Review, approve and file

Approving a year is the point at which its figures become final. Kontala checks the year is ready first, then asks for a signature, then locks the year.

Nothing can be filed until the year is signed.

Before you start

• You have the Full Access permission level. A read-only or accountant user can review everything but cannot approve - see User permission levels.
• The year has passed the readiness checks below.

The readiness checks

A banner at the top of the year lists anything standing in the way, each with a link to go and fix it.

Your books

• It is too early. A year cannot be approved until the date shown, a week after it ends.
• Unexplained bank transactions. Every transaction dated on or before the year end must be explained, and the banner counts how many are left. See Explain a transaction.
• Money in the suspense account. Suspense holds money that could not be classified, so approving would sign it off as a real asset or creditor. Post a journal moving it to the account it belongs to - if you are not sure which that is, ask your accountant.
• Opening balances still to allocate. Part of what the business owned and owed on your start date has not been recorded, so the balance sheet rests on it. See Opening balances.
• Unfiled VAT returns. Every VAT return ending on or before the year end must be filed, oldest first. See Submit a VAT return.
• Payroll not filed up to date. File the payroll months named in the banner. See Send RTI to HMRC.

Your notes and settings

• No employee average.
• Dormancy, trading status and principal activities not answered.
• Close company and participators not answered.
• Directors' advances note missing.

Enter these under Manage notes and settings - see Final accounts and notes.

Your company details and history

• The Company UTR fails its check digit. Check it against your HMRC correspondence on Company details.
• The previous year is not approved. Years are approved oldest first.
• Comparative figures missing. Companies House filing needs last year's figures alongside this year's.

When everything passes, the year says so and tells you the date from which you can approve.

Approve and sign

1. Choose Approve and sign.
2. Enter the Signatory name - the name that will appear on the accounts submitted to Companies House. Kontala pre-fills your own name.
3. Tick both declarations. The first confirms that the directors accept responsibility for accounts giving a true and fair view. The second names the framework your accounts are actually prepared under - the micro-entity provisions (FRS 105), the small companies regime (FRS 102 Section 1A), or FRS 102 - which Kontala works out from your own figures.
4. Choose Add your signature.

The year's status becomes Approved, the DRAFT watermark comes off the reports, and the year locks: nothing can be dated into it while the signature stands.

If you need to change something after approving

Choose Remove signature. That unlocks the year and returns it to Open so you can post the correction, then approve again.

Later years are approved oldest first, so unapproving a year you have already built on may mean re-approving the years after it.

File your accounts to Companies House

Once the year is approved, Kontala can file the accounts for you.

1. Open the Companies House Report tab. The send sits on this tab because the filleted accounts are what Companies House takes; the full set is the CT600's attachment.
2. Choose File to Companies House.
3. Enter the company's authentication code - the six-character code Companies House issued to the company. Kontala can store it so you do not have to type it again.
4. Review what is being sent, then confirm.

The filing goes through a lifecycle you can watch on the same tab:

• Not yet sent
• With Companies House - sent, waiting for their answer. This can take a little while.
• Accepted - with the date and time, which is your legal receipt date.
• Rejected - with Companies House's own wording, shown exactly as they sent it. There is no published list of their rejection reasons, so their text is the only thing that makes the re-file possible.
• Failed - the filing could not be completed, and nothing was accepted.

Only one filing can be in flight at a time. A rejected filing is corrected and sent again as a new submission.

Record your HMRC filings

Kontala prepares the CT600 but does not submit it. File each one with HMRC through their own service or your accountant, then record it here.

The End of year process tracker carries a mark as filed link on each HMRC line:

1. File the CT600 with HMRC.
2. Choose mark as filed beside that period's line under HMRC.
3. When Companies House has accepted and every CT600 is marked, the tracker reaches Filing complete.

Marked something in error? Choose unmark on the same line.

The HMRC part of the tracker is your own record. It does not check with HMRC, so keep the receipts they give you.

Related

• The end of year process
• Corporation Tax and the CT600
• Journal entries