How to structure a company compliance tracker in Google Sheets

Google Sheets can be a reasonable compliance working surface for a practice that wants familiar tables alongside its existing systems. To remain understandable, the tracker needs stable company identifiers, separate obligation records, clearly labelled source and practice dates, visible uncertainty and a repeatable review process. A free-form sheet becomes fragile when one cell carries several meanings or only its creator knows which values can be changed.

The structure should let another authorised person explain a row without guessing: which company and obligation it represents, where the important date came from, whether the practice selected a different target and what still needs review. That requirement applies whether information is entered manually or refreshed through a connection.

This guide distinguishes a recommended spreadsheet model from fields actually present in the current Obnexo workbook. It is an explanation of structure and controls, not a downloadable spreadsheet template.

A familiar interface can reduce the work involved in adopting a shared review surface. Tables can be filtered and sorted, and a practice can retain separate working analyses alongside its established document and communication systems. There is no need to migrate billing or client correspondence merely to improve the visibility of filing work.

Flexibility needs clear boundaries. Decide which cells the connection updates, how users save changes and where actions or case notes belong. A personal analysis should not become an undocumented alternative to the agreed practice record.

A fuller practice-management system may be more suitable when the central requirement is staff allocation, approval chains, granular permissions, integrated client communication or capacity planning. A spreadsheet can still assist analysis, but it should not silently become responsible for controls it does not provide.

Follow the workbook from overview to detail: Dashboard summarises matters needing attention across the portfolio; Companies gives each tracked company its own row; Obligations separates the filing matters. Accounts and confirmation statements can therefore be reviewed independently for the same company.

For a closer look at dates and checks, use the Data tab. It shows the date being used to plan work (Working deadline), your saved internal target (Practice target date) and the Companies House deadline (CH deadline), alongside reasons to review a record. These cells display information from the connection; they are not a place to type changes.

To save an internal target or a date decision, select the relevant row and use the Inspector panel. You must choose Save. Saving can be unavailable if the filing period has not been confirmed. Typing over a refreshed cell does not save the decision; keep your own analysis outside the cells Obnexo updates.

Official source facts are observed information from an authoritative record: a company number, a reported filing deadline or an evidenced period end. Record the source and when it was checked. A date copied from an old spreadsheet is not newly verified merely because the new sheet displays it neatly.

Derived statutory dates apply a particular rule to verified facts. For example, a dedicated accounts calculator needs the relevant registered dates and supported first or later accounts conditions. A correct calculation can still answer the wrong question if the period, scope or exception assumptions are wrong. Preserve those assumptions with the result.

Internal practice dates are operational choices: request records, prepare, review, obtain approval or target submission. The practice may choose a buffer before the statutory deadline. These dates do not amend the legal obligation and should not overwrite its source information.

Obnexo uses Companies House deadlines reported for the obligations it covers; it does not calculate every legal date from a year end. The date used to plan work is your saved target, if present, otherwise available Companies House information. Working deadline basis explains that choice. Source check tells you whether the Companies House check succeeded.

A displayed date may come from existing information without a successful Companies House check. Obnexo labels that position Baseline only, rather than CH checked. The checked Companies House deadline may be unavailable even while a working date is shown. Investigate the warning before relying on the date. An earlier internal target, by contrast, may be deliberate and is not an error simply because it differs.

The table separates information in Obnexo from records your practice maintains elsewhere. Do not add these external records inside the cells Obnexo updates. Link them by company number and filing matter, rather than a row number that may change after sorting.

Make the editing and review rules visible. These are recommendations for spreadsheet-based work; the text identifies the controls Obnexo already provides.

A copied-once date can look current indefinitely. Check whether the sheet distinguishes the latest successful source check from the latest attempt or recalculation. In Obnexo, a previous Last successful CH check may remain visible after a later failed check, so read it with Source check.

A column labelled only Deadline can mix a statutory date, an internal target and a date guessed from a previous cycle. Split the meanings. Similarly, a row containing several unrelated obligations can hide which one is approaching and which has already been reviewed.

Colour-only statuses and unexplained abbreviations transfer interpretation to one person's memory. Exceptions in email or cell comments can disappear from the review when a filter changes. Maintain explicit review information and link separately held case context through stable identifiers.

Overwriting a formula or refreshed value may make a date look corrected without saving the decision. Use the proper save action, then reopen or refresh the record to check the result. In Obnexo, a save can succeed even if the display update fails; distinguish the two before trying again.

Finally, a technically tidy sheet can still lack a review routine. The owner may know how to use it while a colleague cannot find the right view. A regular review and a short handover note are controls on interpretation as well as on data quality.

In this fictional example, company 00000001 has an accounts period end of 31 March 2026 and a checked Companies House deadline of 31 December 2026. That deadline is a supplied source fact, not a new statutory calculation. The assessment date is 4 October 2026.

The rows are alternative internal targets for the same fictional record, not three obligations. The difference is measured in calendar days against the Companies House deadline. Other source or period problems could still require review; this comparison isolates the target itself.

A static template holds what someone entered. A connected sheet can bring refreshed source information into the review, but you still need to know how to request an update, whether the check succeeded and which obligations it covers.

In Obnexo, you start a refresh for all tracked companies or one selected company through the add-on. The view brings the available Companies House information together with your saved targets and decisions, keeping them distinct. Review any warnings after refreshing; do not assume every record has been checked successfully.

You can record a decision to retain your target or revisit a date change, using Keep practice target or Review date change. These choices belong to a confirmed filing period; a new cycle needs fresh choices. Suggested next step offers guidance, such as checking evidence or reviewing a target. It does not assign the work or establish completion.

Ask another authorised person to identify the companies in scope, find where an important date came from, distinguish statutory and internal dates, find entries needing review and explain how current the information is. Then ask what should happen next. Supply the documented access route, but avoid explaining each row aloud.

For an illustrative two-company check, give them one ordinary upcoming accounts record and one confirmation-statement record with uncertain source information. The audit passes that narrow test only if they recognise both the planned work and the uncertainty. A plausible date for the second record is not an adequate answer when its basis is unknown.

The current workbook scope described here is supported Companies House accounts and confirmation statements. It does not establish every company obligation, calculate a complete tax calendar, file documents or verify filing acceptance. Its Filing completion value is Unknown. Check authoritative records and apply professional judgement to the particular company.

This structure does not provide professional backup arrangements, a complete audit trail, client chasing or a full practice-management system. Sharing a spreadsheet is not by itself proof that another person has the product access or authority to make decisions. Confirm both separately, and use the supported desktop Google Sheets workflow.