Companies House filing codes explained

A company’s filing history on Companies House is a list of documents, each with a form code and a short description. The codes are the quickest way to read a history at a glance, once you know them. This guide groups the ones that appear most often by what they record.

Accounts and statements

AA

Annual accounts. The description says which kind: full, small, micro-entity, abridged, dormant or group. Small-company and micro-entity accounts usually omit the profit and loss account.

AA01

Change of accounting reference date, which moves the year end.

CS01

Confirmation statement, filed at least once a year since June 2016. It confirms the registered details and, for a private company with share capital, lists the shareholders.

AR01

Annual return, the confirmation statement’s predecessor until June 2016, with the shareholder list.

AUD

An auditor’s resignation or a statement from an auditor who has ceased to hold office.

Officers

AP01

Appointment of a director.

AP02

Appointment of a corporate director.

AP03

Appointment of a secretary.

TM01

Termination of a director’s appointment, whether by resignation or removal.

TM02

Termination of a secretary’s appointment.

CH01

Change of a director’s details: name, correspondence address, nationality or occupation. A changed name here is one reason a person has more than one officer record.

Name and addresses

AD01

Change of registered office address.

AD02 – AD04

Notices about the single alternative inspection location where company records are kept.

NM01

Notice of a change of name, followed by the certificate of change of name.

Shares and control

SH01

Return of allotment of shares: new shares issued, the price paid and the resulting statement of capital.

SH02

Consolidation, sub-division, redemption of shares or re-conversion of stock into shares.

SH03

Return of a purchase by the company of its own shares.

SH19

Statement of capital after a reduction of capital.

RESOLUTIONS

Shareholders’ resolutions: special resolutions to change the articles, reduce capital, change the name, or wind the company up voluntarily.

PSC01

Notice of an individual as a person with significant control: more than 25% of the shares or votes, the right to appoint or remove the board, or significant influence.

PSC02

Notice of a company or other legal entity with significant control.

PSC04

Change of an individual PSC’s details.

PSC07

Notice that a person has ceased to have significant control.

PSC08 – PSC09

Statements that no PSC has been identified, or that the company is still taking steps to identify one.

Charges

MR01

Particulars of a charge created on or after 6 April 2013: who holds security over what. Earlier charges were registered on form MG01.

MR04

Statement that a charge has been satisfied in full or in part.

MR05

Statement that property has been released from a charge.

Strike-off and dissolution

DS01

Application by the directors to strike the company off the register.

DS02

Withdrawal of that application.

GAZ1

First Gazette notice: the strike-off, voluntary or compulsory, has begun.

GAZ2

Final Gazette notice: the company has been dissolved.

Between the two notices the history may show the strike-off being suspended, after an objection, or discontinued, after overdue filings were brought up to date. See company statuses for the process.

Insolvency

These documents are filed by the insolvency practitioner or the court rather than the company. The form references changed in April 2017 when new insolvency rules came in, so older companies show numbered forms such as 600 (notice of a liquidator’s appointment) where newer ones show the current references.

LIQ02

Notice of the statement of affairs in a creditors’ voluntary liquidation: what the company owned and owed, as its directors stated it.

LIQ03

A liquidator’s progress report in a voluntary liquidation.

AM01

Notice of an administrator’s appointment.

AM03

An administrator’s progress report.

AM10

Notice of the end of an administration.

A compulsory liquidation begins with the court’s winding-up order, which also appears in the history. For how to read the key document, see how to read a statement of affairs.

In a report

A Check the Director report retrieves the filings it reads for each company, lists them in the sources section with their codes, dates and Companies House document references, and labels each in plain English. Every figure in the report cites the document it was read from, and the page where there is one, so the filing history can be checked against it line by line.

This guide describes the public record in general terms, for England and Wales unless it says otherwise. It is not legal advice.