B.         ANNUAL ACCOUNTS – LIMITED COMPANIES

Responsibilities of Directors

As director of the company, under the Companies Acts you are responsible for:

• ensuring that the company maintains proper accounting records and for preparing accounts
• determining whether for any reason the exemption is not available in respect of the period.

You will keep records of sales invoices, purchase invoices, receipts and payments, together with any other documents relating to the company’s transactions and activities.  It will also be necessary for you to provide a record of stock at the company’s year end.

For financial years beginning on or after 06 April 2008, a private company is usually required to file its accounts at Companies House within 9 months of the year end.  The company will be liable to a fine if it fails to do so.  In order to avoid this we will produce statutory accounts, suitable for filing, within the required period, provided all your records are complete and presented to us within five months of the year end, and all subsequent queries are promptly and satisfactorily answered.

We have agreed to act as your agent and to:

(a)        submit the accounts to the Registrar of Companies;

(b)        complete and submit the company’s annual return;

(c)        complete and submit any other forms required by law to be filed at Companies House, provided that you keep us fully informed of any relevant changes or events which are required to be notified to Companies House, within one week of the change or event;  and

(d)        maintain the statutory books.

Responsibility of the accountants

In relation to the accounts, we will prepare the company’s accounts on the basis of the information that is provided to us.  We will also draft the accounts in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, and related Accounting Standards for approval by the Board.

Should our work lead us to conclude that the company is not entitled to exemption from an audit of the accounts, or should we be unable to reach a conclusion on this matter, then we will advise you of this.

You have instructed us to prepare your financial statements for the year end and subsequent years.  It was agreed that we should carry out the following accounting and other services:

(a)        write up the accounting records of the company insofar as they are incomplete when presented to us;

(b)        complete the postings to the nominal ledger;  and

(c)        prepare the accounts for approval by yourselves.

You have agreed that you or your staff will:

(a)        keep the records of receipts and balances;

(b)        reconcile the balances monthly with the bank statements;

(c)        post and balance the purchase and sales ledgers;

(d)        extract a detailed list of ledger balances;  and

(e)        prepare details of the annual stocktaking, suitably priced and extended in a form which will enable us to verify the prices readily by reference to suppliers’ invoices.

Or

(f)         provide us with a copy of the valuation produced by your independent stocktakers.

And

(g)        prepare details of work-in-progress at the accounting date and make available to us the documents and other information from which the statement is compiled.

You/your management are responsible for the detection of irregularities and fraud.  We would emphasise that we cannot undertake to discover any shortcomings in your systems or any irregularities on the part of your employees or others, although we will advise you of any such circumstances that we encounter in preparing your accounts, unless prohibited from doing so by the Anti Money Laundering Legislation.

We will report, with any variations that we consider may be necessary, that in accordance with your instructions and in order to assist you to fulfil your responsibilities, we have compiled, without carrying out an audit, the accounts from your accounting records and from the information and explanations supplied to us.

We have a professional duty to compile accounts which conform with generally accepted accounting principles.  Furthermore, the accounts of a limited company are required to comply with the Companies Acts and applicable accounting standards.  Where we identify that the accounts do not conform to accepted accounting principles, or if the accounting policies adopted are not immediately apparent, this will be made clear in our report, if it is not clear in the accounts.