From 1 April 2028, every UK company will have to file its annual accounts through commercial software, and small companies and micro-entities will have to include a profit and loss account for the first time. The point most directors miss is that filing a profit and loss account is not the same as publishing one. Smaller companies will be able to opt out of publication. Here is what changes, what does not, and what is worth doing now.
THE SHORT VERSION
If an accountant already prepares and files your accounts, most of this happens quietly in the background. If you file your own, this is the change to plan for. |
What is changing on 1 April 2028?
Six things, all of them confirmed by Companies House on 9 June 2026 when it announced how the accounts reforms will be implemented. The reforms come from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and had originally been pencilled in for April 2027. Pushing them back by a year gives companies one full accounting year plus nine months, or 21 months, to get ready.
| The change | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Software-only filing | Accounts must be filed in iXBRL format using commercial software. Web and paper filing close for accounts. |
| Profit and loss account | Small companies and micro-entities must file one, as larger companies already do. |
| Publication opt-out | Small companies and micro-entities can choose not to have that profit and loss account shown on the public register. |
| Abridged accounts | The option to file abridged accounts is removed. |
| Audit exemption | A stronger eligibility statement from the directors is required on the balance sheet. |
| Year-end changes | A business reason is needed to shorten the accounting reference period more than once in five years. |
Companies House has also said the component parts of the accounts and reports must all be filed together, which mostly affects how software packages assemble a submission rather than anything a director does by hand. The government set out the decision in a written ministerial statement on the same day.
Why is Companies House changing the rules?
The stated aims are to improve the transparency, accuracy and reliability of data on the register, to help people make better business decisions, to bring UK practice in line with other countries, and to make economic crime harder.
The honest version is that the register has long been a place where a company can exist on paper with almost no financial information attached to it. A micro-entity balance sheet can run to a single page and tell a reader almost nothing about whether the business trades at all, let alone how well. Requiring a profit and loss account changes that, at least for the people allowed to see it.
Will I have to buy accounting software?
Not necessarily. What has to change is how the accounts reach Companies House, not who does the work.
From 1 April 2028, every UK registered company must file its annual accounts in Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format using commercial software. That applies whether the company files for itself or an accountant files on its behalf. From that date the web and paper filing routes close for accounts. WebFiling itself is not disappearing: confirmation statements, director changes and registered office updates carry on exactly as they do now.
So there are two routes. Buy software, or use a professional who already has it. If you want to see what is available, Companies House publishes a list of software for filing company accounts, and some packages will file with HMRC at the same time.
Our view: if an accountant already prepares and files your annual statutory accounts, this change should be close to invisible to you. Accounts-production software has been the professional norm for years. The companies that will actually feel it are the ones still typing figures into WebFiling once a year, and for them the useful thing to know is that buying software is a choice, not an obligation.
Will small companies have to file a profit and loss account?
Yes. From 1 April 2028, small companies and micro-entities must deliver a profit and loss account to Companies House, in the same way larger companies already do. At the moment most small companies file a balance sheet and little else, which is why a search of the register often shows no turnover, no gross profit and no annual profit figure at all.
Here is what each size of company will be filing:
| Company type | What must be delivered to Companies House |
|---|---|
| Micro-entity | Balance sheet, profit and loss account, and auditor's report unless the company is exempt |
| Small company | Balance sheet, profit and loss account, directors' report (but see the note below), and auditor's report unless the company is exempt |
One caveat on the directors' report, which most write-ups of these reforms skip. The 2023 Act did require small companies to file one, but the government has since said it will remove the requirement for any company to produce a directors' report at all under its Modernising Corporate Reporting programme. The minister confirmed in the written statement that this element will therefore no longer apply, and Companies House has updated its guidance to match. In short, expect to file a balance sheet and a profit and loss account, and not a directors' report.
Will my profit and loss account be published?
Not if you opt out. Filing and publishing are two different things, and the difference is the single most useful thing to understand about these reforms.
