Guidance

The first time your charity uses the ‘Update charity details’ service

We changed our services in November 2018. Check what you need to do to before you can submit your annual return or update details like contact information.

• From: The Charity Commission
• Published: 11 September 2019

This guidance was withdrawn on 8 September 2023

This page is no longer current. Read how to update your charity’s details

Applies to England and Wales

The first time you use the service

You’ll usually need to confirm your charity’s details in the ‘Update Charity Details’ service before you can start your annual return if your charity:

• last submitted an annual return before 12 November 2018
• has not done an annual return before

To use the ‘Update Charity Details’ service for the first time:

1. Sign in and choose ‘Update Charity Details’ from your available services.
2. You’ll be taken through 6 sections. You’ll need to confirm, update or fill in each page in order.
3. Click the ‘Submit’ button on the last section (Bank accounts) to submit your information.

You must submit this information before you do your annual return. If you do not submit it, and you select ‘Annual Return’ from your available services, you will first automatically be taken to the ‘Update Charity Details’ service.

Any time you use the service after submitting your details for the first time, you’ll be able to edit and save individual details.

Download a full list of all charity details that are in the Update Charity Details service (ODT, 139 KB)

Sign in to use the service.

Details you need to confirm

A lot of information will already be in the service, for example all the details that are on the public register:

• activities and their classification
• whether your charity owns or leases land or buildings
• areas your charity operates in
• your charity’s public address
• your charity’s policies
• your charity’s other regulators
• the names of your charity’s trustees

Some information is not on the public register and may not already be in the service. You’ll need to be able to add this if it’s missing. This includes:

• all trustees’ details
• the charity contact’s personal and contact details
• the charity’s bank account details

Who gets notified when you make changes

We email the charity contact and the person making the changes to confirm a change has been made.

We also email any trustees whose personal details you have changed to tell them that their record has been updated.

Details you might need to collect before you Sign in

Trustees

The record for each trustee includes:

• title (optional)
• given name
• family name
• suffix (optional)
• home address
• email address (or confirm the trustee does not have one)
• telephone number
• date of birth

Only the trustee’s full name will be shown on the public register.

You need to know who all your current trustees are and be able to:

• remove trustees if they’re no longer trustees - you’ll need the date they resigned
• add new trustees that aren’t on the list - you’ll need the date they became a trustee and their date of birth, email address, home address and phone number
• check or update existing trustees’ contact details, including home address, email address and phone number

We use trustee email addresses to:

• let them know when their details have been changed
• send a quarterly email update
• send emails with regulatory information

Details for role of charity contact

This information will need to be provided for 1 charity contact. It will not be shown to the public. The Charity Commission will use this to contact your charity.

• title (optional)
• given name
• family name
• suffix (optional)
• address
• email address
• telephone number
• date of birth

Bank accounts

This information will not be shown to the public.

For a bank account, you need to provide:

• sort code of the bank
• bank account number
• name of the account

For a building society account, you need to provide:

• full name of the building society
• account number
• roll or reference number
• name of the account

Help using the service

Seeing what information is missing for your charity

If information is missing on one page, you will need to provide it before you can view the next page. In order, the sections that you need to work through are:

1. Activities and classifications

2. Areas of operation

3. Trustees and contact

4. Public address

5. Governance

6. Bank accounts

You can only submit it when you’ve completed each section in order.

Trustees’ email addresses

When you add an email address for a trustee, it will also update their email address for all trustee roles that person has at other charities.

You must add an email address for each trustee, unless you can confirm that the trustee does not have an email address.

To confirm that a trustee does not have an email address you need to:

1. Leave the email field blank for that trustee.

2. Click confirm at the bottom of the page.

3. Return to the email field, and tick the box that has appeared underneath it, to confirm the trustee does not have an email address.

4. Click confirm at the bottom of the page again to save.

Use this guide to confirming a trustee does not have an email address (PDF, 196 KB) if you need to do this for any trustees.

Trustee full legal name

You must give all trustees’ full legal names. If using their legal name would cause a trustee personal danger, they can apply for permission to use a display name.

Bank accounts

You must use the sort code finder to add new bank account details.

You cannot edit the account number for existing bank accounts, you’ll need to remove it and create a new record.

Use this guide to adding or editing bank accounts (PDF, 196 KB) if you need to make any changes.

‘Gift Aid number’ or HMRC charity reference number

If relevant, the service will ask you for your Gift Aid number - this is your HMRC charity reference number.

Published 11 September 2019