Financial Statements & Books of Accounts of Company
Table of Contents
Overview on Financial Statements & Books of Accounts of Company
All the company should prepare and keep its books of accounts and financial statement at the end of every FY which give a true & fair view of the state of the affairs of the company explains each transactions. The Books of accounts should be be kept on an accrual basis using the double entry system
The Financial Statement of the company should include:-
- Company Balance sheet at the end of FY.
- Cash flow statement of the company for the FY.
- P&L Account or income & Expenditure A/c at the end of FY in case of NGO.
- Explanatory Note carrying part of any document in above mention clauses.
- The statement that shows changes in equity if applicable &
According to the Section 2(13) of Co. Act 2013, Books of Account includes below mention records to be maintained in in relation to :-
- The total amount of money received or expended by a company for which the receipts and expenditure has taken place;
- All purchases & sales of services & goods made by the company during the financial year.
- Total liabilities & assets of the company.
- all the items of cost which are specified under section 148 of the company Act 2013, which belongs to any class of the companies specified under the said section.
The terminology “Book and Paper” and “ Book or Paper” is used to describe the books of account, vouchers, debts, minutes, documents, writings, and registers maintained on paper or also in electronic form.
The Company BoD must needed to prepare a Directors Report in the specified format and must send it to the shareholders along with audited accounts.
The Above financial statements of the company should be prepare before the Company AGM and it has to be adopted by the company Annual General Meeting meeting.
Book of Accounts to be maintained at Company registered office
- The books of accounts along with required documents of the company should be maintained at the registered office of the company for every FY. But the board of directors of the company can keep the books of accounts of the company at any other place in India after filing a notice with the Registrar.
Maintenance of books of accounts at different Place other than at Company registered office
- The Board of Directors can decide to keep the books of accounts of the company at different Place other than at Company registered office place in India. For this a special resolution should be passed in the meeting by the board of directors within Seven days a notice should be filed with the ROC in Form AOC-5.
Books of Accounts in Electronic Form
A company can maintain its books of accounts along with all the relevant papers in electronic formation if the company satisfies all the given conditions :-
- All the relevant records required to be maintain in electronic mode should be accessible in India.
- Records should be maintained completely in its original format without any alteration.
- The information should be kept originally without any change or alteration as it was given by the branch office.
- All the records should be kept in readable form.
- There should be a proper system for storage, retrieval, display or printout of all the electronic records are in their place and all these records shall not be disposed unless allowed by law.
- Records must be backed up on a regular basis in servers physically located in India.
- The back-up of all the records & Books of Accounts should kept in Servers that are physically located in India periodically.
- An intimation should file with Registrar by the company on annually at the time of filing of financial statement regarding the name of the service provider,
- Along with the internet protocol address of service provider,
- Location of the service provider,
- Address of records maintained on cloud, as per the applicability
Company Annual Filling
- Every company which is registered under the Companies Act,2013 is file their annual return with the RoC.
- The filing of the company’s Audited Annual Financial Accounts, Directors Report, and Annual Return with the Registrar of Companies is referred to as “Company Annual Filings. These annual filings are necessary for every registered company no matter the company is carrying on the business or not.
Applicable Financial Year for the Company
- The financial year of a company starts from 1st April of a year to end on 31st March of the relevant year.
- But when a company formation on or after 1st January of a year it has to end its account on 31st March and financial year of the company should be from 1st January to 31st Where the accounts made up of that particular year since incorporation shall be considered.
Different Financial Year than April – March
- However, the company is a holding company, subsidiary company or an associate of company that is incorporated outside India. In Such case the company can adopt a different financial year for the purpose of consolidation of its accounts outside India after getting an approval from the Central Govt.
keep the Accounts of Branch Office Of company
- All the Company that has a branch office in India or Outside India should keep its records at the branch office which are relating to those transactions that effect branch. Moreover Branch office should send the summarized returns periodically to its registered office or it may be the office where the books of accounts of the company are maintained.
Inspection of Books of accounts of the Company
- The company has to make all its records ready for inspection at registered office of the company or may be the other place in India during business hours which includes all the financial information being maintained outside India. Further, a person who has given legal authority by the respective board of directors through a resolution can inspect the subsidiary company.
Time limit of Preservation of Books of Accounts
- The company should preserve all its books of accounts of eight financial years immediately preceding a FY and if the existence of the company is for less than eight years than the records of all the preceding years should be preserved.
Penalty for officer who is in default
- According to section 128 of the companies Act, 2013 officer who is in default should be punishable with an imprisonment which may extend to one year or with a fine of 50,000 and which may extend to 5,00,000 or with Both.
- The person/officer who is in default is the Managing Director, the whole-time director in charge of finance, the CFO or any other person of a company charged by the Board complying with the provisions of section 128 of the companies Act, such managing director, whole time director in charge of finance, CFO or any other person of the company.
Recent Amendments in the Company Act!
FAQ’s on Financial Statements & Books of Accounts of Company
Q.1 : Whether Company Minutes, Statutory Registers & records are need to be maintained for more than eight years or more?
Ans. According to the section 128(5) of the companies Act, 2013 every company should maintain its books of accounts for not less than 8 financial years immediately preceding a financial year. Minutes, statutory records are the principal documents of the company that shoud be maintained preserved since inception.
Q.2 : What if a company keep its part of Books of Accounts and other papers in some other place in India other than the registered office of the company?
Ans.: Yes, a Company can prepare, preserve & maintain the Books of Accounts and other papers of the company at a place other than the Registered Office of the Company after getting the approval from the Board of Directors. Provided the Board Resolution explicitly states that such a portion of the books and papers would be preserved at those locations.
Q.3 : What if a company keep its books of accounts & other papers in multiple places in India?
Ans.: Yes, as per the provisions of the section 128 of company’s act, 2013 & as per the rules framed thereunder, there is no such restriction on a company. A company can keep its accounts at multiple places in India. However, the Board Resolution has clearly specify that such books of accounts should be kept at Registrar of company.
REAL TIME SITUATION CASE STUDY
What are the remedy available for a listed company if the shareholder of the company goes to the registered office of the company to inspect the respective documents such as books and papers but the papers are situated at a place other rather than the registered office?
According to the section 170 of the Co. Act,2013, During business hours, every shareholder of the company has the right to see the company’s statutory registers and records, as well as to take extracts and copies of the registers. When a shareholder visits the company’s registered office and discovers that the records are kept somewhere other than the registered office, the company must explain to the shareholder that the registers and records are kept anywhere other than the registered office and direct the shareholder to that location to inspect the registers and records.
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