The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) is 18-Digits system generated unique number for every document certified/attested by Practicing Chartered Accountants.

It has been noticed that financial documents/ certificates attested by third person misrepresenting themselves as CA Members are misleading the Authorities and Stakeholders. ICAI is also receiving number of complaints of signatures of CAs being forged by non CAs.

To curb such malpractices, the Professional Development Committee of ICAI has come out with an innovative concept of UDIN i.e. Unique Document Identification Number which is being implemented in phased manner. It will secure the certificates attested/certified by practicing CAs. This will also enable the Regulators/Banks/Third parties to check the authenticity of the documents.

The 18- digits UDIN (YY MMMMMM AANNNAANNN) will be like;

19304576AKTSBN1359

Wherein;

First 2 Digits are YY - Last 2 digits of the Current Year (19 in this case)

Next 6 Digits are MMMMMM – ICAI’s Membership No. (304576 in this case)

Next 10 Digits are AANNNAANNN –Alpha-numeric generated randomly by the system (AKTSBN1359).

There is no fee for registration and generation of UDIN.

UDIN is totally secure as it can be viewed only by the Member and/ or the Regulators / other Stakeholders who are having the UDIN. Secondly, it does not contain any information of the client.

UDIN is to be generated at the time of signing the Certificate. However, the same can be generated within 15 days of the signing of the same (i.e within 15 days from the date mentioned at Certificates and not beyond that)

No document is required to be uploaded for generating UDIN.

It is mandatory to obtain UDIN for all Certificates* issued where the Financial Information/related contents is certified as True and Fair / True and Correct

Members attention is drawn that AASB (Auditing and Assurance Standard Board) of ICAI  has already issued Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016) with illustrative formats, to be followed by the Practicing Chartered Accountants.

A dropdown illustrative list as below is appearing on the Portal from which the Member can select the certificate they are going to issue. In case their certificates are not matching with the list provided, Members are advised to select others and mention the nomenclature of the certificate in Document Description.

*Certificates includes Reports issued in lieu of a Certificate in terms of Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016)

Non-applicability of UDIN can be listed out but the list is not exhaustive. Like in the 1st phase, requirement of obtaining UDIN is Not Applicable for :

• Auditor's Opinion/Reports issued by the Practicing Chartered Accountant under any Statute w.r.t. any entity or any person (e.g.: Tax Audit, Transfer Price Audit, VAT Audit, GST Audit, Company Audit, Trust Audit, Society Audit, etc.,
• Valuation Reports,
• Quarterly Review Reports,
• Limited Review Report
• Information System Audit,
• Forensic Audit,
• Revenue / Credit / Stock Audit,
• Borrower Monitoring Assignments,
• Concurrent / Internal Audit and the like,
• Any report of what so ever nature issued including Transfer Price Study Report, Viability Study Report, Diligence Report, Due Diligence Report, Management Report, etc.

All Practicing CAs having full-time Certificate of Practice (CoP) can only register on the UDIN portal to generate UDIN.

All Practicing CAs having full time CoP has to generate UDIN after registering on UDIN Portal.

No. Only CAs with full-time Certificate of Practice can register on UDIN portal to generate UDIN.

No,UDIN is not required for certified true copies.

No,Only signing Partner has to generate UDIN.

No, only members of ICAI having full-time Certificate of Practice can register on UDIN Portal.

Only the Partners signing the document for such assignment will have to generate UDIN.

UDIN will be applicable both for manually as well as digitally signed Certificates / uploaded online. In case of digitally signed / online certificates, UDIN has to be generated and retained for providing the same on being asked by any third party/ authority.

UDIN is to be generated once only for Original Certificates. In case, duplicate certificate is being issued on the request of the client, same UDIN is to be mentioned.

UDIN is to be generated for all Certificates that are signed on or after 1^st Feb., 2019.

Only Practicing CAs with full time CoP can register on the UDIN portal and can generate a UDIN.

No.Since part-time COP holders cannot certify the documents. Hence, they have no access to UDIN portal.

Yes, it is mandatory for all Certificates w.e.f. 1^st February., 2019.

To register on UDIN, please follow the below steps:

Step 1: Click “Member Registration” or click at “For first time sign up, click here”

Step 2: Registration window will be opened. After entering Six-digits Membership No., Date of Birth and Year of Enrolment please click “Send OTP”. An OTP will be sent to the registered Mobile and Email of the Member.

Step 3: On confirmation of OTP as received, a Username and Password will be sent to the registered Email and Mobile No.

For generating UDIN, a member has to register on UDIN Portal for the first time compulsorily. Thereafter, he can just login and generate UDIN. Members who have already registered on UDIN Portal under recommendatory stage are not required to register again after UDIN being mandatory.

Step 1:  Go to udin.icai.org, login by entering Username and Password.

Step 2: Click “Generate UDIN” from the menu bar.

Please Select Document type from the drop down menu.

Enter Date of Signing Document i.e. the date of signing/ certifying the document.

Then Enter 2 Financial Figures i.e. any Financial Figures from the document such as Turnover/Net Worth etc.

Then Enter the Description of the Figure i.e. Turnover/ Net Worth etc. to be filled in 10 to 50 characters.

