Certificates and deadlines

Contracts run on certificates, and certificates run out. The dates are already set.

For a firm whose deadlines come from a regulator, a contract or a statute: they do not arrive together. Each one sits with a different body, on a different clock, in a different format, and none of them is anybody's whole job.

Four duties with dates attached

Every duty below was set by somebody else, and every consequence of missing one lands on you.

Anti-money-laundering paperwork: for a law firm that signs the yearly declaration

The rules require a firm-wide risk assessment and a written set of policies and controls, and the regulator asks you to declare each year that yours are in place and current. Its own review of these risk assessments found fewer than half fully compliant. Templates are everywhere and they're the problem: a set that describes your firm is the work.

Keeping certificates current: for a supplier whose contracts depend on them

Cyber Essentials renews every year for as long as the contract runs. An ISO standard needs its surveillance audit and the evidence behind it. The health and social care data toolkit has a fixed June date. In 2025, thousands of adult social care providers had nothing published against that June date. Each scheme chases its own renewal on its own terms, which is why they are easy to hold one at a time and hard to hold together.

The statements bigger firms publish: for a firm that has just crossed the line

Section 172 statements, modern slavery statements, gender pay gap narratives, energy and carbon reporting. Each has its own size test and the tests move: the section 172 threshold changed for financial years starting on or after 6 April 2025. From 2027, employers of 250 or more are expected to publish an action plan beside the pay gap numbers.

Norwegian filing deadlines: for a firm with a company in Norway

A Norwegian company files to a statutory calendar, in Norwegian, through Altinn, the government's own portal. Late filing carries a fee that rises on its own, and the board can be personally liable for it. This is that calendar kept in English, with the filings made to it.

Who this is for, and who it is not

For a firm whose deadlines come from a regulator, a contract or a statute rather than from a competition.
If what you're looking at is a tender, grant or award instead, that is Before you commit and The writing.

Where to start

The first read is free, and it looks at the dates that gate contracts you already hold. Ask what is out there for a firm like yours, or name what you are going for. Ongoing help with certificates and deadlines is a different service, and if that's what you want, the form has a space for you to say so in your own words.

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