Skip to main content

Filing Wizard

The Filing Wizard guides you through the regulated capture and finalisation steps that happen between Draft and Awaiting Lodgement. It is the surface where the Section 61 acknowledgement, the signatory declaration, and the artifact generation all happen, in a strict order, with named audit-trail entries at every transition.

You enter the wizard from the Filing page in CoralLedger Comply, after you have generated a draft return for the period.

The five steps​

Comply renders the wizard as a numbered timeline:

#StepWhat happensAudit event(s) written
1Transaction ReviewYou confirm that every transaction for the period is imported, categorised, and accounted for.(no audit write)
2VAT ValidationThe 10-point validation runs; you address blocking issues.(no audit write)
3Document GenerationPre-flight check that the artifacts can be generated cleanly.(no audit write)
4ApprovalYou complete the Section 61 acknowledgement and the signatory capture. The return transitions Draft → Ready to File.ACK_SECTION61, then RETURN_APPROVED_BY_SIGNATORY
5SubmissionComply generates the PDF, XML, Excel, and Form 301 artifacts atomically and transitions Ready to File → Filing in Progress → Awaiting Lodgement.FILING_INITIATED, FILING_ARTIFACTS_GENERATED

After step 5 you are presented with a Filing Artifacts Ready success card — described below in What "Filing Artifacts Ready" means.

Step 4: Approval — Section 61 acknowledgement​

When you click Approve at step 4, Comply opens the Approve Filing dialog. The first panel is the Penalty Acknowledgement.

The dialog records your review of the penalty exposure that applies under the Value Added Tax Act, 2014 and your acceptance of responsibility for the accuracy of this return:

Under the Value Added Tax Act, 2014, penalties for understatement or evasion apply. This acknowledgement records your review of that exposure and your acceptance of responsibility for the accuracy of this return.

You tick the acknowledgement checkbox — "I have reviewed the penalty exposure under the VAT Act and accept responsibility for the accuracy of this return" — to proceed. When you do, Comply writes an audit-ledger entry (event identifier ACK_SECTION61) before it transitions the return state. The entry is recorded with neutral wording — "User acknowledged regulatory exposure under the VAT Act before filing return for [period]". This ordering matters — see Audit-before-lock.

note

The dialog does not quote a specific penalty percentage or compute a dollar figure. Section 61 of the VAT Act is "Assessment as evidence in proceedings" — an evidentiary provision, not a penalty section — so no "% of unpaid VAT" multiplier is shown. The audit event retains the identifier ACK_SECTION61 for continuity with the existing audit schema. The statutory fines for late filing and late payment are set out in s. 47A — see Assessments, Interest, and Penalties.

Step 4: Approval — Signatory capture​

Below the acknowledgement panel is the Authorised Signatory panel. Comply captures three things:

  • Full Name — the natural-person name of the individual signing for this return, up to 200 characters.
  • Capacity — a drop-down listing the four Signatory Capacities recognised by Bahamian VAT practice.
  • "I confirm I am authorised…" checkbox — a separate declaration distinct from the penalty acknowledgement.

When you click Approve to close the dialog, Comply writes a RETURN_APPROVED_BY_SIGNATORY audit-ledger entry capturing the name and capacity, then transitions the return state to Ready to File.

§32 attestation prefill​

If your CoralLedger account has an active §32 attestation for this client business (you are the BICA-licensed practitioner of record), Comply will pre-fill your name and set Capacity to BICA-Licensed Practitioner. The prefill is checked at the moment the dialog opens via a single correlated existence query against both your active client assignment and your active attestation record — see Section 32 Attestation Overview for how that determination is made.

You can override the prefilled values if a different signatory is signing this specific return.

Is a §32 attestation also required for this return?

The Signatory Capacity Declaration captured here is a per-return artefact — it is required on every return regardless of client type. It is not the same as a §32 attestation in the firm-admin lifecycle.

  • If your client is in a §3 restricted segment (per Julian's CLR memorandum §3 — construction with retention, retainer-billed services, SaaS subscription, real-estate developers, and similar regulated categories), the firm must also have an Active persistent §32 attestation for this (client, practitioner) pair before the return can be lodged. See §32 Attestation Lifecycle (Firm Admin).
  • If your client is not in a restricted segment, the Signatory Capacity Declaration captured here is sufficient on its own.

