Keep Your Company in Good Standing

• Keep books of account

  Maintain books of account at the registered office for every financial year.

• Hold board meetings

  At least 4 a year with no more than 120 days between them; 1 in each half of the calendar year for small companies and OPCs.

• Approve the accounts

  The board approves the financial statements and the board’s report, and the directors sign them.

• Hold the AGM

  Within 6 months of the year end (first AGM within 9 months of the end of the first financial year). Shareholders adopt the accounts and appoint or reappoint the auditor. OPCs are exempt.

• Director KYC & disclosures

  Each director files DIR-3 KYC once every 3 financial years and discloses their interests (MBP-1) at the first board meeting of each year.

• Sign and approve filings

  Directors review each form and sign it with their digital signature before it is filed.

• Prepare financial statements

  Balance sheet, profit and loss statement and notes, prepared from the books in the format required by Schedule III.

• Statutory audit

  An independent CA audits the financial statements every year and issues the audit report, after giving written consent and a certificate of eligibility on appointment.

• Certify AOC-4

  The financial-statements form is certified by a practising professional; a CA in practice is one of those who can certify it.

• Income-tax return

  Prepare and file the company’s income-tax return, and the tax audit where it applies.

• LLP accounts & Form 8

  Audit an LLP’s accounts above the limits, and certify Form 8 as a practising professional where required.

Under section 144, the statutory auditor cannot also keep the books of the same company, so the accounting CA and the auditing CA must be different.

• Sign the annual return

  MGT-7 is signed by a director and the CS; a company that is not a small company and has no CS needs a CS in practice to sign it.

• Certify in MGT-8

  A CS in practice certifies the annual return in Form MGT-8 when paid-up capital is ₹10 crore or more, or turnover is ₹50 crore or more.

• Meetings & minutes

  Notices, agendas and minutes of board meetings and the AGM, prepared as the secretarial standards require.

• Statutory registers

  Registers of members, directors and other records the Act requires the company to keep.

• Can certify AOC-4

  A CS in practice is also one of the professionals who can certify the financial-statements form.

A whole-time CS is mandatory for larger companies, for example a private company with paid-up capital of ₹10 crore or more. Most small companies use a CS in practice only where the law requires one.