ROCAP: Complete and Check the Company Report

What a ROCAP Records

A ROCAP records what the company owns and owes, together with information about its operations and financial history. Australian insolvency practitioners and solicitors use the supporting records to explain the director’s answers and identify questions requiring follow-up.

Start with the company’s legal name and Australian Company Number (ACN). Identify the appointment, the person required to respond and the reporting position specified for that appointment. A winding-up order, an administrator’s appointment and a controller’s request can lead to different reporting requirements.

ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, supplies Version 2 through its Form 507 downloads. Download Part A and Part B with both sets of instructions. Keep the selected form with the request so everyone works from the same package.

Establish the Request and Assemble the Records

Establish the applicable obligation before calculating the return deadline. Keep the person’s deadline for giving the report to the practitioner separate from the practitioner’s ASIC lodgement deadline.

1. Record the appointment route and governing section beside the request. Identify the recipient and the event that starts the response period.
2. Set the reporting position required by that route. For a section 475(1) court liquidation, this is the winding-up order position or an earlier position specified by the liquidator.
3. Calculate the response period and record any permitted extension. Under section 475(4), the ordinary period is 10 business days after the winding-up order. Section 475(6) requires a written extension application before that period expires and a written grant where special reasons exist.
4. Record the separate lodgement task. ASIC’s court-liquidation flowchart specifies five business days after receipt for the liquidator’s Form 507 lodgement, with the applicable verification documents. Section 475(7) also requires a copy filed with the Court.

These periods belong to that court-liquidation example. Under section 438B(2), directors ordinarily give the voluntary administrator their report within five business days after administration begins, subject to a longer period allowed. Use the Corporations Act for the actual appointment. A receiver’s response period cannot be carried into a liquidation file.

Collect bank statements for every company account, accounting exports, asset records and debtor invoices. Add creditor statements, tax balances, payroll records, security documents and company-history material. ASIC’s Part A instructions ask for financial records covering the last four years. Match the actual request’s periods as well.

Keep a collection schedule showing each record’s holder, period covered and missing periods. If the payroll export is incomplete, name who can supply it and record the request. The underlying section 286 Corporations Act record-keeping obligation is a separate question from whether this report’s answers are supported.

Complete the Asset and Liability Schedules

Complete each schedule from evidence at the reporting position and identify the basis of every estimate. Use the current appendix fields for the formal attachments. The following fictional example is a supporting reconciliation for Harbour Workshop Pty Ltd, not a completed ASIC form.

Fictional Asset Schedule

All figures and records below are invented. The reporting position is the winding-up order. There are no intervening transactions requiring adjustment in this example.

The cash schedule totals $20,000 and agrees with the two statement balances. Receivables retain their $30,000 outstanding amount even though estimated recovery is lower. The workshop’s carrying amount, assumed sale value and selling costs remain visible separately. An actual valuation comes from its proper source.

A possible insurance recovery has no supportable amount yet. Record it as unresolved with the claim reference and request for the insurer’s response. Entering zero would imply an assessed nil value. Do not describe the subtotal as the company’s complete asset position while that claim remains unresolved.

Fictional Liability Schedule

A further $5,000 supplier demand is disputed and excluded from the $35,000 agreed supplier total. List it separately with the demand and the company’s explanation. The practitioner can see quantified liabilities of $160,000 plus the disputed $5,000 claim without mistaking either for an admitted distribution amount.

Record the secured debt at $100,000. Do not deduct it from the workshop and then count it again as a liability. Security scope and creditor priority require their own assessment. These subtotals are not a dividend calculation.

Identify property held for another person separately. In this example, customer-owned equipment on the premises is listed for identification but excluded from company-owned assets. If the company acts as trustee, identify the trust activity and supply the trust deed. Refer ownership and security questions to the responsible practitioner before treating property as available to company creditors.

Explain the Company History and Financial Transactions

Explain company history from contemporaneous records and distinguish the director’s account from established transaction facts. Part B asks about trading history, record locations, transfers and related-party dealings. Its questions and appendix tables determine the information to supply.

For example, a fictional statement shows a $4,000 payment to a director’s related company shortly before appointment. Record the payee and source page, then attach the invoice or agreement explaining the payment. If the director says it repays a loan, record that explanation and whether the loan records support it. An unexplained transfer remains an enquiry, not a misconduct finding.

A categorised statement ledger lets you total cash movements and locate the supporting pages without rebuilding each transaction by hand. If opening cash is $28,000, receipts are $42,000 and payments are $50,000, closing cash is $20,000. Match that result to the bank accounts and explain any timing difference or missing statement period. If the accounting postings cannot be supported, general ledger reconstruction addresses that wider accounting task.

FinTrace saves practitioners hours of statement conversion and review by delivering one searchable, categorised Excel ledger with a clear findings report. Source PDF filenames and page references put the evidence behind cash movements directly at hand. That ledger supports the ROCAP cash answers. Asset ownership documents, valuations and liability records supply the other schedules, and the responding person makes the declaration.

Separate Public and Confidential Material

Prepare two controlled packages before handing the report to the practitioner. Part A is Form 507, with its required attachments and applicable verification. Part B and its tables contain information for the practitioner and stay outside the public ASIC lodgement.

Name the files so their purpose is visible and use a package inventory. Review every attachment’s contents, including combined PDFs. A file labelled Part A can still contain an accidentally appended Part B page. Private identity records and access credentials require separate controlled handling.

Follow the appendix and annexure instructions for the relevant package. Keep question references, page numbering and signatures attached to the correct part. Do not move required Part A information into Part B merely to conceal it from the public package.

ASIC’s ROCAP confidentiality instructions require an electronic Form 106 withdrawal request if Part B is lodged accidentally. A new Form 507 must then be lodged without Part B. Keep evidence of the request and replacement, and verify ASIC’s response instead of treating the request as completed removal.

Review, Submit and Verify the Handoff

Review the exact signed package against the approved schedules before the responsible person returns it to the named practitioner.

1. Match the entity identity and reporting position across the form and attachments. Recalculate subtotals and reconcile cash and creditor balances.
2. Read each unresolved answer. State the available information, estimate basis and outstanding request without replacing an unknown amount with zero.
3. Check the applicable declarations and signatures. Part A includes A9, Part B includes B31, and the section 475(1) court-liquidation route also uses Form 507A. Confirm the practitioner’s required certification for lodgement.
4. Compare every page of the proposed public package with its inventory. Confirm that Part B and its tables are absent and that required Part A attachments remain present.
5. Return the report through the practitioner’s specified channel and retain their receipt. The authorised lodger then follows the applicable ASIC process. Keep the signed version, source schedule and any ASIC lodgement acknowledgement together.

If cash fails to reconcile, compare the account inventory with statement periods and check for duplicate transfers or omitted entries. A missing signature requires the correct person’s signed version before handoff. If the acknowledgement identifies a different company or document, escalate to the responsible practitioner and resolve the mismatch.

The handoff is verified when the practitioner has the signed report, the retained submitted copy matches the intended public package and applicable lodgement evidence identifies the correct company. Record outstanding enquiries and later corrections against that version. The recipient’s wider work is explained in what does a liquidator do.