First Accounting Period Not Showing on Your Dashboard

Clear Books Tax shows filing periods based on your company's accounting reference date (ARD) at Companies House. For newly incorporated companies, the very first accounting period is sometimes not picked up automatically if it was due before you registered with Clear Books Tax, or if Companies House lists it as an overdue obligation rather than a current one.

Why Your First Period May Not Show

When a company is incorporated, its first accounting period runs from the date of incorporation to the first accounting reference date. This period can be up to 18 months long. If your first period ended more than a few months ago, Clear Books Tax may not have surfaced it automatically because:

• The accounts were already overdue when you added your company to Clear Books Tax
• Companies House records it differently from ongoing annual obligations
• The period predates your Clear Books Tax registration

What to Do

Your first-year filing period can be added to your dashboard manually. To request this:

1. Reply to this support message with the exact start and end dates of the missing period — these will be on the HMRC CT603 (Notice to Deliver) for that period
2. We will add the period to your Clear Books Tax dashboard so you can complete the CT600 and accounts

You can find your period dates on the Notice to Deliver a Company Tax Return (CT603) that HMRC sent for that period. If you no longer have the letter, you can check your HMRC business Government Gateway account under Corporation Tax.

Already Filed Elsewhere?

If you already filed your first-year CT600 directly with HMRC (not through Clear Books Tax), once the period is added to your dashboard you can mark it as "filed elsewhere" to keep your records up to date.