Year‑end Accounts

Statutory accounts and Corporation Tax (CT600) filed on time.

We prepare and file your year‑end accounts and CT600, with clear timelines and no surprises.

Year-End Accounts Preparation

Overview Every year, businesses need to pull together a full picture of their financial performance – this comes in the form of year-end accounts (also known as annual accounts or statutory accounts for companies). For UK limited companies, it’s a legal requirement to prepare annual accounts and file them with Companies House, typically within 9 months of your year-end[4]. These accounts include important financial statements like a Profit and Loss account and a Balance Sheet, and they must comply with established accounting standards. We know that preparing these accounts can be daunting for business owners: there are formats to follow, deadlines to meet, and mistakes can lead to fines. Our Year-End Accounts Preparation service handles this entire process for you. We gather your financial information, produce accurate accounts, and make sure they’re filed on time. The result? You stay compliant with the law, avoid late filing penalties (which start at £150 and increase if you delay longer[4]), and get a clear report on your business’s health for the year. Benefits • Stay Compliant and Avoid Penalties: With our service, you won’t miss the filing deadlines for your annual accounts. Private companies usually must file accounts within 9 months of their financial year-end[4] – we mark those dates and work well in advance. By filing on time and in the correct format, you avoid automatic fines (Companies House fines start at £150 for missing the deadline, climbing to £1,500 if over 6 months late[4]). Compliance is our top priority, so you can rest easy knowing your obligations are met. • Accuracy & Professionalism: We prepare your accounts in line with the relevant accounting standards (for example, FRS 105 for micro-entities or FRS 102 for small businesses). This means your profit figures, assets, and liabilities will be reported correctly. Having professionally prepared accounts gives a true and fair view of your business finances, which is useful not just for compliance but also if you need to show accounts to banks or investors. It also ensures that your Corporation Tax Return is based on correct figures, preventing issues with HMRC. • Time and Stress Saved: Compiling year-end accounts can be time-consuming and confusing if you’re not familiar with it – there are journals to adjust, depreciation to calculate, accruals and prepayments to account for, etc. We take this off your plate entirely. Our team will collect the necessary data and do all the number-crunching and formatting. You won’t have to learn accounting rules or struggle with template filings. In meetings, we explain the accounts in simple terms, so you understand the results without having to dig through accounting jargon on your own. • Integrated Service with Tax: Year-end accounts and corporation tax returns go hand in hand. As part of our service, we also calculate your corporation tax liability based on the accounts (or work closely with our tax team) to ensure everything lines up. By handling both accounts and tax, we ensure there are no inconsistencies – the profit in your accounts will match the taxable profit on your CT600 after adjustments. This integrated approach means fewer hassles for you, as you don’t have to coordinate between different providers for accounts and tax. • Financial Insights for You: Beyond just compliance documents, your annual accounts can provide valuable insight. We don’t just hand them over; we’ll highlight key takeaways. For example, we might point out that your gross profit margin improved compared to last year, or that certain costs went up and could be looked at. We can also provide additional management reports alongside the statutory accounts if you’re interested. Our goal is that you not only get the accounts filed, but also gain understanding from them to help plan the new year. Process

