Guide

How we write our guides

Last updated 3 October 20264 minute read

Our guides explain UK company rules and the public records behind them: what a company's status means, what it has to file and when, and what to check before you trade with it, lend to it or take it on as a client. This page sets out how they are written, where the facts come from and how we keep them up to date.

Who the guides are for

We write for people who check companies as part of their job: accountants and bookkeepers, compliance and procurement teams, lenders and credit teams, sales teams, investors, insolvency practitioners, recruiters and developers. Most guides are also useful to anyone dealing with a UK company for the first time.

Each guide answers one question. It opens with a short answer you can use on its own, then gives the detail, the exceptions and the steps to take. Questions people often ask next are answered at the end, followed by the sources and the date the guide was last updated.

How a guide is written

A guide starts with the question people search for and the facts needed to answer it properly. We draft guides with the help of SI agents: software agents that research a topic, gather the relevant legislation and official guidance, and write a first draft in our house style.

A draft is not published until every factual claim in it has been checked against a primary source. That includes dates, deadlines, fees, penalty amounts, section numbers and the names of forms and statuses. Where the sources disagree, or the law has changed recently, the guide says so and gives the date the change took effect. Anything that cannot be confirmed from a primary source is taken out.

Guides are written in plain British English. We explain terms the first time we use them, avoid jargon where an ordinary word will do, and do not pad a guide to make it longer. Guides are published by CompanyStack and do not carry the name of an individual author or reviewer.

The sources we use

We prefer primary sources, the bodies that make or apply the rules:

• legislation.gov.uk for the text of Acts and regulations, such as the Companies Act 2006 and the Insolvency Act 1986, checking whether later changes have been applied to the version shown;
• GOV.UK guidance from Companies House, the Insolvency Service, HM Revenue and Customs and other departments;
• The Gazette for the notices it publishes, such as proposals to strike off and insolvency notices;
• the official registers themselves, such as the Companies House register.

Every guide lists the sources it relies on, with links, so you can read the original. When a guide relies on a secondary source because no primary one covers the point, the guide names it as such.

Figures from our copy of the register

Some guides quote figures, such as how many companies have a particular status or how many were incorporated in a period. These figures come from CompanyStack's own copy of the Companies House register, which we update from Companies House data every day. The guide states the date the figures were taken, because the register changes daily and a count is only true for the day it was made.

Figures from our copy can differ slightly from those Companies House publishes, for example when a record changed after our last update. The dates of our latest data are published in our data freshness statement, and the data sources page explains where everything on CompanyStack comes from. Company data from Companies House is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Reviews and updates

Every guide is reviewed at least every six months, and sooner when the law, a fee or Companies House practice changes. A review checks each fact against its source again, replaces links that have moved and adds anything that has changed. The "Last updated" date at the top of each guide shows when it was last reviewed or changed.

Corrections

If you think a guide is wrong or out of date, please tell us through the contact page. Say which guide, what you think is wrong and, if you can, the source that shows it. We check the point against the primary source. If we got it wrong, we correct the guide and change its date.

What the guides are not

The guides are general information about UK rules and practice. They are not legal, tax or financial advice, and they cannot take account of your circumstances. For advice on your own situation, speak to a solicitor, an accountant or a licensed insolvency practitioner.

CompanyStack is independent and is not endorsed by Companies House or any other government body. Where a guide mentions a CompanyStack feature, it is because the feature helps with the task the guide describes; the official services the guide relies on are listed in its sources.

This guide is general information about UK rules and practice, not legal, tax or financial advice. Last checked 3 October 2026.

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