31 October is an important ASIC deadline. Is your company ready to lodge?

For many Australian companies with a 30 June 2026 year-end, 31 October 2026 is the deadline to lodge annual financial reports with ASIC. If your statutory audit has not started, has stalled or is unlikely to finish in time, now is the time to act.

Who needs to lodge

Large proprietary companies and certain foreign-controlled proprietary companies are among the entities required to prepare and lodge annual financial reports with ASIC. Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees also have reporting obligations under the Corporations Act 2001, although their requirements and deadlines should be considered separately.

Late lodgement is now a regulatory issue

Failing to lodge a required financial report on time is a contravention of the Corporations Act 2001. ASIC’s revised Regulatory Guide 34 also treats it as a significant contravention for auditor reporting purposes.

In practice, this means:

• for listed and disclosing entities, auditors should report a failure to lodge by the due date
• for other entities, including large proprietary companies, auditors should notify ASIC if the financial report is still outstanding 28 days after the due date.

An overdue audit is no longer just an internal matter for management and the board. Your auditor may be required to report it to ASIC.

The cost can be significant

Missing the deadline should not be treated as a routine late fee. Three companies in the Mainfreight group reportedly received infringement notices of $198,000 each, totaling $594,000, for alleged failures to lodge on time.

For groups with more than one reporting entity, the exposure can add up quickly. Late lodgement can also draw regulatory attention and create a compliance issue for directors that could have been avoided.

Is your audit behind schedule? 

You may be in one of these situations:

• the audit has not started, or has started and stalled
• your current auditor does not have capacity to finish the engagement
• you need to appoint or change auditors
• financial statements, including historical ones, still need to be prepared or finalised
• you have only recently realised your company has a reporting obligation.

Whatever the reason, the obligation remains. The first step is to work out where the audit stands, identify what is outstanding and put a practical plan in place to finish it. If the deadline has already passed, acting quickly still matters, particularly given the 28-day auditor reporting window.

How Economos can help

When a deadline is close, you need an audit team that understands the urgency, focuses on the issues that matter and keeps things moving with management. Our approach is built on four principles.

1. Value for money

We focus audit effort on significant balances, material transactions, accounting judgements and areas of risk. The aim is not to do more work, but to do the right work in the right areas.

2. Timely completion

We identify outstanding information and accounting issues early and resolve them as the engagement progresses, with clear communication throughout, rather than letting matters build up at the end.

3. Risk-focused

Not every balance or transaction carries the same level of risk. We direct our resources to significant judgements and estimates, unusual transactions and other areas of heightened audit risk.

4. Technology-enabled

We use audit and data analytics technology to analyse financial information and flag unusual transactions and patterns. Technology is a tool, though, not a substitute for experience. Professional judgement, professional scepticism and partner involvement remain central to every audit.

Talk to us before it becomes an ASIC problem

If your 30 June 2026 statutory audit has not started, has stalled or needs urgent attention, talk to us about getting your audit and financial reporting back on track.