What accounts does a UK company have to file at Companies House?

A company's size decides what it has to put on the public record. From least to most:

By three tests: turnover, balance sheet total (its total assets) and average number of employees. A company is in a size band if it meets at least two of the three. A company that is not medium or smaller is large.

The limits were raised for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, the first rise since 2016. Small went from £10.2m of turnover and £5.1m of balance sheet to £15m and £7.5m; medium from £36m and £18m to £54m and £27m. The employee limits did not change.

A company does not change size on one year's figures. After its first year, a company changes size only when it passes or fails the tests two years in a row, so one that grows past a limit once keeps its old size for that year.

Some companies can never use the small or medium exemptions, whatever their size. They include public companies (plcs), banks, insurers, e-money issuers and some investment firms, and companies in a group that contains a listed company or a larger regulated financial firm. Medium exemptions are also closed to any company authorised to carry on regulated financial services.

Small companies can choose whether to send their profit and loss account and directors' report. Accounts sent without them are known as filleted accounts, and the balance sheet must say the profit and loss account has not been delivered. For a filleted company, its turnover and profit are not on the public record at all. Small companies can also file abridged accounts, with fewer lines on the balance sheet, if all their members agree.

Small companies, including micro-entities, are usually exempt from audit. Shareholders holding at least 10% of the shares can still insist on one.

Medium companies must file their profit and loss account, with a strategic report, a directors' report and the auditor's report. Large companies file the lot, in full; listed companies such as Greggs file their whole annual report.

Greggs is a large, listed public company. Its accounts for the 52 weeks to 27 December 2025 are a full annual report: group profit and loss account showing turnover of £2,151m and pre-tax profit of £167m (PDF page 130), group balance sheet (PDF page 131), strategic report and an auditor's report that found no material uncertainty over going concern (PDF page 127). As a public company it had six months from its year end to file.

Gail's (GAIL's Limited) is large by size: turnover of £219.8m and pre-tax profit of £29.5m in the year to 28 February 2025 (p. 7). So it files a full profit and loss account and balance sheet, but its accounts were not audited. The directors state the company 'was entitled to exemption from audit under section 479A of the Companies Act 2006 relating to subsidiary companies' (pp. 6, 8). Under that section its parent guarantees all the debts Gail's had at the year end, and Gail's is included in the audited group accounts of the group headed by Grain Topco Limited (p. 20).

Nobu (Nobu London Limited) files as a small company, so it could have left out its profit and loss account. It did not: its accounts for 2025 show turnover of £9.4m and pre-tax profit of £222,055 (p. 7). Many small companies choose otherwise, and for them the public file shows a balance sheet and notes, with no turnover or profit.

A parent company must prepare group accounts that add together everything it controls, unless the group qualifies as small, when group accounts are optional. A parent that is itself part of a bigger group can also be exempt if the bigger group's accounts include it: McLaren Racing Limited says it is 'exempt by virtue of section 400 of the Companies Act 2006' because it is included in the group accounts of McLaren Group Limited (accounts to 31 December 2025, p. 16).

A subsidiary of any size, unless it is listed, a bank, an insurer or another excluded financial firm, can skip its own audit under section 479A if all its members agree, its UK parent includes it in audited group accounts, and the parent gives a guarantee. That guarantee covers 'all outstanding liabilities to which the subsidiary company is subject at the end of the financial year' until they are paid, and anyone the subsidiary owes can enforce it against the parent. Companies House files these as audit exemption subsidiary accounts.

On Spark Intel, the accounts each profile uses show the mix. Of 429 live company profiles, Companies House lists 192 latest filings as group accounts, 223 as full accounts, 4 as medium, 4 as small, 3 as audit exemption subsidiary accounts, 1 as total exemption full accounts (a small company exempt from audit that still filed full accounts) and 2 as interim. Spark Intel covers well-known brands, so it is weighted towards large companies; across all UK companies, micro-entity and small company accounts are far more common.

A private company has 9 months from the end of its financial year (its accounting reference date) to file. A public company has 6 months. A company's first accounts, if they cover more than 12 months, are due 21 months after incorporation for a private company or 18 months for a public company, or 3 months after the accounting reference date if that is later.

Late filing brings an automatic penalty on the company, set by how late the accounts are. The penalty is doubled if the accounts are late two years in a row, and a company that does not file can be struck off the register.

Not for now. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 set out reforms that would have required small companies and micro-entities to file a profit and loss account, and would have ended abridged accounts. Companies House announced on 9 June 2026 that these would start in April 2028.

On 23 October 2026 Companies House said it 'will pause the introduction of small companies and micro-entities filing profit and loss accounts' while the government looks at simpler options. No new date has been set. Small companies can still file abridged accounts and can still leave out their profit and loss account after 1 April 2028.

Other changes go ahead from 1 April 2028: all companies will have to file accounts using commercial software, in iXBRL format, as the web and paper filing services close for accounts; companies claiming audit exemption will have to make a stronger statement that they qualify; accounts and reports will have to be filed together; and there will be a limit on how often a company can shorten its financial year.