Ireland · Financial statements, the annual return and audit
Approving and signing the statutory financial statements and preparing the directors' report
the Companies Act 2014 · sections 324 to 332
Where the problem is
Approval is a formal act with named signatories, and a company that circulates statements before the board has approved them has inverted the order the Act sets. Where the directors are satisfied that the statutory financial statements give a true and fair view and otherwise comply with the Part, section 324(1) governs how they are approved and signed and by whom, subject to section 324(1A). Anything sent to members or filed before that point is a draft.
The directors' report is where the substantive work now sits. The report must contain a fair review of the business of the company and a description of the principal risks and uncertainties facing it (section 327(1)), subject to section 327(1A). A report that lists the year's activities without describing risk has not met the section.
What the Companies Act 2014 requires
Section 324 governs the approval and signing of the statutory financial statements. Section 325 requires the directors to prepare a report for each financial year dealing with the matters the section lists, beginning with the general matters in section 325(1). Section 326 and the sections that follow set the further contents of the report, including the position on acquisitions of the company's own shares.
Sections 327 to 332 carry the business review, the disclosure of directors' interests, the statement on relevant audit information and the signing of the report. The statement on audit information is a positive assertion by each director about the enquiries made, so it cannot be signed by the board as a body without each director having done the enquiry the section describes.
The tool that solves it
Files 53, 54 and 55 of the IE-COMPANY package cover this situation. File 53 works through approval and signing of the statutory financial statements and the dates on which each step happened. File 54 works through the directors' report, the general matters and the position on own shares. File 55 works through the business review, the risk description, the interests disclosed, the audit information statement and the signing of the report.
This situation is covered by these files from the pack IE-COMPANY
- File 53 · Approval and signing of the statutory financial statements
- File 54 · The directors' report: the obligation, general matters and own shares
- File 55 · The directors' report: business review, interests, audit information and signing
Files for this situation
Free · this situation only
The working files named above cover this situation. You take them from your free ComplianceSME account when this situation arises, and you come back to the site for the next situation.
You take the starter pack first: PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf, the training file T_TRAIN, the four volumes of the reference file T_HELP, and File 1, which builds the ENTITY_PASSPORT.md that the other files require. The situations open in your account once you have taken the starter pack.
Take the files for this situationThe free system
Free · with a free account
The ComplianceSME system for the Companies Act 2014 is free. It needs a free ComplianceSME account and runs inside your own Claude account. It holds 215 working files, the training file, the reference file in four volumes, the regulation analysis, the final review with the gap analysis, and the report assembly. You take the starter pack first, and after that the files for one situation at a time, as each situation arises.
The starter pack holds PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf, the training file T_TRAIN, the four volumes of the reference file T_HELP, and File 1, which builds the ENTITY_PASSPORT.md that every other working file requires. Print PRINT_ME_FIRST.pdf and read it before any other file.
The system runs in your own Claude account. Upload the files, type START, and the system asks you one question at a time until it has built your documentation, citing the section at every point.
Take the starter packComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and issues update files through the membership, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Membership