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

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.

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.

Working files 53, 54 and 55 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit cover this situation. Working file 53 works through approval and signing of the statutory financial statements and the dates on which each step happened. Working file 54 works through the directors' report, the general matters and the position on own shares. Working file 55 works through the business review, the risk description, the interests disclosed, the audit information statement and the signing of the report.

• Working file 53 · Approval and signing of the statutory financial statements
• Working file 54 · The directors' report: the obligation, general matters and own shares
• Working file 55 · The directors' report: business review, interests, audit information and signing

ComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and updates the toolkit on your account through the Compliance Complete account, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Compliance Complete

• Company size, the financial year and accounting records
• Preparing entity and group financial statements
• Disclosing directors' remuneration, loans and other transactions
• Notes on related undertakings, staff numbers, capital and financial assistance
• The audit requirement, the audit exemption and the dormant company exemption
• Circulating the financial statements and delivering the annual return
• Revising defective financial statements and reports
• Appointing, removing and replacing the statutory auditor

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