If you are unsure whether your client is in a restricted segment, see Carve-Outs.

Signatory capacities​

The four capacities recognised by Bahamian VAT practice are:

CapacityWho this isWhen to pick it
Registered TaxpayerThe registered business owner or director, signing personally.The most common capacity for sole traders and small businesses filing their own returns.
BICA-Licensed PractitionerA practising accountant licensed by the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants, signing under their §32 attestation authority for the client.When you are a firm staff member of record under a §32 attestation. Prefill defaults to this when applicable.
Authorised EmployeeAn employee of the registered taxpayer with written internal authority to sign returns on the taxpayer's behalf.Use when an internal finance officer or controller signs for the registrant. The internal authorisation is the registrant's record-keeping responsibility, not Comply's.
Authorised AgentA third-party agent who is not a BICA-licensed practitioner, signing under a separate written authorisation from the registrant.Less common; used by registered tax-return preparers who are not licensed accountants.

The capacity value is recorded on the RETURN_APPROVED_BY_SIGNATORY audit entry and is durable for the 7-year retention period.

Audit-before-lock​

A subtle but important design choice: the two audit entries from step 4 — ACK_SECTION61 and RETURN_APPROVED_BY_SIGNATORY — are written before the return is locked from edits.

If the audit ledger is briefly unavailable (a backend transient), Comply will surface the error and leave the return unlocked so you can retry. The alternative — locking first, then attempting the audit write — would risk a state where the return is locked but no attestation evidence exists. That outcome would be regulatorily worse than leaving the return unlocked.

You will not normally notice this behaviour because audit writes are fast. It matters during incident recovery.

Step 5: Submission​

When you click the Submit Filing button at step 5, Comply runs the finalisation routine, which:

  1. Locks the return for concurrent modification using a database-level compare-and-swap. A second concurrent caller (e.g. a duplicate browser tab) sees an error and does not duplicate work.
  2. Generates the PDF, XML, Excel, and Form 301 artifacts inside a single retry-safe transaction. Either all four are produced or none are persisted.
  3. Writes two audit-ledger entries: FILING_INITIATED (the start-of-finalisation marker) and FILING_ARTIFACTS_GENERATED (the end-of-finalisation marker, carrying the artifact set's identifiers).
  4. Transitions the return through Ready to File → Filing in Progress → Awaiting Lodgement.

If finalisation fails partway, Comply rolls the return back to Ready to File so you can retry without re-doing the approval step.

What "Filing Artifacts Ready" means​

After step 5 completes, Comply displays a card titled Filing Artifacts Ready. The wording is deliberate — Comply has prepared everything you need to submit to the DIR, but Comply itself has not submitted anything. The actual submission to the Department of Inland Revenue happens externally:

  • via the DIR's OTAS online portal,
  • by walking the artifacts into a DIR office (Nassau or Freeport), or
  • via an authorised agent.

The Filing Artifacts Ready card offers three actions:

  • Download PDF — a human-readable summary for your records and for in-person filings.
  • Download XML — the DIR-accepted submission format for upload via OTAS.
  • Record DIR Acknowledgement — the in-app capture you complete after the DIR confirms receipt of your submission. See Record DIR Acknowledgement for the full flow.

While the return sits in Awaiting Lodgement, no further audit-ledger writes happen — the next lifecycle event is when you record the lodgement.

Why the wizard exists​

The five-step structure encodes three regulatory facts:

  1. The penalty acknowledgement is not a hidden term in a generic ToS — Comply surfaces the penalty exposure that applies under the VAT Act and asks for an explicit acknowledgement, recorded under the ACK_SECTION61 audit event.
  2. The signatory declaration is captured per-return, with the name and capacity persisted to the audit ledger. There is no "signed once, applies forever" shortcut.
  3. Comply does not file on your behalf with the DIR. The artifacts-ready / submitted distinction is enforced in the UI wording so a reader cannot confuse the two.

These choices align with the principle from the §32 Attestation Pathway that the regulatorily binding act happens in person between the registrant (or their authorised signatory) and the DIR — not silently inside the platform.

Next steps​