Frequently Asked Questions

 

Account and Login Help

What can I do if I have forgotten my login details?
Click the 'Forgotten your password?' link under the login box, then enter the email address used with your account and we will email your password. If you do not know the email address used for your account please contact us.

How can I see any personal data you hold about me under GDPR?
We only provide business credit reports, we do not provide reports on consumers. We are unlikely to hold any data on individuals that is not already in the public domain. For more information about the data we hold and how to make a request to see personal data please see Subject Data Access Request.

How does your company approach privacy and personal data?
Please click here for more information about Privacy and Personal Data.

How can I correct or change information about my company?
We do not control or edit the information held by Companies House. Company directors can control the information disclosed about them by Companies House, but must do so with Companies House directly. To edit or amend information being held by and distributed by Companies House click here to contact Companies House.

How can I remove my company listing from your website?
This information is the same information that is also freely available online at the website of Companies House. We cannot delete the source data as this data is ultimately held by Companies House and freely available under the terms of Open Government Licence, but we can add a ‘no index’ instruction on our website for your company page. The ‘no index’ tells search engines not to list that page on their index although we cannot compel them to follow the instruction, most major search engines including Google normally do so. It can take up to a month for the page to be dropped from the search results. To request removal of your company page from our website please click here to Contact Us

How can I contact you?
Contact us

Questions & Answers

What does... mean?
For terms such as Active, Administration, through to Winding Up, we have a Glossary below, underneath these questions and answers.

How long does it take for companies to file accounts?
Companies are required to file accounts annually. However, a company is given 9 months (6 for PLC companies) after the year end to file, so if the accounting year end is in June the accounts need to be filed for public record by the following March.

Why are there no accounts filed?
A new company is given 12 months, which it can extend up to 18 months, after incorporation as its first accounting period, after which it has the normal 9 months (6 for PLC companies) to file. A new company can therefore be incorporated for up to 27 months (24 months for PLC companies) before filing accounts. If no accounts have been filed within the periods allowed, then the company may be in breach of the Companies Act and its accounts are overdue for filing.

What will happen if a company is overdue for filing accounts?
Companies House has a sliding scale of fines which are applied. The later the accounts are filed, the larger the penalty. If a company fails to file statutory documents eventually Companies House may commence Striking Off action to remove the company from the register of companies.

Why is there less financial information on some companies?
Small companies are exempt from disclosing full accounts and there may also be no obligation for the accounts to be audited. The majority of companies are eligible to claim small company status. Small company accounts usually comprise of just a balance sheet with limited notes. Large companies are subject to different disclosure requirements and the Companies Act requires filing of full accounts. Full accounts provide much more detail such as turnover, operating costs and pre-tax profits.

Where do you get your data?
Companies House provides us with the Companies Registry data in bulk. We do not change or edit any of this information. Our full reports (those available to login users) also source data from various third-party commercial data providers.

How up-to-date is your information?
Official company information is as up-to-date as the latest bulk data file from Companies House. Our full reports with data sourced from third-party sources are updated every day.

I think some of the information is wrong
If you think information is incorrect it may be that the information is incorrect at source. We receive all Companies House data in bulk directly from Companies House. We do not change or edit any of this information.

The business activities of the company are wrong
The company's business activities are those of the SIC code the directors or Company Secretary of the company have stated at Companies House, and they would need to correct the SIC code at Companies House.

Can you remove my company or suppress information?
We do not usually suppress information on limited companies. The information we present is provided directly from Companies House under the terms of Crown Copyright and made available for public record by law. Directors must have a service address for the public record but this can be different to their usual residential address.

How can I change information filed about my company?
We do not, and cannot, edit or amend any company information. Any changes must be made at Companies House. After any changes are made our records will normally be updated automatically within 2 weeks. You can contact Companies House by telephone on 0303 1234 500.

How is the analysis and review arrived at?
The financial analysis and review featured on our free reports is a proprietary analysis based on certain financial indicators considered by us to be appropriate. It is not a credit opinion nor is it intended to form the basis of any specific financial decision. It does not constitute an appraisal of the financial standing of a company against any objective standard, nor should it be taken as a statement that any objective standard is, or is not, being met. A company can have an unfavourable financial appraisal and can still be credit worthy. Conversely, a positive financial appraisal does not imply that a company is more credit worthy. Credit limits and credit rating scores are provided in our full credit reports for login account holders. The analysis and review in our free reports is for informational purposes only and is provided strictly subject to the terms and conditions set out in the CheckFree User Agreement to which your attention in specifically drawn together with the qualifications in relation to all analysis, credit score, credit level and risk rating referred to elsewhere in this FAQ section.

