For as long as most business owners can remember, filing accounts at Companies House has meant putting the minimum on the public record. A balance sheet, a few notes, and nothing about what the company actually earns. From April 2028 that ends.
The government confirmed the detail on 9 June 2026, after a pause and a good deal of lobbying. The changes were originally due in April 2027; they have been pushed back a year to give everyone time to prepare. Which sounds generous until you work out what it means in practice.
What is actually changing
Six things, of which two matter to almost every owner-managed company.
Small companies and micro-entities will have to file a profit and loss account. Not optional, not abridged. The same requirement larger companies already have.
Every company will have to file through commercial software. Accounts must be submitted in iXBRL format. Companies House will close its web filing service and its paper route for accounts entirely.
Alongside those: the option to file abridged accounts disappears, audit exemption claims need a strengthened eligibility statement, all component parts of the accounts must be filed together, and there is a limit on how often a company can shorten its accounting reference period.
The concession that matters
The obvious objection to publishing a small company's P&L is commercial sensitivity. If you are one of three firms bidding for the same work, your competitors reading your gross margin is not a small thing.
The government listened. Small companies and micro-entities will be able to opt out of publishing the profit and loss account on the public register. It still gets filed, and Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement will still see it, but it need not appear where anyone can look it up.
How the opt-out will work has not yet been confirmed. That detail is worth watching, because a default that publishes unless you actively opt out will catch people.
It is also worth noting the other side of the argument: companies that want the transparency can keep it, and there are real benefits in access to finance from having a visible track record.
Why the software change is the bigger deal
Most commentary has focused on the P&L. In practice, for smaller companies, the filing route is the change more likely to cause a problem.
A great many small and dormant companies file their own accounts through the Companies House web service. If you are one of them, that route disappears. There is no paper fallback. You will either need to buy compatible software yourself, learn to tag accounts in iXBRL, and file that way, or have an accountant do it.
Dormant companies are worth calling out specifically. Filing dormant accounts has been a two-minute job on a web form. From April 2028 it will need software like everything else.
What the timetable really gives you
Companies House puts it as one full accounting year plus nine months, or 21 months, to get ready. That is fair for a company with a March year end.
The point to grasp is that the change applies to filings made on or after the date, so the accounts affected are ones for periods you are trading through now or will be shortly. If your P&L is going to be visible, the year it covers may already have started.
Which raises a question worth asking early rather than late: is there anything about how the company is structured, or how costs are presented, that you would want to think about before the figures are on a filing that others can see?
What we would do about it
Honestly, for most of our clients: very little, and that is the point.
If we already prepare and file your accounts, the software change is ours to deal with, not yours. We file through commercial software now. The P&L requirement means a conversation about whether to opt out of publication, and that is a five-minute discussion at the year-end meeting.
If you file your own accounts, this is the thing to act on. Not in 2028. Sooner, because the sensible move is to have the route sorted before it is compulsory rather than in the month it becomes so.
You have two options and it is worth pricing both. Buying iXBRL-compatible software yourself and learning to tag a set of accounts is a real cost in licence fees and in your own time, every year, for a job you do once. Or you hand it over: our Core package is from £100 + VAT a month and covers the statutory accounts, the corporation tax return, the confirmation statement, your accounting software subscription, registered office and answering the phone through the year. Filing is simply part of it, and iXBRL becomes a word you never have to think about.
For a dormant company it is worth doing the sum before 2028 rather than after. If the company exists only to protect a name, the cost of keeping it compliant is about to rise, and that may change the answer about whether to keep it at all.
The short version
From April 2028: every company files by software, in iXBRL, with no web or paper route for accounts. Small companies and micro-entities file a profit and loss account, with the option to keep it off the public register. Abridged accounts are gone.
Nothing needs doing this week. But if you file your own accounts, or you have ever relied on the fact that your numbers were not public, it is worth a conversation this year rather than in 21 months.
Common questions
Will my competitors be able to see my profit?
Only if you let them. Small companies and micro-entities can opt out of publishing the profit and loss account on the public register. It is still filed, and Companies House, HMRC and law enforcement still see it, but it need not be publicly visible. How the opt-out will operate in practice has not yet been confirmed.
What is iXBRL?
Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language. In plain terms, a version of your accounts with machine-readable tags attached to each figure, so software can read them as data rather than as a document. You will not see the tags. Accounting software applies them.
Can I still file my own accounts after April 2028?
Yes, but only through commercial iXBRL-compatible software. The Companies House web filing service and the paper route both close for accounts. If you currently use the web form, that is the thing to plan for.
Does this affect dormant companies?
Yes, and disproportionately. Filing dormant accounts has been a two-minute job on a web form. From April 2028 it needs software like everything else, so the annual cost of keeping a dormant company on the register rises.
Why was it delayed from 2027 to 2028?
The changes were originally due in April 2027 and were pushed back a year following a pause and considerable lobbying, to give companies and software providers time to prepare.
What should I do now?
If an accountant already files for you, nothing. The software change is theirs to handle. If you file your own, price up software against handing it over, and do it well before it becomes compulsory rather than in the month it does.