Companies House has confirmed that small companies and micro-entities will be able to opt out of having their profit and loss account published on the public register. The information still goes to Companies House. It simply is not displayed to everyone who searches the register. Where a company opts out, Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement keep access to it. How the opt-out will work in practice is still to be confirmed.
The opt-out protects your figures from competitors. It does not protect them from scrutiny.
Our view: the privacy point deserves the attention it gets. If you run a construction company turning over £1.8 million at a net profit of £160,000, that is roughly a 9 percent net margin, and a competitor bidding against you on the same job could work a great deal out from those two numbers alone. Tenders are won on less. Keeping the detail off the public register is a sensible commercial choice for most owner-managed businesses.
There is a second consequence that gets far less attention, and it is the one we would raise with clients first. HMRC will hold a profit and loss account filed at Companies House sitting alongside the one inside your Corporation Tax return. Those two should agree. For a company whose books are kept properly, they will, because both come out of the same set of accounts. For a company whose figures get assembled from a carrier bag in the ninth month, an inconsistency that nobody would previously have noticed becomes a data point held in two places by the same department.
What is happening to abridged accounts?
They are being abolished. From 1 April 2028, small companies will no longer be able to prepare and file abridged accounts. Abridging currently lets a qualifying small company present a reduced version of the balance sheet and profit and loss account where every member agrees to it. That option disappears, and companies will file according to the requirements for their size and reporting framework instead.
If your accounts are abridged today, this is worth raising with whoever prepares them, because the shape of what appears on the register will visibly change.
What if my company claims audit exemption?
The exemption stays. The statement gets stronger.
Any company claiming audit exemption will have to give an enhanced statement from its directors on the balance sheet. It must specify which exemption is being claimed and confirm that the company qualifies for it.
Our advice: this looks like a small drafting change and it is not. Signing a statement that names the specific exemption you are relying on is much harder to do casually than ticking a generic box. Check the size thresholds properly before the accounts are signed, particularly if the company sits in a group or has grown quickly in the last two years.
Can I still change my company year end whenever I want?
Not as freely. Companies House is limiting how many times a company can shorten its accounting reference period. A company wanting to shorten the period more than once within five years will have to give a business reason.
Most companies never touch their year end, so this will pass them by entirely. The behaviour being targeted is repeated shortening, which has long been used to push a filing deadline further away when the accounts were not going to be ready.
Worth noting that this particular change arrives through secondary legislation that has not been laid yet, so the fine detail could still move.
Which set of accounts gets caught first?
This is the question that catches people out, and it is worth reading twice.
The rule bites on the filing date, not the year end.
Companies House has said that all accounts filings made on or after 1 April 2028 must be filed by commercial software in iXBRL, and that the web and paper routes close on that date. A set of accounts covering a year that finished well before April 2028 therefore falls under the new rules if it is delivered after it.
| Year end | Filed | Which rules apply |
|---|---|---|
| 31 December 2027 | August 2028 (deadline 30 September 2028) | New rules. Software and iXBRL, even though the whole year ran before they started. |
| 30 June 2027 | 31 March 2028 (on the deadline) | Old rules. Web filing still open. |
| 30 June 2027 | 2 April 2028 (filed late) | New rules. Web filing has closed, so late filing now also means finding software. |
Our advice: if you prepare your own accounts, do not assume your first affected year end is the one after April 2028. Work backwards from your filing date instead. For a December year end, the accounts for the year ending 31 December 2027 are already in scope. Detailed guidance is still to come, so we will update this article if Companies House takes a different line.
Are the filing deadlines changing?
No. The reforms change how accounts are filed and what they must contain, not when they are due. For an established private limited company, annual accounts are still due at Companies House nine months after the end of the accounting period. A year end of 31 March 2028 still means a filing deadline of 31 December 2028.
Corporation Tax keeps its own timetable alongside that: payment is due nine months and one day after the period end, and the CT600 return twelve months after. The filing method is changing. The calendar is not.
