Hey all, I hope you are doing well,
Here is a short backgound of what I need and following the clarifications, would you mind to take a look and help to unerstand the system and planing for our application?
We’re building a web app that will prepare and submit company filings (similar to what we do with the Irish CRO): financial statements, director signing (e.g. DocuSign where allowed), and API submission. We’re checking what’s possible with the Companies House APIs.
From the public API specs we see: company/officer/PSC search, company profile, filing history, documents, API Filing for registered office, registered email and insolvency, PSC discrepancy reporting, identity/OAuth, streaming and sandbox. We don’t see endpoints for submitting confirmation statements (or annual return equivalent) or annual accounts/financial statements, or any payment flow.
We’d like to know whether the same kind of flow is supported via API (or another documented route) and what we need to clarify.
Clarification questions
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Is there an API (or other documented channel) to submit the UK equivalent of an annual return (e.g. confirmation statement)? If yes, which API/endpoints or document describes it?
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Can we submit annual accounts/financial statements via an API? If not, what is the supported way (e.g. WebFiling, specific software, file format only)?
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Can one submission include both confirmation statement (or equivalent) and accounts, or must they be submitted separately?
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For documents that require director/secretary signature (e.g. confirmation statement, accounts), does Companies House accept digital signatures (e.g. DocuSign) for any of these, or is wet-ink required for some? If it varies by document type, could you specify?
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How is payment for API-originated filings (and accounts, if applicable) made? Are there payment APIs or a documented payment flow we should use? Where is it described?
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Can each of our end clients pay from their own Companies House (or linked) account when we submit on their behalf, or must we use a single central account?
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Is there a test environment for end-to-end filing (and payment if applicable)? Is the Sandbox Test Data Generator the right place to create test companies for filing?
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Is there a vendor/partner process for third-party software that submits filings (and optionally accounts)? What are the steps (registration, agreements, production access)?
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Any API to submit the documents, Which document or page is the single source of truth for: (a) API filing (what can be submitted via API), (b) accounts submission (format and channel), and (c) payment flow?
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Who should we contact for technical and business questions on API filing, accounts and payment (e.g. support form, email, partner contact)?
Thanks in advance for any pointers.