Guidance

How to authorise a charity adviser to submit accounts

Tell us if you want to let your charity’s accountant or other adviser submit accounts on trustees’ behalf.

This guidance was withdrawn on

Applies to England and Wales

When to submit accounts

You must send your charity’s accounts to the Charity Commission every year if:

  • it’s a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) – regardless of its income
  • it’s a registered charity and its gross income is over £25,000

Charity trustees must make sure their accounts are prepared and submitted within 10 months of the financial year ending. You can:

  • submit them yourself
  • delegate the task to an adviser

Charity trustees: how to authorise your adviser to submit your accounts

At least 1 day before you want the adviser to submit the accounts:

  1. Contact us by phone
  2. give us the email address of the trusted third party and we will update your online account

When this has been completed the adviser will be able to follow the next steps to submit accounts.

Charity advisers: how to submit accounts for a client charity

Once the charity’s accounts are prepared and agreed by the trustees:

  1. register to use this service - you’ll receive an email with login details and an 8 character password
  2. log in - you’ll see a list of charities that have authorised you to submit their accounts
  3. click on a charity’s name to upload its accounts as a PDF file

If you don’t see a charity you expect, ask the charity to check it authorised the correct email address (the one you used to register for the service) at least 1 day ago.

Published 14 January 2015
Last updated 9 October 2017 + show all updates
  1. How to let us know if you want your charity’s accountant or other adviser submit accounts on trustees’ behalf.

  2. Added translation