For many years AFSL (Australian Financial Services Licence) holders have been used to the process of lodging the form FS70 (Australian financial services licensee profit and loss statement and balance sheet) each year after the completion of their annual audit.
While there have been some minor changes over the years, such as the removal of postal & in person lodgements, transition from SPFR to GPFR and minor formatting updates, the process has been quite consistent. However, in 2025 ASIC has completely overhauled the process and confused many AFSL holders and professional advisers while doing so.
In Summary
From 2025 Onwards:
The forms (FS70 & FS71) have been renamed
Form numbers removed
Lodgement is moved to the AFS Licensing Dashboard within the ASIC Regulatory Portal
The questions asked are significantly more extensive.
The new forms include pre-filled data to make it easier to fill some details.
There is no longer a pdf version of what was called the FS70.
Contents:
Instructions for AusAudit clients
Details of FS70 / FS71 form changes
Accessing the new portal
New submitting AFSL financials form
Shared Access
For AusAudit Clients
If you are not yet a client of Australian Audit, we would love to hear from you to see how we can assist with your audit requirements.
Once you audit has been completed, we will provide you with a fully signed copy of your annual general purpose financial statements (including your signed director’s declaration and our signed audit opinion) and the signed Auditor’s report for Australian financial services licensee (previously FS71).
You can then proceed to draft your Submit Australian financial services licence annual financial statements in the AFS Licensing Dashboard. The below guide should assist you to complete this more easily.
At the ‘review’ screen, print to pdf and send us a copy for review before you proceed to lodgement.
Forms
AFSL Holder Financial statements
Previous name: FS70- Australian financial services licensee profit and loss statement and balance sheet
New name: Submit Australian financial services licence annual financial statements
Lodgement options: Now only available from the AFS Licensing Dashboard within the ASIC Regulatory Portal (https://regulatoryportal.asic.gov.au/).
Form length: Was 6 page pdf form plus 2 page guide. Now the completed form printed to pdf is 32 pages long.
AFSL Auditor form
Previous name: FS71- Auditor’s Report for AFS Licensee
New name: Auditor’s report for Australian financial services licensee
Lodgement options: Upload pdf to ASIC as part of FS70/AFSL annual financial statements
Form length: Was 15 page pdf form plus 3 page guide. New form is the same length.
The new form includes the ASIC logo at the top of the first page, using an out of date form will make it very difficult for the AFSL holder to lodge their financial statements, as they are asked questions about the content of the auditor’s report.
Accessing the new Portal
For an AFSL holder to submit their annual financial statements, they first need to access the correct form within the new portal as follows:
Log into the ASIC Regulatory Portal (https://regulatoryportal.asic.gov.au/).
Some common login issues are resolved by using a different browser
ASIC has many different portals, be sure to use the regulatory portal for AFSL lodgements
Select the appropriate entity, and then click on ‘AFS licensing dashboard’ button
On the next screen select ‘view transactions’ if you wish to see past or draft lodgements or ‘start a new transaction’ for a new lodgement.
Submitting AFSL financials form
Select the form called ‘Submit Australian financial services licence annual financial statements’ .
Work through the form from start to end
You can save your progress and return at a later time to complete further
Some of the fields will be pre-filled based on ASIC or other commonwealth records
When you get to the review screen, you can print your responses for your records and checking prior to lodgement
You will only see questions you have answered / that were presented to you in your form
Click ‘next’ for your fee summary. If any fees are payable you will have the option to pay or request an invoice
This is followed by a declaration to sign confirming responses in the form and then a confirmation of lodgement
After lodgement you can select ‘View transactions’, select the relevant transactions and click on ‘view record of transaction’ in order to download a formal pdf of your lodged transaction
The download option will initially be greyed out, and may take a few minutes or hours before it is available to download.
The download will not include copies of the pdf that you uploaded as part of the transaction
Questions in the AFSL Financials Form
The new form is designed to only show questions relevant based on your responses. Because of this not every question will be visible every time you complete the form. However, every question and every guidance box is visible in the formal pdf record of the transaction that can be downloaded after lodgement.
We have tried to highlight some of the main questions below to give you an idea of what is included in the form. You will note that this is significantly more extensive than the details that were included in the previous form FS70.
About the licensee: Prefilled information of the licensee's name and numbers.
Financial year and lodgement requirements:
What financial year the report is for - you will only be able to select years that haven’t yet been lodged to ASIC
Whether the entity is a disclosing entity - generally disclosing entities are either ASX listed or companies with over 100 shareholders
Whether the entity held a limited AFSL - the question is confusing in the way it is worded. Limited AFSL are mostly accounting firms that can only give advice around superannuation. Most AFSL are not a limited AFSL and will answer no to this question.
Was the licensee only licensed to provide one or more limited financial services as defined in reg 7.8.12A(4) of the Corporations Regulations 2001 for any part of the financial year to which this transaction relates?
Did the AFSL deal with client money
Financial and other details:
Summary financial information from financial statements
Description of principal business - select from the drop down - frequently selected options include:
Provider of personal advice on relevant financial products to retail clients
Provider of personal or general advice to wholesale clients only
Provider of general advice to retail or wholesale clients
Managed discretionary account provider
Retail over-the-counter derivatives issuer
Securities dealer
Insurance product distributor
Claims handling and settling services provider
Responsible entity
Custodian
Dividends, options, indemnification, proceedings
Responsible entity / IDPS / CCIVs - NTA, cash, liquid assets, revenue, etc
Custodial or depository services - NTA, cash, liquid assets, revenue, etc
OTC derivative issuer - liabilities, NTA, cash, revenue, etc
Professional indemnity insurance requirements
Was PI insurance required?
Sum insured, excess, PI insurance claims
Compliance certificate: A self-declaration for the licensee to make about various required aspects of their licence. This is only applicable for AFSL holding a limited licence.
Auditor’s report: For AFSL holders with a full licence that required an annual audit. This section asks details about the auditor and the auditor’s report.
The auditor details are included in the Auditor’s report for AFSL form
Australian Audit is NOT an auditor-general
The subsequent questions go through all sections of the Auditor’s report for AFSL form, asking the AFSL holder to duplicate almost all the auditor’s responses into the AFSL holder’s form.
Document upload: The new ASIC portal at this stage appears to give false ‘active content’ warnings less often than the previous portal. Documents to be uploaded include:
Financial statements - the formal, signed general purpose financial statements of the entity, including the signed director’s declaration and signed auditor’s opinion
The ‘Auditor’s report for Australian financial services licensee’ - previously known as FS71
If ASIC Corporations (Managed Discretionary Account Services) Instrument 2016/968 requires the licensee to lodge an audit report, attach that report
If ASIC Corporations (Investor Directed Portfolio Services) Instrument 2023/669 requires the licensee to lodge an audit report, attach that report
If for any other reason an audit report is required, attach that report (you can upload up to 10 files)
Certification: certification of compliance with mandatory items
Financial statements are general purpose and not special purpose
Ongoing compliance with ASIC financial requirements
uploaded auditor’s report is a true copy
Contact details: for ASIC to contact about the form
Fee summary: fees only charged if the form is lodged late
Declaration: That the form is correct and ready for lodgement
Shared Access
The new ASIC regulatory portal makes it very easy to give access to other parties such as your accountant, compliance consultant or administrative assistant. Select Administration > Users, and follow the prompts to invite a new user to your entity.
For each transaction you start in the portal you can select whether or not to share access to other users.
Note: Due to audit independence requirements, Australian Audit will not accept an invitation to your regulatory portal, and is unable to lodge the Submit Australian financial services licence annual financial statements (FS70) transaction on your behalf.