Changes to the OSCR online system

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is upgrading their online system for charities registered in Scotland.

The online system is used to:

• submit a charity’s online annual return
• update a charity’s contact details
• amend some of the information about a charity on the Scottish Charity Register.

If you are registered as the principal contact of a charity, you will receive an email confirming that you are an OSCR Online user for the charity along with a new password for accessing OSCR Online.

With many not made aware that the system was changing, users were reporting the email as a scam. OSCR have confirmed that the email is genuine and charity contacts should proceed with the login procedure as detailed in the email.

Although it’s referred to as an upgrade, the system is actually being rebuilt from the ground up which introduces some new features including allowing the principal contact to invite up to another two people to access a charity’s record. This would be extremely helpful to the Trustees, as many charities prefer to enlist an accountant’s assistance when submitting the annual return and accounts.

One advantage of adding your accountant as a user is that they will be automatically notified of the date that the annual return is due to lodged. This is useful, especially when there is a change of trustees. If the principal contact has not been changed , then notifications may get lost in the system and the detail on the register will not be up to date.

OSCR has created new guidance which provides useful information on how to use the system. You can find more information on the changes to OSCR Online, including the guide, here.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss your circumstances, please contact a member of our EQ Charities team via charities@eqaccountants.co.uk or contact one of our offices.