Form 1A

Social Stock Exchanges do not let every listed or registered enterprise report in its own format. SEBI-adopted reporting forms fix what must be disclosed and how. Form 1A is the first of four such forms the workbook names.

The workbook's own description is precise about what makes Form 1A distinct: it "covers disclosures of general and governance aspects that are not dependent on statutory financial audit."

In practice, this means Form 1A can be filed even before an organisation's annual audited accounts are ready — because nothing in it needs an audited figure to complete.

The workbook lists four SSE reporting forms together, and Form 1A's defining feature is what it does not require:

Form 1A's content aligns with the earlier general and governance disclosures the workbook already sets out — outreach, top donors, top programmes on the general side, and related-party transactions plus a compliance statement on the governance side. Because none of these require a completed statutory audit, Form 1A can be prepared and filed on its own timeline, separate from the finance-dependent Form 1B.

Illustrative figures.

Karuna NPO's financial year ends on 31 March. Its statutory audit will not be complete until late July, but its governance and outreach data — number of beneficiaries reached, its top 5 donors by value, its board meeting record — are already finalised by mid-April.

Karuna can file Form 1A in April, covering this general and governance data, without waiting for its auditor to sign off. Form 1B, which references its audited financial statements, has to wait until the audit is actually complete.

This split lets the Social Stock Exchange receive at least part of Karuna's annual disclosure promptly, rather than the entire annual disclosure being held up by however long the audit process takes.

Chapter 9 (Disclosure Norms, Reporting Requirements by Social Impact Assessor and Penalties), section 9.2.2, lists Form 1A as the first of the SSE's four adopted reporting formats. Expect a question distinguishing Form 1A from Form 1B by the audit-dependence test, and a question naming all four forms in sequence.

• Form 1A does not depend on statutory audit; Form 1B does. This is the single fact most likely to be tested about the pair.
• Form 1A covers general and governance aspects only — financial aspects belong to Form 1B, not Form 1A.
• Four forms exist in total (1A, 1B, 2.1, 3.1) — a question may ask which form covers a specific disclosure; do not answer with a form number from a different pair.
• Do not confuse Form 1A with the Annual Impact Report as a whole — the AIR is the broader annual disclosure package; Forms 1A, 1B, 2.1 and 3.1 are the specific formats within, and supporting, that package.