companies house made easy

previous name

any previous names listed for this company (NB: companies can change their name, but not their registered number)

registered number

The official number of the company as allocated by Companies House (for LTD & PLC)

incorporation date

When the company legally became a corporation

registered office

The official address of the company, as known at Companies House (NB: not necessarily the trading address)

latest filed accounts

The date of the latest filed annual accounts

analysed accounts

The date of the most recent set of accounts analysed by the system

issued capital (GBP)

Displays the issued capital for the company (in 000s GBP)

company status

The current status of the company

type of accounts

The type of company accounts (i.e. small) and exemption status

trading address

Last known trading address of the company

telephone number

Last known telephone number of the company

fax number

Last known fax number of the company

auditors

Company auditors

bankers

Bankers for the company

principle activities

The principle activities of the company

UK SIC code(s)

The SIC (Standard Industry Code) describes companies by their industry

Risk score - a unique predictive scoring model has been developed in conjunction with Scorex (UK) Ltd aimed at enabling you to detect those companies at risk of corporate failure within the next 12 months.

how the score is built

In the course of a year, approximately 2% of the trading population will become insolvent. However, this doesn’t mean that every company has a 2% chance of failure. By using a risk score, we can give you more precise and accurate information indicating which companies have a higher risk of insolvency.

The scoring system gives each company a rating of 1 to 100, with 1 indicating a high risk of becoming insolvent, and 100 being a low risk. By using historical statistics we can calculate the relative risk of insolvency at each company’s score and compare this with the background rate of 2%.

examples

1. Companies with a risk score of 10 or less are more likely to become insolvent. We have found that companies with this score have a 50% chance of becoming insolvent, this is 25 times the background rate of 2%, and so these companies are a high risk.
2. Companies with a risk score of 80 or over are less likely to become insolvent. We have found that companies with this score have a 99.75% chance of survival. Only a very small percentage of companies (0.25%) will actually fail in the following year. This is a tenth of the background rate of 2%, and so these companies are less likely to become insolvent.

These examples illustrate the extremes of the scale. This system indicates the probability of a company becoming insolvent, it is not a certainty or a guarantee. Companies with a score of 10 or less still have a 50% chance of survival, and 0.25% of companies with a score of 80 or over will still fail. This is the nature of probability – it indicates the likelihood of an event occurring, but cannot predict what will actually happen.

The credit limit helps you to work out an indication of a company’s capability to settle potential credit transactions. It uses the credit capacity and risk score of a company to help create a guide to the level of credit that this company should be able to settle.

To work out the credit limit, these three values are taken into consideration:

cash flow

This is calculated as the company’s pre-tax profit plus depreciation charged against that profit. In the absence of any net cash flow from operations figures

working capital

This is calculated as the difference between the total current assets and total current liabilities

net worth

This is calculated as the total assets minus the total liabilities, where the former does not include any intangible assets

The average of these 3 values is taken as the guide to the company’s credit capacity. The credit limit also takes into account a company’s risk score, so that high risk companies are less likely to be extended the same level of credit as low risk companies. This helps to protect creditors from extending high levels of credit to companies which are likely to become insolvent.

The final value is taken as a percentage of the credit capacity, where the percentage is directly proportional to risk score, i.e. the greater the score the higher the percentage, which can be from 2.5 to 25%.

There are exceptions to this formula, which is industry specific.

There are some companies that will not have a credit limit attached. These companies will have scored below 15 or alternatively all elements from the balance sheet and cash flow will be negative.

newly incorporated companies

The credit limit for newly incorporated companies, depending on the legal status of the company, is set a credit limit between £500 and £5,000. The limit will then increase over time unless adverse data is filed. Once a set of accounts has been filed the normal methodology for the calculation applies

The contract limits are calculated as a percentage of turnover. The latest disclosed turnover reflects the level of successful contracts completed, hence gives an indication of future capacity. Where turnover is not disclosed (abridged accounts), an estimated figure is used based on asset values and appropriate industry data. As with credit limits, the higher the score the greater the % to apply (range = 2.5% to 35%). This measurement views the applicant as a supplier of goods and services, whereas a credit limit assesses the applicant as a purchaser. The maximum value is capped at £500 million and the minimum value is now £500.

