The much anticipated My Charity Commission Account service went live on 31 July 2023. This system has replaced all previous online ways of engaging with the Charity Commission. Trustees should receive emails from the Commission inviting them to sign up for the new system. The Commission has published guidance on setting up an account.

The way the system works is, in essence, as follows. Everyone should set up their own personal account. The actions that you can carry out through the system then depend on what 'permissions' have been granted to your account and will include:

• submitting Annual Returns (and any charities that did not complete their 2022 Annual Return by 31 July 2023 will have to start over using the My Charity Commission Account);
• updating charity details;
• changing a charity’s governing document;
• changing a charity’s name; and
• changing a charity’s financial year-end.

The charity’s named contact will have all the permissions and will have the power to grant permissions to other people’s accounts. The plan is that the My Charity Commission Account will become a sort of 'one-stop-shop' for all engagement with the Commission, and the Commission also plan to introduce guidance through the system.

As explained above, a change from the current online system is that each person will have their own account, rather than the online account being linked to the charity. For example, if you are a trustee of several charities or an accountant advising several charities then you should give the same email address and personal information to the named contact of each charity and then, when you log in, you will see all the charities for which you have been permitted (by the relevant named contact) to carry out actions.

So what should you do now?

• The first thing to do is to set up your personal account. You may receive an email from the Charity Commission inviting you to do this. For information about how to do this, see the Charity Commission’s guidance.
• Next, if you are the charity’s named contact, you need to make sure you have the right details for all the charity’s trustees and third parties (e.g. accountants and lawyers) and then start granting their accounts the relevant permissions.
• As with most online services, the best advice is probably to read through the guidance and have a bit of a 'play around' on the system to see how it works.

The Commission is prepared for bumps in the road and lots of questions. If you have any questions, you can contact the Commission on 0300 066 9197 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) or at myaccount@charitycommission.gov.uk.