Company Compliance Checklist for Accountants

Company compliance starts with an assigned ASIC timetable for each client. Record the annual review, directors’ solvency decision, company changes and financial-reporting decision, with an owner and proof of completion. Use the checklist below to separate directors’ decisions from your practice’s work.

Assign Each Company Obligation

Assign each ASIC obligation to a person who can complete it and a reviewer who can confirm the evidence. Here, company compliance means company duties administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Company income tax, workplace safety and industry licences need their own responsibilities.

Before taking on a lodgement, confirm the company has authorised you to act and agree your engagement scope. ASIC’s registered-agent guidance explains the appointment relationship. Use the ASIC registered agent guide for that setup, then assign the client’s obligations.

Directors provide instructions and make company decisions, including the solvency resolution. Your authorised agent can organise records and lodge the relevant notification. Put a named practice owner against preparation and follow-up, without treating that assignment as a transfer of the directors’ duties.

Use one row per company and obligation. The elapsed periods below help you calculate the due date for the actual trigger. Add a calculated due-date field and an internal follow-up date to your working copy.

Company	Obligation and trigger	Decision or task owner	Elapsed deadline or due-date basis	Evidence to retain
Client company	Check annual statement after annual review	Practice owner obtains directors’ confirmation	Review promptly. Correct outstanding details within 28 days of annual review	Statement, comparison and correction acknowledgement
Client company	Pay annual review invoice	Agreed payer. Practice owner confirms payment	Invoice due date, usually two months after annual review	Invoice and matched payment receipt
Client company	Decide annual solvency after review	Directors. Practice owner follows up	Within two months after review, unless the reporting exception applies	Resolution and supporting financial information
Client company	Notify negative solvency resolution	Company. Authorised lodger prepares Form 485	Within seven days after the resolution	Resolution and lodgement confirmation
Client company	Notify missing solvency resolution	Company. Authorised lodger prepares Form 485	Within seven days after the two-month period ends	Escalation record and lodgement confirmation
Client company	Notify a company detail change	Client reports event. Authorised lodger acts	Form 484 changes generally within 28 days after the event	Event evidence, instructions and acknowledgement
Client company	Decide reporting requirements for the financial year	Reporting accountant with directors	Early enough to meet preparation, assurance and lodgement duties	Classification and documented basis for any relief
Client company	Lodge required annual financial report	Directors approve. Authorised lodger submits	Usually three months after year-end for disclosing entities. Four months for other required company reports	Approved report and lodgement confirmation
Client company	Review obligations at takeover	Incoming practice owner and directors	Before accepting the next task, with urgent items escalated immediately	Authority, reconciled records and assigned next actions

Keep income-tax obligations as a separate job. Paying ASIC’s invoice does not complete a company income-tax return. Company compliance management works when each task has its own trigger and evidence, even where the same staff member handles several jobs.

Complete the Annual Review

The annual review needs a checked statement, confirmed payment and the directors’ solvency outcome. Compare ASIC’s details with the company’s records and the client’s confirmed position. Check addresses, officeholders, share information and members, then lodge corrections that are required.

ASIC’s annual review guidance sets separate fee and register-check obligations. Pay by the invoice deadline, usually two months after review. Correct outstanding details within 28 days of review. An earlier event deadline still applies. Use the ASIC fees guide for amounts and late-payment charges.

Record the Directors’ Solvency Decision

Directors must pass the annual solvency resolution within two months after review. The exception applies where the company lodged a Chapter 2M financial report with ASIC during the preceding 12 months. Retain that lodgement evidence if relying on the exception.

A positive resolution records the directors’ opinion that the company can pay its debts when due. Retain the resolution in company records. ASIC does not require notification of a positive resolution. These rules appear in the Corporations Act’s solvency provisions, sections 347A to 347C.

Provide the directors with evidence for their decision, such as current balances, debts falling due and expected cash receipts. Escalate financial distress to the engagement partner and directors immediately. The agent’s task is to obtain and record the decision, not to sign a positive resolution for the directors.

ASIC must receive Form 485 within seven days after a negative resolution. When a required resolution is missing, the seven-day notification period starts as the two-month resolution period ends. Use Form 485 and retain its confirmation. Do not close the solvency task using the fee receipt alone.