The resulting limit should be regarded as a yardstick for maximum contract capacity on a single contract over a 12 month period.

A contract limit combines relative risk and absolute measurement of contract capacity.

group structure

Holding companies are sourced from the systems shareholder database, which is compiled from the annual return document, and allotment of shares documents

holding company

A holding company is a company that controls other companies either through stock ownership or in certain cases by management control. ICC defines a holding company as one that has a 50% shareholding or more

ultimate holding company

An ultimate holding company is a company at the top of the ownership tree

Ultimate holding companies are sourced from the annual report and accounts; this is the only place where a company is obliged to publish this information.

The annual return and annual report and accounts are filed separately and at different dates each year. In some cases you might have to wait nearly two years for the annual report and accounts to be made public. Hence the system may have identified the holding company from the annual return but cannot ascertain the ultimate holding company as the accounts have not been filed.

It is possible for ownership of a company to change between annual returns. If this change does not involve any new allotments of shares, the transfer of ownership will not be reported until the next annual return is filed.

It is possible for the ultimate owner of a company to change between annual reports and accounts. This change will not show until the next annual report and accounts is filed and analysed by the system.

In the case of certain non analysed companies, for example non traders or dormant companies, the holding company and the ultimate holding company are still updated from the relevant source documents.

If the holding company field is blank but the ultimate holding company is not this would generally mean that no individual company was identified in the annual return as the holding company but that the ultimate holding company was reported in the last set of accounts. You should check the date of latest annual return and latest analysed accounts to aid interpretation.

A holding company or ultimate holding company's name may change between annual returns or annual reports and accounts. On Aquila, for UK holding companies and ultimate holding companies, the new name will be reflected, as the registration number is used to look up the current name when a report is requested.

date of accounts

The date to which the financial statements have been prepared

consolidated

This will indicate either yes or no. If yes, the financial statements reflect the subject company and its subsidiaries as a group, whilst no means the company only is reflected

subsidiary

This will indicate either yes or no. If yes, the subject company was under the operational control of another company at the balance sheet date, whilst no means that the company operated independently

no. of weeks

Period covered by the set of accounts

currency

Current currency of the stated financial statements. It will also indicate whether the accounts are displayed in units or thousands

audit qualification/comment

The auditors’ (or reporting accountants’) opinion on whether or not the accounts give a true and fair view. There a number of ways a report can be qualified each one varying in severity. Reports can be completely unqualified, unqualified but referred or completely qualified

turnover

Total invoiced sales for the period, net of VAT. UK sales, exports and overseas sales and intercompany sales will be included

pre-tax profit

The net trading profit figure after deduction of all operating expenses including depreciation and finance charges, but before deduction of tax, dividends, subventions or group relief, and other appropriations. Where applicable it will include the share of profits and losses of associated companies. Items described by the company as exceptional are included. Extraordinary items are excluded

taxation

Tax charges paid against profits. This can be negative, representing a tax credit

number of employees

Average number of employees employed during the period

total current assets

The sum of stocks, trade debtors, cash and miscellaneous current assets

total current liabilities

The sum of current and long-term liabilities

working capital

Obtained by subtracting total current liabilities from the total current assets. This represents the surplus/deficiency of funds from normal trading activities

shareholders funds

The sum of called up share capital, sundry reserves, profit & loss account reserve and revaluation reserve

company secretary

The name of the current secretary (officer) for this company

directors

The names of the current directors for this company

In exceptional circumstances the information contained within a report may differ from what is expected. The detail of information required by law can differ depending on individual company circumstances:

For companies to be categorised under the following classifications two out of the three statements must be true:

small companies

annual turnover

not more than 2.8 million

balance sheet

not more than 1.4 million

no more than 50 employees

filing regulations

Abbreviated balance sheet and notes, auditors’ report if required (special circumstances), no profit & loss

medium companies

annual turnover

not more than 11 million

balance sheet

not more than 5.6 million

no more than 250 employees

filing regulations

Full balance sheet, abbreviated profit & loss, auditors’ report, directors’ reports and notes to accounts

If you find you are unable to answer all of your questions in this section, we are always delighted to hear from you.

Call us on (0117) 330 8910 with any enquiries