If you run a limited company, the way your accounts reach Companies House is about to change more than it has in decades. Three things are coming at once: filing by software only, the end of abridged accounts, and a profit and loss account from every company, including the smallest. The date to have in mind is April 2028, which sounds comfortably far away and is closer than it looks.
What is actually changing
Software only filing. From 1 April 2028, accounts must be filed using commercial software, in a format called iXBRL. The Companies House web filing service and the paper route both close for accounts on that date. Other filings, such as confirmation statements, carry on as they are.
Abridged accounts go. Small companies can currently file a cut down set of figures. That option is being removed, so what you prepare and what you file line up.
A profit and loss from everyone. Small companies and micro-entities will have to file a profit and loss account, not just a balance sheet. There is an option to keep that profit and loss off the public register, but Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement will still see it. The Directors’ Report requirement is expected to be removed for small companies as part of the same package.
Why you may have read April 2027
Because that was the original plan. Companies House pushed the accounts changes back to April 2028 to give companies a full accounting year plus the usual nine months to get ready. If you find an article, a newsletter or a well-meaning forum post citing 2027, it is simply out of date. The commitment itself has not changed, only the timing.
Who this actually affects
Nearly every limited company, but it lands hardest in two places.
The first is anyone who files their own accounts through the free Companies House web service. That door closes. From April 2028 you will need commercial software, or an accountant who has it, and the transition is easier made calmly in 2027 than in a panic the week your filing is due.
The second is any company that has quietly liked how little the public register reveals. A balance sheet on its own tells a competitor, a customer or a curious neighbour very little. A profit and loss tells them rather more. The opt out from publication is there, and we expect most owner managed companies will use it, but it is a decision to make deliberately rather than discover.
What to do now, which is not much
There is no action due today, and that is genuinely the point of the long lead time. Three things are worth thinking about before 2028 arrives:
- Stop filing by hand if you still do. If your accounts are already prepared and filed through proper software, this change is largely invisible to you. If they are not, moving over is the whole job, and there is no prize for leaving it late.
- Get your bookkeeping to a state you are happy to have read. Once a profit and loss is filed rather than kept back, tidy, sensible figures matter more than they did. Records kept current all year produce those. A January reconstruction does not.
- Know your size. A company counts as a micro-entity if it meets two of: turnover of £1 million or less, a balance sheet total of £500,000 or less, and 10 employees or fewer. Small company status runs to £15 million turnover, a £7.5 million balance sheet and 50 employees. Most of our limited company clients are comfortably micro-entities, which keeps the reporting light even under the new rules.
It is not the only change in flight
Companies House is in the middle of the biggest reform of its rules since it was set up, and the accounts package is only one part. Identity verification for directors and people with significant control is already a legal requirement, with real deadlines this year rather than in 2028. If you have not dealt with that one, it is the more urgent of the two, and our guide to Companies House identity verification explains who has to act and when.
We watch this so you do not have to
Every limited company client of ours already has accounts prepared and filed through software, so April 2028 will pass without them noticing. We track the Companies House timetable, tell clients what applies to them and when, and handle the filing itself along with the Corporation Tax return, the confirmation statement and the payroll.
Ltd Company Starter is from £105 per month, and Growing Strong, for companies wanting more planning through the year, is from £205 per month. Both are fixed fees, with no charge for picking up the phone.
If you would rather someone else kept track of all this, get your instant quote and see your fixed monthly fee in under a minute.