Guide · Company accounts
The smallest companies may prepare the simplest statutory accounts there are - a balance sheet, a profit and loss account and a few notes - and file even less at Companies House. Here is who qualifies, what goes in, what is filed and when, from Companies House's own guidance.
Who qualifies
For financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, a micro-entity meets at least two of these: annual turnover of no more than £1 million; a balance sheet total of no more than £500,000; no more than 10 employees on average. Before that, the turnover limit was £632,000 and the balance sheet limit £316,000.
A company that is, or was at any time in the year, a public limited company, an overseas company or the parent of a group that is not small - and the few other kinds the Companies Act names. A subsidiary whose results are in a parent's group accounts cannot use them either.
Filing micro-entity accounts last year is a good sign, never the answer for this year: whether a company is a micro-entity turns on its figures against the limits - this year's, and last year's too under the rule that a company qualifies or stops qualifying only when two years in a row say so. A company that has grown past them prepares small company accounts instead.
What they contain
A balance sheet and a profit and loss account, each in the format the regulations set, prepared under FRS 105, the accounting standard for micro-entities - with the few notes the law asks for, such as advances and guarantees given to directors, and commitments and contingencies.
That the company was entitled to exemption from audit, that the members have not required one, that the directors acknowledge their responsibilities, and that the accounts have been prepared under the micro-entity provisions - with the date the directors approved them and who signed.
Micro-entities still send accounts to their members and file accounts at Companies House, but today they need not file the profit and loss account or a directors' report: the balance sheet and its notes are enough.
How to prepare them
From Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or a spreadsheet, at the last day of the financial year and before any closing entries - so the income and cost accounts still show the year's figures. Last year's closing trial balance gives the comparatives.
Every account goes to a line of the balance sheet or the profit and loss account: fixed assets and depreciation to date, debtors, cash, creditors due within a year, share capital and reserves, turnover and costs.
The trial balance balances; the balance sheet balances; the profit agrees with the trial balance; last year's closing reserves follow into this year's. A difference here is a question to answer before anything is signed.
The directors approve the accounts and one signs the balance sheet, with the date. The responsibility for the accounts is always the directors'.
With the company's authentication code, by the deadline. Companies House checks the accounts and answers: accepted, or what it needs put right.
When they are due
A private company has nine months from its accounting reference date - the last day of its financial year - to deliver its accounts to Companies House.
First accounts covering more than 12 months are due 21 months after the date of incorporation, or three months after the accounting reference date if that is later. First accounts covering 12 months or less follow the normal time.
Delivering accounts late brings a penalty that rises with how late they are, and failing to deliver acceptable accounts on time is a criminal offence. The amounts are on GOV.UK.
Stoneledger Accounts Filing reads the trial balance from your software, or takes the figures you type in, places every line, checks the accounts against it and shows them before you pay anything - then £8 once to file the year.
Sources (GOV.UK, read 16 October 2026, and for April 2028 on 2 November 2026): Life of a company: part 1, accounts; Companies House update to accounts filing from April 2028. This guide explains the rules; it is not accounting or legal advice. Stoneledger is independent of Companies House and HMRC.