For businesses
What customers see on Companies House about your business
What customers see on Companies House is your legal name and number, the company’s age, its registered office, whether accounts and the confirmation statement are on time, who the directors and owners are, and any strike-off notice. It is free, public and takes under two minutes to read — and it is what decides whether a deposit gets paid.
Key facts
- Every UK limited company’s record has been free to search since 2015; the register holds more than 5 million companies (Companies House).
- Directors’ names, month and year of birth, nationality and occupation are public, as are the people with significant control (Companies Act 2006, Parts 10 and 21A).
- Private companies must file accounts within 9 months of their year end; late filing penalties start at £150 and rise to £1,500 after six months (Companies House).
- A company website must display the registered name, company number, registered office and place of registration (Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008, reg. 6).
- In SafeToPay checks, a registered office at a serviced or mass-registration address with no trading address on the website costs 10 points of Record strength; showing the address recovers most of it (methodology v1.2).
Why a customer is reading your register entry
A customer opens Companies House for one reason: they are about to send money to a business they cannot see, and the register is the only official record of who that business is. A kitchen, a staircase, an extension or a car deposit is often £2,000–£15,000 paid by bank transfer before any work exists. Banks rarely refund a transfer to a company that later fails, and the deposit ranks behind secured and preferential creditors if the company goes into liquidation. So the buyer looks for the one thing that would let them recover the money: a real, solvent, identifiable legal entity.
They are not reading the register the way an accountant would. They are asking four questions in order: Is there a company at all? Is it the company on the website? Is it still trading and filing? Is anything on the record alarming? The rest of this guide follows that order.
What the register shows, line by line
The public record has eight parts that matter to a customer, and each reads as reassuring, neutral or a warning depending on what it says.
| Register field | What the customer sees | Reassuring when | A warning when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company name and number | Legal name, 8-digit number, previous names | Name matches the website or the trading name is explained; number in the website footer | Website shows a brand with no company number; several previous names in a short period |
| Incorporation date | Day the company was formed; company age | Age matches “established” claims on the website | Website says “20 years” and the company was formed last year |
| Registered office | Address, and how many other companies use it | Real premises, or a serviced office plus a trading address on the website | Hundreds of companies at one address and no trading address anywhere |
| Company status | Active, dissolved, in liquidation, “active – proposal to strike off” | Active | Anything other than active |
| Accounts | Type (micro, small, full), due date, overdue flag, net assets and cash in the filing | Filed on time; positive net assets | Overdue; net liabilities; no accounts yet on a company claiming a long history |
| Confirmation statement | Last filed and next due | On time | Overdue — an early sign a company is being abandoned |
| Officers and owners | Directors with birth month/year, nationality, appointment date; persons with significant control; resigned officers | Same people over years; other companies in a related trade | Recent wholesale change of directors; a director whose other companies were dissolved with debts; a disqualified director |
| Filing history and Gazette | Every filing, plus strike-off and insolvency notices | Routine annual filings | First Gazette notice, DS01, winding-up petition, a charge registered in the last 90 days |
The company name is not what your customers search for
Most customers do not know your legal name. They know the brand on the van or the website, and if the two differ they either fail to find you or find the wrong company. A sole trader trading as “Smith Kitchens” and a limited company called “SK Interiors Ltd” look identical on a website and completely different on the register. Putting the legal name and number in the footer removes the guesswork — and for a limited company it is required by the Trading Disclosures Regulations 2008.
Accounts are read for two numbers, not the whole filing
A customer with no accountancy training still finds two numbers: net assets (or net liabilities) and cash. Micro-entity accounts show both on a single page. A company with £342 of net assets is not necessarily in trouble, but it tells the buyer that a £6,000 deposit is larger than everything the company owns. Overdue accounts are worse than thin ones, because they suggest nobody is minding the company.
Directors are read as a history, not a list
Clicking a director’s name shows every UK company they have ever been appointed to, with status. Three dissolved companies in the same trade under the same director is the pattern customers are told to look for in guides to phoenix companies. It is often innocent — a dormant company closed properly, a partnership restructured — but the register does not explain it, so the customer assumes the worst unless you explain it first.
One thing the register never does: it does not connect itself to your website. Nothing on Companies House says “this company runs smithkitchens.co.uk”. The customer has to make that link, and if your site does not state the company number, many will not manage it.
What the register does not show
The register says nothing about the quality of your work, your trading address, your insurance, your scheme memberships or your reviews; it records the legal entity only. That gap cuts both ways. A superb 20-year-old firm with a serviced-office registered address and micro-entity accounts can look thinner than a two-year-old company with a shiny website, while a sole trader is not on the register at all and has to prove legitimacy some other way (see how customers check a sole trader).
