ASIC annual reviews: keeping company clients in good standing
How to manage ASIC annual company review obligations across a client base, meet the review date each year and avoid late fees.
Every company has an annual review date with ASIC, and every year that date brings a review fee, a company statement to check, and a solvency resolution to consider. It is a small obligation per company, but across a client base of dozens of companies it becomes a genuine compliance stream, and one where late fees accumulate quickly if a date is missed.
What the annual review involves
On each company's review date, ASIC issues an annual statement setting out the current details it holds: directors, shareholders, registered office, and so on. The company needs to check that these details are correct, pay the annual review fee, and have the directors consider whether the company is solvent. If details have changed during the year, this is the moment to make sure they are up to date.
The obligations, the review fee, and the consequences of paying late are administered by ASIC. Because late payment attracts fees that grow over time, meeting the date matters more than the modest amounts involved might suggest.
The details that drift
The most common issue at annual review time is that the company's details no longer match reality. A director has resigned, the registered office has moved, or the share structure has changed, and nobody told ASIC at the time. Reviewing the statement each year is a chance to catch these, but changes to key details often have their own separate notification deadlines that should not wait for the annual review.
- Confirm directors and their details are current.
- Check the registered office and principal place of business.
- Verify shareholdings and any changes during the year.
- Record the solvency resolution.
Every company has a different date
Unlike tax deadlines that cluster, ASIC review dates are spread across the year because each company's date is tied to its registration. That spread is actually helpful, since the work does not all land at once, but it makes tracking essential. There is no single season to prompt you, so each company's date has to be managed individually.
Track review dates as recurring jobs
Because each company has a fixed annual date, this is ideal recurring work. In Finye you can create a recurring annual job for each company client, timed to its review date, with a checklist covering the statement check, the fee, and the solvency resolution. The job appears before the date each year, so no company slips into late fees simply because its date was forgotten. Firms manage exactly this kind of spread-out obligation using the patterns in Finye's guides.
Don't wait for the review to fix details
It is tempting to let all the housekeeping wait until the annual statement arrives, but many changes to a company's details carry their own notification deadlines that fall due long before the review date. A director resignation or a change of registered office generally needs to be lodged within a set period of the change, not at the next annual review. Treating those events as their own small jobs when they happen keeps the company compliant and turns the annual review into a simple confirmation.
Keep the corporate register clean year-round
The annual review is easiest when the company's details have been kept current throughout the year rather than reconstructed at review time. Encouraging clients to tell you about director changes, office moves, and share transfers when they happen means the annual review becomes a quick confirmation rather than a clean-up. Handled as tracked recurring work, ASIC annual reviews keep company clients in good standing with almost no drama, and the late fees that catch out disorganised practices simply never arise.