During the recent GoProposal by Sage webinar on the upcoming Companies House changes that we hosted with AccountingWEB, attendees raised several important questions about how the upcoming identity verification changes will affect their work.
AccountingWEB and GoProposal by Sage
Our last industry insights post covered some of the key discussion points from the webinar. Here's a look at some of the key questions and expert insights that were posed in the webinar to our expert panel comprised of David Winch, director of MLRO Support Ltd, Danielle Fisher, product manager from GoProposal and Jordan Smith, operations director at AG Smith & Co.
Q&A
There were many questions around the new requirement for becoming an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), also known as a Companies House authorised agent. These are the answers from our panel:
Q:Won't we have to become ACSPs anyway, in order to file confirmation statements and company accounts?
Yes, starting next spring, only company directors, employees or ACSPs will be able to file with Companies House.
Q:Is it as simple as the accounting firm becoming an ACSP or would it need to be individuals within the firm?
There needs to be an individual registered, so a bit like an AML officer who has to have their own ID verified with Companies House. Then the firm becomes an ACSP where they can nominate anybody to file stuff on behalf of the firm.
Q:How easy will it be for directors/PSCs to get their ID verification done themselves?
If they have a mobile phone, email address and passport or driving licence, it should be relatively easy.
Not everybody will have a mobile phone, not everybody will have an email address, but we haven't yet got the full details for how this is going to work and what’s going to be acceptable and what’s not going to be acceptable.
There is information on the process and an online ID verification tool at Gov.uk where directors and PSCs can verify their ID, this will generate an ID verification code that Directors and PSCs can share with an accountant or other third party.
Q:How would the process work if we used a tool like GoProposal to complete this?
You would add a client, use the Companies House integration to search the details of that client, add all of the related entities, all the directors, all the people that you need to, so then you would have them within the client record.
If they then requested company formation services, you would probably issue them a proposal, whether they're a new client or an existing client who you want to repropose. Once that proposal is accepted, it will trigger a pending ID check state for you.
So it would always make sure that you are capturing the ID checks you need to at client onboarding anyway. With these new changes, you would have a client list that you would go through and do the checks on the clients that may need updating, or the new directors you've had to add.
Q:How long might each ID verification take?
The benefit of the biometric checks is that it's the quickest way, and it takes you about five seconds to put the details in and send them out to your clients. Obviously, with anything like this, you’ll have to chase your clients to ensure they complete the request, and that can be challenging.
With GoProposal there are automated chasers within the checks themselves. So if your client doesn't respond to the biometric check after a certain amount of days, it will keep chasing the client for you, and it would appear on their mobile phone because it's done through the app.
Q:Many companies operate out of a director’s home so how will address verification work?
It’s not going to be an issue because address verification for the company’s registered office isn’t needed.
Companies House now already requires that the registered office should be an actual address, not a PO Box and that if they write to the company at that address, somebody will see it.
Further details
For more on these changes, read our webinar summary article.
Interested in the full discussion? Watch the webinar here.
Looking for an efficient way to manage these changes? Check out GoProposal.
