Workflows can be created to help make the dormant company account filing process more efficient, these workflows can automate generating the accounts or getting approval. 


There are 3 sections to this guide which are numbered below:

  1. Setting up or editing workflows
  2. Applying workflows to companies
  3. Scenarios in which automated actions would not work


 

1. Setting up or editing workflows

  

1.1 Under your Account tab there is an option to View workflows, this can be used to manage your dormant company accounts and confirmation statement automation settings.


The workflows created by following this guide can be applied individually to companies within your portfolio.





1.2 The 2 dormant accounts default settings are shown in the image below, selecting the blue arrow next to each allows you to view their functions.

  

Note: You will be able to select under the company tab on a company by company basis which workflow, if any, applies to them.


 


Generate dormant accounts & email on MUTD (made up to date) + 21:


This setting will create the pending approval and a summary document. This automation will email the summary to a selected email address for the client on the made up to date. Nothing will be submitted to Companies House for you using this automation. You will be able to submit the dormant accounts manually once your client has approved the email sent to them.



Generate dormant accounts on MUTD + 21:


This automation will generate the pending approval and summary document for you to download, the pending approval will appear on the dashboard of the company. This automation does not make any filing to Companies House, you can submit manually once approved. 



1.3 It is possible to Add a new workflow or to edit the default settings which exist via the yellow pencil. 



The Add new workflow opens the options shown below, the edit settings will allow the same options for a previously created workflow.


Initially, it shows the option to add a Name and Description, these are for your reference to identify this from other workflows. The workflow type is to confirm which filing process it relates to. 


Below this, the Automation option can be selected. This is to confirm whether your workflow is to generate an approval document, email it, or to automatically submit the filing. 



1.3a Generate approval document gives you the options shown below:


    Note: The 'Made up to date' is the last day of the respective accounting period.


The drop-down box allows you to confirm when the approval document and pending approval is created:


  • Made up to date - On a company's 'Next dormant accounts made up to date' expected by Companies House.
  • Before the made up to date - Before a company's 'Next dormant accounts made up to date' expected by Companies House, by the number of days specified below.
  • After the made up to date - After a company's 'Next dormant accounts made up to date' expected by Companies House, by the number of days specified below.


1.3b Generate approval document & email it options are:

 

The same options as detailed for generating the pending approval above show initially, there is then a second step to confirm the automation option as shown below.



2. Applying workflows to companies


The workflows created will need to be applied to each company you wish an automation to apply to, for further details see below:


Existing companies in the portfolio:

The settings can be applied to existing companies individually. Without applying an automation workflow setting, the company will retain the original manual filing process. To add a workflow see How to apply dormant company account workflows to companies.





3. Scenarios in which automated actions would not work


It is important to note that there are a range of scenarios which could lead to the automation not being completed for a company. 


If the planned automation cannot be completed an email will be sent to notify you. 


The most common examples of these are below: 


  • There is a dormant company accounts submission currently pending on the company.
  • There has been a change in the companies Accounting Category 
  • Changes to the share capital i.e. share transactions in previous accounts period other than allotments on incorporation making dormant company accounts invalid
  • A dormant accounts filing has already been submitted on that day. 
  • The company has previously informed Companies House that it is trading on a market.
  • A default option to send the approval via email is in place, but the sender or recipient email has not been set, or is no longer valid (e.g. officer email address set as recipient but they've now been removed from office)


The company dashboard is likely to contain an alert for the above scenarios. However, should it not be clear why the automation has not worked, clicking the File Accounts button on the dashboard tab will provide further details.