Public Record Disclosures

Abbreviated Accounts RIP: So what next ?
For accounting periods commencing on or after 1-Jan-16 SME companies will no longer be able to file abbreviated accounts on the public record at Companies House. Instead, they will have to choose from:

1. Full accounts,
2. Filleted accounts (full accounts minus the Directors Report and Profit & Loss Account pages),
3. Abridged accounts (reduced Profit & Loss Account disclosures, starting at Gross Profit))
4. Micro-entity accounts (a slightly simplified version of full accounts).

In introducing this change, legislators seem to have fixed something that was not broken. The long established principle of SME companies keeping details of turnover, gross margin, directors remuneration, profit and dividends off of the public record, was understood by most to be consistent with what a private company is meant to be all about. SME business owners will now have to revisit what message they want the outside world to receive about their finances, and actively manage the format, volume and timing of disclosures accordingly.
Blog entry by: Ian Piper.

Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.