Who signs charity accounts, and what are the trustees confirming?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: covered, with an extra duty — since March 2026 the examiner’s or auditor’s report must also be sent to the regulator alongside the accounts, not merely produced and kept on file. Northern Ireland: no material difference identified for the approval, signing and filing mechanics set out here.

Why does the date of approval matter?

The going concern assessment counts forward from the day the trustees approve the accounts. It has to look forward at least twelve months from the date the trustees approve the accounts, not from the financial year end. Assess going concern sets this out in full.

It is the one place in this hub where a signature starts a clock. Elsewhere, a signature records a decision already made.

So the date recorded when signing charity accounts is not a detail to fill in last. It is the starting point the board’s own assessment was tested against. If two documents ever gave different approval dates, the going concern conclusion would be counted from the wrong point.

Approval and signing work the same way in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. What differs is the filing that follows, with the Charity Commission, OSCR or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. This page assumes the examination or audit is done, working from the scrutiny file; the filing itself is covered in file your accounts.

Who approves and who signs charity accounts?

The trustees approve the accounts and the trustees’ annual report as a board, by resolution. One trustee then signs the accounts on behalf of the whole board. That signature records a decision the board took together. It does not replace the board’s decision. No trustee can sign off alone for the others without that resolution.

The report is the trustees’ own statement about their own charity, not the accountant’s document with a trustee’s name at the bottom. It carries the reserves policy, any going concern explanation and the public benefit statement. A board that approves the report without reading it has not completed this step, whatever the minute says. How the report itself is signed off is covered in approve the trustees’ annual report.

Does filing at Companies House cover the charity regulator?

No. For a charitable company, these are two separate duties to two separate bodies, on two different timetables.

The Companies House side is covered in file with Companies House. Companies House’s own deadline for a private company’s accounts is 9 months from the year end. In England and Wales the charity regulator’s own deadline, from the same year end, is a month longer: 10 months.

Companies House still lets a small company file a reduced-content set of accounts. It can leave out the profit and loss account and the directors’ report. The Charities SORP has no counterpart for the accounts themselves: it does not permit FRS 102’s small-entities regime, whatever the charity’s size.

So a small charitable company can lawfully file a cut-down set at Companies House. It still owes the regulator the full, SORP-compliant version.

Many charities file the full pack at both, to avoid keeping two different versions. That is a sensible choice, not a legal requirement.

The trustees’ annual report and the directors’ report can be combined into a single document. But that works only where the one document meets the content rules of both regimes at once. Things go wrong when trustees assume a document written for one also covers the other.

Scotland: the extra filing duty and shorter deadline

Since March 2026, Scottish charities must get a report from their examiner or auditor. They must send a copy of it to the regulator, OSCR, with the statement of account. Producing it and keeping it on file, as before, is no longer enough.

Scotland’s filing deadline is also shorter than the other two nations’. Scotland allows 9 months after the year end. England and Wales and Northern Ireland alike allow 10 months. A charity registered in both Scotland and England and Wales in effect works to the earlier of the two deadlines.

All of a charity’s deadlines are brought together in build your annual compliance calendar.

Northern Ireland: the same period, a different statute

Northern Ireland’s own deadline from the year end is 10 months. That is the same length of time as England and Wales. But it comes from Northern Ireland’s own separate legislation, not the Charities Act 2011.

Northern Ireland’s regulator also says plainly that the duty starts with the charity’s first full financial year after it registers. That is an express first-year rule. England and Wales does not state one outright, and leaves it to be worked out.

Does the charity also owe an annual return?

In England and Wales an annual return may fall due at this point too. It is a separate filing from the annual report, with its own income floor: gross income not exceeding £10,000 — no annual return required. But the exemption does not apply to a CIO. So a CIO owes an annual return whatever its income. That is the same basis on which it owes a full annual report whatever its income.

That makes two separate overrides, in two separate places in the Act. Both are easy to miss if you check only one of them.

When accounts are filed, but nobody had to check them first

From 30 September 2026 a new band exists in England and Wales. A charity in this band is above the point at which it must file its accounts and report. But it is below the point at which any statutory examination or audit is required at all.

See appoint an independent examiner for where that scrutiny floor now sits. The band that files accounts nobody has to check explains how the gap opened. It also explains what the gap does and does not change.

What it changes here is narrow. Being in that band removes the scrutiny duty. It does not remove the approval, signing or filing steps this page covers. Nor does it remove the duty to keep proper accounting records in the first place.

With the accounts approved and signed, they go to the regulator. In the charity’s first year under the new SORP, also read transition to the 2026 SORP.

Common mistake: filing an undated or draft version of the scrutiny report

Several versions of the accounts and the scrutiny report circulate by email in the run-up to approval. Then the wrong one gets attached when the filing happens.

The Commission has found charities that filed accounts with an undated audit report. It also found at least one case where the filed version differed from the version issued. The regulator then cannot tell if the document on the public register is the final one.

Common mistake: approving without the trustees having read the report

The accounts arrive shortly before the meeting and look technical. So approval becomes a formality, not a real review. The report is the trustees’ own statement, not the accountant’s. It carries the reserves policy, any going concern explanation and the public benefit statement. The trustees are personally responsible for all of it, whoever drafted the words.

Common mistake: believing that filing at Companies House discharges the duty to the charity regulator

A charitable company files twice, to two different bodies on two different deadlines. One filing feels like it should cover the other. They are separate duties.

Failing to file with the charity regulator may be a criminal offence. It is also treated as misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity. That is so whatever has already been filed at Companies House.

Worked example

Saltmarsh Trust’s financial year ends on 31 March. Once its statutory audit is complete, the board meets to approve the accounts and the trustees’ annual report together, by resolution. Both were sent out in full beforehand, not just a summary. One trustee signs the accounts on the board’s behalf, and the minute records the exact date of approval.

Saltmarsh’s going concern assessment, done at the same meeting, was counted forward from that same date. Because Saltmarsh is a charitable company, the finance team then works to two deadlines from the same year end. The shorter one is at Companies House, and the longer one is with the charity regulator.

Saltmarsh has already chosen not to keep two versions of the accounts. So it files the same full SORP-compliant pack at both.