Two Financial Figures are mandatory out of 3 (three) given fields. In case, there is no Financial Figure in the Certificate, Zero (0) is to be mentioned in Financial Figure and in its Particulars mention “There is no Financial Figure in Certificate”.

Then please Select Document Description and enter the description/ details about the Certificate in 15 to 50 characters.

Then Click the button “Send OTP”.

After this an OTP will be received on Registered Mobile and Email of the Member.

Then Enter OTP as received and click “Preview”. In Preview details entered for generating the UDIN will be displayed. If there is any change/error in the content, click “Back” button, or else, click “Submit”.

Thereafter, 18 Digit UDIN will be generated and that UDIN can be used for mentioning on the Certificate for which it has been generated either by printing (watermarked) the same or by handwritten or printed. If it is being handwritten or printed, it can be mentioned after Signatures and Membership Number of the Member.

The password generated by the system is encrypted to ensure the appropriate safety. However, interested Members may change the password at any time through “Change Password” button.

1. Login.
2. Click “Change Password”.
3. Enter the current Password.
4. Enter new password, then click send OTP. An OTP will be sent on registered mobile and email.

On confirmation of the OTP as received, an Username and Password will be sent to the registered email and Mobile No.

Step 1: Go to https://udin.icai.org.

Step 2: Click “Forgot Password”.

Step 3: “Forgot Password” form will be opened, enter six-digit Membership No., Date of Birth and Year of Enrolment and click “Send OTP”. An OTP will be sent on registered mobile and email.

Step 4: Enter the OTP as received and click “Continue”.

On confirmation OTP as received, a Username and password will be sent to the registered email and Mobile No

For generating UDIN, the Document type is to be selected. Thereafter, date of signing the document is to be mentioned. There are 3 fields for entering the financial figures / values from the document and the description of the figure/ value so entered. Out of these, 2 fields are mandatory. In case, there is no financial figure / value available in the document, 0 (zero) is to be mentioned and in description it should be clarified that no financial figure / value is available.

No details of the Client is to be mentioned anywhere on UDIN Portal.

The date on which the Document is signed/ certified by the member is to be mentioned under this head.

“Document Description” is the details of the document for which the UDIN is being generated and is to be filled between 15 to 50 characters.

Any Financial Figure and its particular from the document such as Turnover, Net worth etc. for which UDIN is being generated is to be mentioned under Financial Figures and Particulars. The particular is to be filled between 10 to 50 characters.

Two Financial Figures are mandatory out of three fields. In case, there is no financial figure in the certificate being certified, 0 is to be mentioned in Financial Figure and in its particular please mention “There is no Financial Figure in Certificate”.

UDIN once generated cannot be edited. A preview option is available after entering all details for generating UDIN for verifying its correctness before Generation.

In such case(s), UDIN can be revoked by mentioning the reason. Further, there is no time limit for allowing revocation.

Yes, UDIN generated by the members can be tracked through “Search” from your UDIN account 

The UDIN once generated can be revoked or cancelled with narration. If any user had searched that UDIN before revocation, an alert message will go to him about revocation of the UDIN. After revocation of the UDIN, anybody searches for that UDIN, appropriate narration indicated by Member with the date of revocation will be displayed for that revoked UDIN.

It will happen only when the credentials do not match with the database as maintained by the Regional Offices of ICAI. In such cases, the query may be lodged at UDIN portal.

To change / update the email and mobile number, pl visit https://sdb.icai.org/member/updemX.aspx

No. UDIN is to be generated for Assignment wise and same UDIN is to be used in all documents signed under that assignment. Say for Example while signing the various certificates while doing Bank Audit, same UDIN can be used for all certificates to be signed for that particular Bank Audit Assignment.

There is no limit on generation of UDIN and there is no restriction on the number of UDIN to be generated.

UDIN shall be mentioned after every Signature and Membership Number of the Member.

There is no need for fresh registration for every financial year.

No, separate UDIN is required for each assignment and is to be used for all documents issued under that assignment.

There is no provision of such uploading. It has to be generated one by one.

UDIN has no connection with Member’s Digital Signature and therefore no changes are required in Digital Signature.

There is no option to generate UDIN in advance. However there is option given to generate UDIN within 15 days of signing of the certificate.

Generated UDIN has no expiry unless revoked.

UDIN generation has been made mandatory as per the Council Decision hence not generating UDIN for mandatory documents will amount to non-adherence of the Council Decision and may attract disciplinary proceedings as per the Second Schedule Part II of The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

The UDIN so indicated on certificate can be searched through the search option on UDIN Portal by sharing few details such as Name of the Authority, Mobile Number and Email of the person searching the UDIN. However they are not required to register themselves on the UDIN Portal.

No Registration is required for regulator/third party to search the certificate. For searching the UDIN regulator/third party has to mention UDIN number, Mobile number, email ID and Name of the authorities searching UDIN.

ICAI has made awareness about mandatory applicability of UDIN to all regulators like RBI, SEBI, CBDT, MCA, IBA and they can very well ask for UDIN.

Members can submit their query online on the help desk tab on Menu bar available at https://udin.icai.org or can email at udin@icai.in.

Members can alternatively call at 011-30110411/480. In case of emergency, please speak with Mr. Vishal Agarwal at 9911539260