The accounts were accepted. I told her that the accounts were wrong but she said they weren't, because Companies House accepted them!
I think you should amend the accounts properly and post by recorded delivery, as long as they get there before the filing deadline, there will be no penalty. It doesn't matter when they actually process the accounts.
Don't rely on Royal mail for next day delivery. You may get your money back for a late delivery but thats it. No explanation, Nothing. I sent a time sensitive document to the Isle of Man guaranteed delivery for a time the next day. It sat in their sorting office for week.
Given you should get the directors to approve the amendments, seems better to me to get them to re-approve. Could they scan the new page over to you - CH will accept that?