Reporting Periods - ABC Bulk Distribution

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Reporting Periods

Each ABC Certificate has a defined Reporting Period which identifies the date or dates it covers.

Principles

1. You must report a continuous series of Reporting Periods on a mandatory frequency

2. You can report optional shorter Reporting Periods

Requirements 

1. You must report a continuous series of Reporting Periods on a mandatory frequency

1. Once we have issued a publication’s first ABC Certificate we must continue to issue Certificates for subsequent consecutive mandatory Reporting Periods (i.e. so there is no gap in certification) while the publication remains registered.

2. The mandatory Reporting Period will either be:

   1. Monthly - a four or five week period commencing on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. The exact dates to be included in each Reporting Period will be set out in a published ABC Accounting Calendar.

   2. 6 months, broadly January to June and 6 months, July to December each year.  The exact dates will be based on reporting weeks commencing on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. These dates will be set out in a published ABC Accounting Calendar.

3. Changing the mandatory frequency, if possible, is expected to be infrequent. We reserve the right to reject or impose conditions on requests to change frequency if in our view this might affect transparency or comparability.

4. If in our opinion there are exceptional changes to a publication during the Reporting Period that mean issuing a Certificate for the mandatory Reporting Period in full might lead to confusion or a lack of transparency in the data certified, then we may agree or require the issue of more than one Certificate covering the mandatory period. For example if a publication changes from a daily to a weekly publishing frequency during the period then one Certificate could be issued up until the point of change and one from that point to the end of the mandatory Reporting Period. 

2. You can report optional shorter Reporting Periods

1. Optional Reporting Periods are whole months or any number of whole months. Note: A month is a four or five week period commencing on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. The exact dates to be included in each Reporting Period will be set out in a published ABC Accounting Calendar.

2. For newly registered publications only, you can report single issues until the start of the next month. 

Guidance Available

Guidance

G2. You can report optional shorter Reporting Periods

1.  Please contact us regarding any additional optional periods as early as possible in order that we can discuss fees and scheduling of audits.