Record Changes Before They Are Late

Record company changes when the event happens, so the notification deadline runs from the event instead of your next annual review. Address changes, appointments or cessations of officeholders and reportable share or member changes need separate tracking. ASIC’s Form 484 guidance sets a 28-day lodgement period for the changes it covers.

Ask the client to tell the practice promptly when a change occurs. Give them one contact for reporting changes and agree who supplies the supporting records. A proposed share transfer and a completed transfer are different events, so confirm what actually happened before preparing a notification.

1. Record the affected company, event type and effective date from the client’s notice.
2. Match the notice to evidence, such as appointment consent, a resignation or the company’s updated member register.
3. Obtain instructions from an authorised person and assign the applicable notification deadline.
4. Lodge through the correct procedure and save the document acknowledgement.
5. Check the resulting register details against the instructions, then update the company file.

Use the ASIC Form 484 guide for address, officeholder and share-change procedures. Some changes need another form, so do not assume every company event belongs in Form 484.

For a hypothetical address change reported to your practice 20 days after it occurs, eight days remain in a 28-day notification period. Receiving the notice does not restart that period. If the acknowledgement is missing, check the transaction’s status before treating the task as complete or submitting it again.

Check Whether Financial Reports Are Required

Decide whether the company must prepare reports, send them to members and lodge them with ASIC before creating its reporting tasks. These are separate questions. Record the financial year and the company’s classification, then examine any direction or relief that changes its obligations.

ASIC’s financial report guidance identifies disclosing entities, public companies and large proprietary companies as reporting categories. Some small proprietary companies also have reporting obligations. Review foreign control, crowd-sourced funding shareholders and directions from ASIC or shareholders.

A shareholder direction alone can require a small proprietary company to prepare reports and send them to shareholders without ASIC lodgement. Section 319(2) excludes that case from ordinary lodgement, subject to the crowd-sourced funding condition. Keep this distinction in the reporting decision under the Corporations Act.

Foreign control needs its own assessment. Consolidation into reports lodged by a registered foreign company or qualifying relief can change the result. Retain the exact basis and any required resolution. ASIC’s financial report lodgement guidance explains these cases. A dormant company is not automatically exempt.

Record the preparer, directors’ approval owner, person arranging required audit or review and authorised lodger. Work backwards from the applicable deadline to allow assurance and approval time. Annual lodgement is generally within three months after year-end for disclosing entities and four months for other companies required to lodge. An ASIC direction can set its own requirements and deadline.

Use the financial reporting guide for the preparation decision and the ASIC Form 388 guide for lodging the approved report. If no ASIC report is required, retain the reason and set the next assessment. Revisit it when ownership, size or another relevant condition changes.

Review the File When You Take Over

Review the inherited company file before accepting responsibility for its next obligation. Collect the current ASIC record and annual statements, previous lodgement confirmations, company records and authority to act. Agree the handover boundary with the client so an urgent task has an owner.

Check the following items against the same company identity and reporting periods.

• Match the company name and ACN across the register record, authority and prior documents.
• Reconcile outstanding fees with invoices and payment evidence.
• Identify overdue documents and unresolved ASIC correspondence.
• Compare directors’ and members’ records with notified changes.
• Find the latest solvency resolution or evidence supporting the reporting exception.
• Check the basis for the previous reporting decision and any relief relied on.
• Confirm that completion evidence remains accessible to the staff taking over.

List each discrepancy as corrective work with an owner and due date. Agree the work and who pays any outstanding fee with the client. Keep overdue work visible until it is resolved, alongside the next recurring obligation.

For a hypothetical takeover, the client provides a paid annual review invoice but no solvency record. Treat payment as confirmed and the solvency task as unresolved. Establish whether a resolution was required and passed, then act on any notification duty. Do not mark the whole annual review complete from one receipt.

Finish by opening the retained evidence for each closed task and matching it to the company and obligation. The takeover is ready when discrepancies have assigned corrective actions and every upcoming duty has an owner. The next staff member must be able to find the evidence without reconstructing the file from emails.