  1. Planning & Checklist: A few weeks before your financial year ends, we reach out with a simple checklist of what we’ll need. This typically includes your bookkeeping records (which we likely have if we do your bookkeeping), bank statements up to the year-end date, invoices for any big purchases or sales around year-end, payroll records, and any loan or asset details. If your year-end has already passed and you come to us later, no problem – we’ll start with this gathering stage as soon as you’re on board. We also discuss any changes during the year that might affect the accounts (for example, did you buy a vehicle or equipment? take out a loan? introduce new capital?).
  2. Drafting the Accounts: Once we have the data, our accountants get to work drafting your year-end accounts. We log into your accounting software or use the records you provided to ensure all transactions for the year are recorded. Then we perform year-end adjustments: things like calculating depreciation on assets, adjusting for any accruals (expenses incurred but not yet paid) or prepayments (paid in advance), and reconciling all balances (making sure the bank, debtors, and creditors balances match statements). We prepare the Profit & Loss Statement (summarizing your income and expenses for the year) and the Balance Sheet (a snapshot of assets, liabilities, and equity at year-end), along with any necessary notes explaining certain items. If your company is small or micro, we’ll take advantage of the simplified reporting allowed – for micro-entities, for example, we can prepare a very streamlined Balance Sheet with minimal notes as allowed by law.
  3. Review & Discussion: Accuracy is key, so we review the draft accounts internally and then share them with you for review. We’ll set up a meeting or call to walk you through the figures. During this stage, we encourage your questions – maybe you wonder why a certain expense category changed from last year, or you want clarity on how director’s salary is shown. We explain everything in plain English. This review is also a chance to catch any omissions: perhaps you forgot to give us a receipt for something or there’s a business expense you paid personally that we should include. We make any necessary tweaks after this discussion.
  4. Finalization: After you’re happy with the draft and any adjustments are made, we finalize the accounts. For a limited company, this means preparing the final statutory accounts in the format required by Companies House. We’ll produce a full set for your records (including detailed profit and loss account and all notes) and the abbreviated or filleted accounts for filing (small companies can file a simpler Balance Sheet-only version). We’ll send you the final accounts for approval. If you’re a director of the company, you’ll officially approve them – usually by signing a copy of the Balance Sheet. We also finalize the Corporation Tax computation at this stage (if included) since it’s based on the accounts.
  5. Filing & Submission: Once approved, we take care of filing the accounts with Companies House. We do this electronically for speed and reliability. You’ll get confirmation of acceptance from Companies House. We also provide you with the filed copy for your records. If we are also handling the Corporation Tax Return, we will now file the CT600 and accounts to HMRC (in the iXBRL format required) by the due date (which is typically 12 months after year-end[4]). We’ll inform you of the corporation tax amount due and the payment deadline. If you’re not a company (say, a sole trader), there’s no Companies House filing – instead, we’d use the accounts to help with your self-assessment tax return. In any case, we ensure everything is submitted to the right places on time.
  6. Post-Filing Support: After filing, we don’t just disappear until next year. We remain available for questions. Maybe a bank or landlord asks you for the accounts – we can liaise or provide additional copies. If Companies House or HMRC sends any follow-up (though rare if done correctly), we handle it. We also set reminders for the next year’s deadlines and often have a debrief with you: what could be improved for next year? Perhaps adopting a better bookkeeping practice during the year could make the next accounts even easier – we’ll give proactive advice. Our aim is to build a long-term relationship where each year-end gets smoother and you have full confidence that this critical compliance task is under control. FAQs Q: When are my company’s year-end accounts due to be filed? A: For a private limited company in the UK, the general rule is that accounts must be filed at Companies House within 9 months after the company’s financial year-end[4]. So if your year-end is 31 March, the filing deadline would be 31 December of the same year. New companies sometimes have a longer first period, and deadlines can vary slightly (for example, if your year-end is 31 December, 9 months takes you to 30 September of the next year). If the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, it typically rolls to the next working day. We will keep track of the exact date for your company and ensure we file well before then. For HMRC, the Corporation Tax Return (which uses the accounts figures) is due within 12 months of year-end[4], but the tax payment is due earlier (within 9 months and 1 day after year-end). Don’t worry – part of our service is to manage these deadlines and remind you of any actions needed on your part. Q: What happens if I miss the deadline or file accounts late? A: Missing the accounts filing deadline leads to automatic penalties from Companies House. The fine starts at £150 if you’re up to one month late, and increases to £375 if 1-3 months late, £750 if 3-6 months, and £1,500 if more than 6 months late[4]. These penalties double if you’re late two years in a row. Also, failing to file accounts (or confirmation statements) can eventually lead to your company being struck off the register. If you realize you’re going to be late, it’s important to take action quickly – sometimes Companies House will allow an extension for very exceptional circumstances, but generally penalties will apply. Our role is to prevent this situation entirely by planning ahead. In the unlikely event that something unforeseeable caused a delay, we would still assist in getting the accounts filed as soon as possible and advise on how to potentially appeal a penalty if there were genuine reasons. But our main aim is: with us handling your accounts, you won’t miss deadlines. Q: My company is a micro-entity. Do I need the same kind of accounts? A: Micro-entities (very small companies meeting certain criteria) are allowed to prepare much simpler accounts. If you qualify as a micro-entity, we will take advantage of those simplified requirements. This means your accounts filed at Companies House can be just a two-page report – basically a simplified Balance Sheet with a few notes – and you don’t have to file a detailed profit and loss publicly. We’ll still prepare the full information for you and for tax, but we can keep the public disclosure minimal. The good news is that preparing micro-entity accounts is usually quicker and cheaper, and of course we pass those efficiencies to you. We’ll let you know if your company fits the micro-entity criteria (currently, roughly speaking, turnover up to £632k, balance sheet total up to £316k, and up to 10 employees). If you’re above that, you might be a “small company” which still has some simplifications available – we handle those accordingly as well. Q: Do sole traders or partnerships need year-end accounts like companies do? A: Sole traders and traditional partnerships don’t have to file accounts with Companies House (that’s only for incorporated entities). However, they still need to keep financial records and typically prepare year-end accounts for their own use and for tax purposes. If you’re a sole trader, your “year-end accounts” might just be a profit and loss statement that you use to fill in your self-assessment tax return. We can absolutely help with that too – we’ll organize your records and produce a set of accounts showing your business income and expenses for the year, which makes completing your tax return much easier and gives you a clear view of your performance. For partnerships, we can prepare profit and loss accounts and a balance sheet, plus help with the partnership tax return. So yes, while the obligations differ, we offer year-end financial reporting help to all business types, not just limited companies. Q: Will you also handle my Corporation Tax Return when you prepare the accounts? A: Yes, we often do both together as a seamless service. The annual accounts provide the figures needed for the Corporation Tax Return (CT600), but there are some tax-specific adjustments required (for example, certain expenses aren’t tax-deductible, and capital assets use different depreciation rules for tax called capital allowances). After finalizing your accounts, we compute the taxable profit and prepare the CT600 form that goes to HMRC, ensuring it ties perfectly to the accounts[4]. Many clients prefer having us do both, because it ensures consistency and you don’t have to coordinate between two firms. If we’re doing your accounts and someone else is doing your tax, we’re happy to cooperate with them as well. But our full-service recommendation is to let us handle both – it’s more efficient and reduces the chance of anything slipping through the cracks. (For more on our Corporation Tax Return service, see the next section.)