Paying the ASIC annual review fee is not the whole renewal process. Use this checklist to verify company details, solvency evidence, lodgements, registers and owners.
An ASIC annual review is ASIC's yearly process for each registered Australian company. "Company renewal" is how many teams describe the practical job of keeping that company current: paying the annual review fee, checking company details, passing or recording the required solvency resolution, fixing missed changes and preserving evidence. Paying the fee is only one part of renewal control.
For CFOs, General Counsel, Company Secretaries and governance teams, the question is not simply "was the annual review paid?" It is "can we prove this entity was checked, updated, approved and handed back to a clear owner?"
General information only, not legal advice.
ASIC uses the term annual review. Searchers often use company renewal, ASIC renewal or annual company statement to describe the same operating moment.
That wording difference creates a workflow problem. If renewal is treated as an invoice, the process usually ends when finance pays the fee. If it is treated as a governance control point, the process ends when the company record is current and the evidence is stored.
ASIC's annual review guidance says companies receive an annual statement, usually soon after the anniversary of registration. The company must pay the annual review fee, check and update company details if needed, and pass a solvency resolution unless it has lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months.
That is more than a payment task.
For a group with subsidiaries, SPVs, trustee companies, dormant entities and adviser-managed records, memory is not enough.
The annual review fee gets paid. The invoice disappears into accounts payable. The entity stays registered. Everyone assumes the company is "renewed."
But the underlying record may still be wrong:
Annual review work should produce an exception report, not just a paid invoice.
Use this simple distinction internally.
| Term | What it usually means | What governance teams should control | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASIC annual review | ASIC's yearly company review process | Annual statement, fee, detail check and solvency workflow | |
| Company renewal | The phrase many teams use for keeping a company registered and current each year | Payment, record accuracy, evidence, approvals, owners and next-cycle readiness | |
| Renewal control | The internal operating process around annual review completion | Whether the entity record, ASIC record, internal registers and evidence trail all line up |
The difference matters because "renewed" can become a false comfort. A company can have its fee paid while records, evidence or lodgement issues remain unresolved.
Use this checklist after the annual statement arrives and again after the fee has been paid. It is designed for groups that need one consistent process across many entities.
Before looking at the invoice, confirm the entity is still part of the controlled group list. Record:
This prevents annual review work from depending on one inbox, adviser portal or person's memory.
ASIC says the annual statement includes an invoice for the annual review fee and a list of the company details ASIC has on record.
Save the statement to the entity record for the relevant review year, not only to an inbox or portal download folder.
Capture:
The practical control is simple: every annual review should have one source packet that future finance, legal, audit or CoSec users can find.
ASIC says the annual review fee must be paid by the due date on the annual statement, usually two months after the annual review date.
Payment matters. Late fees can apply if annual review obligations are not completed on time. But payment is not the end of the governance task.
After payment, record:
The paid invoice proves cash moved. It does not prove the company record was reviewed.
ASIC's annual review guidance says companies must check the company details on the annual statement and update them if needed. The listed details include addresses, share structure, officeholders and members.
Compare the annual statement against your internal system of record for:
Ask both sides of the question:
If either answer is unclear, open an exception.
ASIC's annual review page states that companies should not wait for the annual review to update details when they change. It also states company details must be updated within 28 days of the changes occurring.
That makes the annual review a catch point, not the normal trigger.
When a mismatch appears, record:
Common annual review exceptions include officeholder changes, address changes, member changes for proprietary companies, share structure updates and ultimate holding company details.
Each exception needs an owner, source evidence and a resolved record.
ASIC says company directors must pass a solvency resolution within two months of the annual review date unless the company has lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months. The directors' opinion must be based on good evidence.
For each entity, confirm:
ASIC's meetings and resolutions guidance describes solvency resolutions as a type of ordinary resolution made once a year by company directors. The governance point is that solvency is a director judgement, not a clerical step.
The evidence packet should show what the directors relied on. Depending on the entity, that may include management accounts, cash flow information, debt or funding context, known liabilities, intercompany balances or board papers. The right evidence depends on the company's circumstances and should be reviewed with appropriate advisers where needed.
ASIC's record-keeping guidance says companies must keep certain records, that records can be digital if hard copies can be produced, and that financial records must generally be kept for at least seven years.
After annual review completion, check that the following records are current or linked:
This is where many governance systems break down: ASIC may be current, but the internal register is stale; the register may be current, but the signed resolution is somewhere else.
For a multi-entity group, the most useful output is a short exception report.
Show:
This turns annual review from administration into management visibility across cost, deadline status, evidence, risk and follow-up.
Pick five companies from the group and test the current process.
For each one, ask:
If the answer depends on one person's memory, the renewal process is not controlled.
EntityFlo is built for governance teams that need annual reviews, renewals, registers, lodgements, obligations and evidence in one system of record. It helps teams connect the entity profile, review date, owner, register data, lodgement status, solvency evidence, source documents and next obligation in one place.
That is the practical difference between fee payment and renewal control: the team knows what was checked, what changed, what was approved, what was lodged, where the evidence lives and who owns the next action.
Not exactly. ASIC refers to the yearly process as a company annual review. Many teams use "company renewal" to describe the practical work of keeping the company registered and current each year. The annual review includes paying the fee, checking company details and passing a solvency resolution where required.
No. ASIC's annual review guidance says companies must pay the annual review fee, check company details and update them if needed, and pass a solvency resolution unless the company has lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months.
ASIC says the annual statement lists company details including addresses, share structure, officeholders and members. Governance teams should compare those details against internal registers, source documents and any recent board or ownership changes.
ASIC's annual review guidance says companies should not wait for the annual review to update company details when they change. It states company details must be updated within 28 days of the changes occurring.
A solvency resolution is a directors' resolution stating whether, in the opinion of the directors, the company will be able to pay its debts when they are due. ASIC says it is part of the company annual review and must be based on good evidence.
Keep the annual statement, invoice, payment receipt, solvency resolution, lodgement confirmations, register updates, supporting documents for any changes and the owner or exception record for follow-up actions. The exact evidence depends on the entity and the change being reviewed.
Use one controlled workflow across the group: entity owner, review date, annual statement, payment status, company-detail check, solvency status, lodgement exceptions, evidence location and next review owner. A group-level exception report helps finance, legal and CoSec teams see what is complete and what still needs attention.
If your team manages annual reviews across multiple entities, EntityFlo can show how to connect review dates, ASIC records, registers, solvency evidence, lodgements, documents and owners in one governance system of record.
Book a demo to see how EntityFlo helps Australian governance teams move from fee payment to renewal control.
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