How do you arrive at a credit limit and credit rating score?
Credit limits and credit rating scores are provided in our full credit reports available to login account holders. The credit scoring in our full credit reports uses proprietary algorithms which propose a score base on factors considered by us to be appropriate including: company size, age of the company, financial strength, financial performance, age of latest accounts, auditors statements, group and holding companies, demographic data, mortgages and charges, director's other directorships, industry sector insolvency data, number and value of CCJs, and Companies House filings. It is not intended to form the sole basis of any specific financial decision, nor does it constitute an appraisal of the financial standing of a company against any objective standard, nor should it be taken as a statement that any objective standard is, or is not, being met. The credit scoring provided in credit reports is for informational purposes only and is provided strictly subject to the terms and conditions set out in the CheckFree User Agreement to which your attention in specifically drawn together with the qualifications in relation to credit score, credit level and risk rating referred to elsewhere in this FAQ section.

71 to 100 Very low risk
51 to 70 Low risk
30 to 50 Moderate risk
21 to 29 High risk
1 to 20 Very high risk
0 or negative - Very high risk

The credit limit is a recommended total credit outstanding at any time. It is estimated using balance sheet data or non-financial data where no accounts are available to give a rating which is converted into a risk weighting used to calculate a credit limit and is subject to the qualifications in relation to credit score, credit level and risk rating referred to elsewhere in this FAQ section.

Qualifications in relation to credit score, credit level and risk rating
Any financial score, credit score, credit limit or risk rating proposed by us in relation to any given company is based on subjective criteria considered by us or our data providers in good faith to be relevant to the assessment of credit risk. These criteria are applied using proprietary algorithms again the product of our own or our data provider’s discretion. Any resulting score, limit and risk rating is based on these subjective criteria and is not therefore a statement of credit risk against any objective risk standard but is rather a statement of opinion based on the criteria that we or our data provider chose to apply using our or our data provider’s proprietary system. These criteria are necessarily limited, selective and incomplete. There are likely to be many other factors relevant to the making of any individual credit decision in relation to any particular company which are not necessarily available to us or our data provider or are not taken into account by our or our data provider’s proprietary system in proposing any given score, credit level or risk rating and which would if taken into account lead to that score, level or rating being increased or decreased. Accordingly, any score, credit limit or risk rating proposed by us is not, and cannot be taken as, a statement of creditworthiness in any given case.


Do you provide reports on companies outside the UK?
Yes, we can provide reports on companies worldwide. This service is available to login account holders. The price of reports overseas depends upon how quickly the report is required, and the country. The amount of information available is also dependent on local disclosure requirements and filings standards. Contact us for prices on overseas company credit reports.

Got another question?
Contact us

Glossary of Terms


Active Company
A company is considered Active when it is on the register as a live company incorporated at Companies House. Active companies may be dormant or trading. Whether the company is dormant or trading will be clearer from the accounts when these are filed.

Administration
A company is being managed by an administrator. A company can be in administration when the directors of the company consider that the company is or may become insolvent. An administrator is a licensed insolvency practitioner and can be appointed by the courts, creditors, or company directors.

Business activities
See SIC

Dissolved Company
A company which is no longer listed as active on register of companies at Companies House. The company has ceased to exist as a legal entity.

Dormant Company
A company which is Dormant means it is incorporated at Companies House but is not engaged in any trading activity or receiving any income. The accounts for a dormant company will usually show no movement in the balance sheet assets and liabilities. A dormant company is sometimes referred to as non-trading.

Holding Company
A holding company is sometimes referred to as a parent company. This is a company which has a controlling shareholding in the company. In some cases, creditors may seek guarantees from a holding company when extending credit to its subsidiary company.

Insolvent and Insolvency
Insolvency is the state when a company is unable to meet obligations to creditors. An insolvent company may be placed in administration, and unless the company can be rescued through this process, the company is subsequently put into liquidation. This insolvency is the result of insufficient cash flow to pay creditors as they fall due. Accounting and balance sheet terminology also uses the words insolvent and insolvency to describe a balance sheet where total assets exceed total liabilities with the result that net assets or net worth are negative values.

Liquidation
Liquidation is the process of winding up a company's financial affairs, identifying and realising the company's assets and distributing the resulting funds from the company's assets to creditors.

Phoenix Company
An expression sometimes used to describe a company which is started by directors of a previous company which has ceased trading due to insolvency, where the new company provides the same services, possibly using a very similar name and to the same clients as the previous company. It may appear to be essentially the same business reincorporated as a new limited company. The new company usually has no obligations to any creditors of the previous company.

Receivership
An independent receiver is appointed by a secured creditor or the court to take control of the company?s assets to repay the debt owed to the secured creditor. The directors of the relevant company may remain but their powers are limited.

SIC
The SIC is the Standard Industrial Classification code which reflects the normal business operations of the company. The SIC for each company is the SIC the company has filed at Companies House. If this is not an accurate reflection of the company?s business activities the directors or Company Secretary of the company would need to correct the SIC code at Companies House.

Striking Off
A company is in the process of being removed from the Companies House Register of Companies. After Striking Off is completed the company will no longer be incorporated as an Active company and will be Dissolved.

Winding Up
The process of paying off company creditors and closing the business. A company can be wound up by resolution of its members, or by the court following an application by creditors of the company.

 

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