This is why we built SafeToPay to check a company by its website address rather than its name: the check reads what the site claims, finds the company and puts the two side by side — the comparison a customer cannot easily do alone.
Three real records
All three are from live checks. Names withheld; every figure is as filed on the register.
Bespoke joinery manufacturer, South of England, ten years on the register
Registered office at an accountant’s serviced address shared with more than 600 other companies, 38 miles from the workshop. The website showed a 0800 number, no postcode and no company number. Accounts on time, five-figure net assets, a decade of history — and still amber, because a customer could not connect the website to the company or find a physical premises.
The same company, one week later
Footer updated with the legal name, company number, registered office and the workshop address with postcode; the Google Business Profile already showed the same postcode. Nothing changed on the register. The only remaining note was a soft one about a SIC code describing construction rather than manufacturing. Time spent: about ten minutes.
Building contractor, formed 2019, website still taking enquiries
The register showed a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off after accounts went overdue, and a creditor’s objection on the filing history. No footer disclosure. A customer following any checklist would have seen it in the first minute. This is the record a strike-off notice leaves behind, and no website copy can cover it.
Enter a website address, e.g. smithkitchens.co.uk
Ten-minute fixes that change what customers see
Most weak records are weak because of presentation, not substance, and four of the five fixes below need no accountant.
- Put the legal name, company number, registered office and place of registration in the website footer. Required by law for a limited company; it also lets every checker, human or automated, connect the website to the right entity.
- Show a trading address with a postcode, and make sure it matches your Google Business Profile. This is the single largest score change in SafeToPay checks for firms with a serviced registered office.
- List a geographic landline (01 or 02 area code) alongside any mobile or 0800 number. Non-geographic numbers do not prove a location.
- File early. Accounts and the confirmation statement filed weeks before the deadline never show a “due” flag during a customer’s check. Overdue filings are the most common serious flag we see.
- Check your SIC code and director history at the next confirmation statement. A manufacturer coded as a builder, or a dormant company never formally closed, both read as discrepancies to a customer who does not know the story.
If something on the register is genuinely wrong — an address not updated, a filing recorded against the wrong company — correct it at Companies House first, then tell us so the report reflects the source.
Show the record before they go looking
A customer who has to hunt for your record assumes you have something to hide; a business that shows it first turns the same facts into a reason to pay. SafeToPay’s verified business badge links from your website to your full public report — legal entity, age, accounts, directors, website compared with the register — refreshed whenever the report is re-run. It is free, it carries no verdict colour, and verification is one email from your company’s domain. What we read, and from where, is on the business data page and in the methodology.
Enter a website address, e.g. smithkitchens.co.uk
Frequently asked questions
Can customers see my home address on Companies House?
Only if you used it as the registered office or as a director’s correspondence address. Residential addresses are held privately; the service address is public. You can change the service address free of charge and apply to have a home address removed from historic filings.
Is a serviced office registered address a red flag?
No, on its own. Thousands of legitimate companies use an accountant’s or formation agent’s address. It becomes a concern when the website shows no trading address either, because the customer then has no location at all for the business. Showing a trading address with a postcode resolves it.
Do customers really check Companies House before paying?
Yes, and increasingly so. Citizens Advice, Trading Standards, Which? and most consumer guides on paying builders or buying kitchens tell people to check the register before paying a deposit. Free tools, including SafeToPay, remove the need to know the legal name, so the check is now routine for larger deposits.
My accounts show net liabilities. What will a customer think?
They will see the number without the context, and most will hesitate. A single loss-making year is common in a small company, but the register cannot explain it. Say what happened on your website or in your quote, and offer card payment or staged payments so the customer’s exposure does not depend on your balance sheet.
Does a sole trader appear on Companies House?
No. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships are not registered companies and have no public record. Customers then rely on VAT registration, a trading address, reviews, scheme memberships and card payment — weaker evidence, but workable.
How quickly does a change at Companies House show up?
Address changes, appointments and confirmation statements filed online usually appear within 24 hours. Accounts can take several days to be processed. SafeToPay reads the register live, so a change is reflected on the next check.
Sources
- Companies House — Find and update company information
- GOV.UK — Companies House: filing deadlines and late filing penalties
- The Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008, regulation 6 — legislation.gov.uk
- Companies Act 2006, Parts 10 and 21A — legislation.gov.uk
- GOV.UK — People with significant control guidance
- SafeToPay methodology v1.2 — Record strength scoring