Write your own requirement

Most of what a group of companies owes comes from statute, and IQ Entities ships those duties already written. The rest is yours: the annual review of the register of interests the board asked for, the covenant certificate a lender expects, the policy attestation your auditors look for. Writing one of these as a requirement means it raises a task, on a date, for every company that owes it.

Before you start, decide one thing: does the duty come round on a rhythm (every year, every quarter), or does something happening to a company set it off (a new director, a change of address)? The wizard asks different questions for each.

Start a new requirement

1. In Administration, open Requirements and choose New requirement.

   

2. On What this is, give the duty a Title and a Description. The description is what the task and the calendar show, so write it for the person who will do the work. Leave Category (optional) blank and it takes its name from what the duty asks for. Keep Active ticked unless you want to save it without it raising anything yet. Choose Next.

   

3. On What sets it off, choose It comes round for a duty on a rhythm, or Something happens for one a change to a company's records sets off. If you choose Something happens, the same step asks what happens and how long after it the duty is due.

   

Say what it asks for and when

4. On What it asks for, choose the kind of duty. Each card shows what happens from start to finish.

   

   The duty is met when…	Choose
   Someone attaches a document, such as a signed certificate	Upload a document
   IQ Entities drafts a document from the company's data	Generate a document
   The people in scope have had their identity verified	Verify identities (KYC)
   A filing has been made with a registry or regulator outside IQ Entities	Record a filing made outside IQ Entities

   For Upload a document, you can name the tag the document will carry. With a tag, the duty reads as met when the company has any document carrying it. Leave it blank for a one-off ask, met by attaching the document to the task.

5. On When it is due, set the rule that puts a date on it, for example 0 days after the incorporation anniversary, repeating every year. Lead days is how many days before the due date the task appears.

   

Tell people what to do, check it and save

6. On What people are told, write the note that reaches whoever has to do the work. Put the obligation itself in Why this exists and what is expected of you, and where to go in the app in How to do it in IQ Entities.

   

7. On Check it, read the example dates to make sure the rule does what you meant. Try a date shows the result for a date of your own.

   

8. On Confirm, read the summary. Under Which law or agreement requires this? you can link the duty to a framework, so every group that follows the framework owes it. Choose Save.

   

9. The requirement is listed on the Mine tab, where its menu offers Open, Edit and Retire.

   

Nothing owes a new requirement yet. It reaches companies once you assign it to a group: see Assign requirements to a group.

Tips from practice

• Write the description as an instruction to the person doing the work, not as a note to yourself. It is the first thing they read on the task.
• Use a document tag when the same kind of document comes back every year. The register then shows at a glance which companies have this year's on file.
• Check the example dates for an anniversary rule against a company incorporated on 29 February or at a month end before you save.
• If the duty is statutory and missing from the catalogue, choose Ask us for something rather than writing your own version of the law.