What should directors do before April 2028?
Nothing urgent. Companies House deliberately gave companies 21 months, and there is no prize for acting in 2026. That said, a handful of these are easier to settle now than in a rush in 2027.
- Find out who files your accounts and whether they are ready. If you use an accountant, ask them directly whether they file through software today. Most professional firms already do, and the answer takes one email.
- Check your registered email address at Companies House. Companies House has said it will contact every company at that address about these changes. If it points at a former adviser or an inbox nobody opens, you will not see the notices. This is the five-minute job on the list.
- Know which accounts you actually file. Micro-entity, small or abridged. Abridged is going, and the other two are changing shape.
- Decide how you feel about publishing your profit and loss account. The mechanism is not confirmed yet, but the commercial decision is one you can think through long before the form exists.
- Test whether your audit exemption genuinely holds, especially in a group or after a strong year.
- Look at your bookkeeping, not just your filing. A profit and loss account going to Companies House and HMRC should come from records that hold up, not from a year-end reconstruction.
- If you shorten your year end regularly, plan around the five-year restriction now.
What is not changing?
Several things are being misread about these reforms, so it is worth being blunt about them.
- Not every small company's profit and loss account becomes public. Small companies and micro-entities can opt out of publication.
- Not every company suddenly needs an audit. Audit exemption survives untouched. Only the statement changes.
- Directors do not have to buy software. An accountant or other professional can file on the company's behalf.
- Deadlines are not moving. Nine months after the period end, as before.
- WebFiling is not closing. It closes for accounts only. Confirmation statements and director changes carry on as they are.
One more thing that does not change, and it matters more than any of the above: the accounts are the directors' legal responsibility, whoever prepares and files them.
Frequently asked questions
When do the new Companies House accounts rules start?
1 April 2028. The package was originally due in April 2027 and was pushed back by a year in June 2026.
Are the changes still starting in April 2027?
No. Companies House confirmed in June 2026 that the accounts reforms take effect from April 2028 instead, giving companies 21 months to prepare.
Will every company need accounting software?
Every company will need its accounts filed using commercial software. That is not the same as every company buying software. An accountant or other professional can file on your behalf.
Will small companies have to file a profit and loss account?
Yes. Small companies and micro-entities will both have to deliver a profit and loss account to Companies House from April 2028.
Will everyone be able to see my profit and loss account?
Not if you opt out. Small companies and micro-entities will be able to keep the profit and loss account off the public register, although Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement will still see it. The opt-out procedure is yet to be confirmed.
Are abridged accounts being abolished?
Yes. The option to file abridged accounts is removed from April 2028.
Are audit exemptions disappearing?
No. Qualifying companies can still claim audit exemption. They will need a stronger directors' statement on the balance sheet naming the exemption claimed.
Can I still use Companies House WebFiling after April 2028?
Not for accounts. The web and paper routes close for accounts filings on 1 April 2028. WebFiling stays open for confirmation statements, director changes and other statutory filings.
My year end is before April 2028. Am I affected?
Possibly, yes. The rules apply to filings made on or after 1 April 2028, whatever period the accounts cover. A December 2027 year end filed in the summer of 2028 falls under the new regime.
How Dali & Co can help
For most directors, April 2028 will be a non-event provided the accounting records and the year-end process are already in reasonable order. We prepare annual statutory accounts for UK limited companies and file them with Companies House, and we prepare the Corporation Tax return alongside them so the two always agree.
We also keep clients' records reconciled through the year, which matters more under these reforms than it did before. A profit and loss account that goes to Companies House and HMRC is not a document you want assembled in a hurry.
If you currently prepare and file your own accounts, or you are not sure how the April 2028 changes land on your company, book a free consultation and we will tell you plainly whether anything needs to change.
This article provides general information only and does not constitute accounting, tax or legal advice. Parts of the April 2028 reforms, including the profit and loss publication opt-out, remain subject to further regulations and Companies House guidance.