Companies House abbreviated and filleted filing — what to disclose, what to omit.

The short answer

For UK small companies (FRS 102 Section 1A), the standard filing option is “filleted” — full accounts prepared internally, reduced version filed with Companies House (omitting P&L and directors’ report). For micro-entities (FRS 105), the public filing is further reduced — typically just the balance sheet and a small set of mandatory notes.The April 2025 threshold increases (turnover ≤ £15m small, ≤ £1m micro) mean more companies qualify for these options. The right choice depends on who’s reading your accounts, not just regulatory minimums.

1. Terminology — abbreviated vs filleted vs micro

The vocabulary trips firms up. Three terms get used interchangeably but mean different things:

• Abbreviated accounts — the old term. Abolished for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016. People still use it colloquially.
• Filleted accounts — what replaced abbreviated. The small-entity company prepares full accounts under FRS 102 Section 1A, and files only a reduced version with Companies House. The omitted bits are the profit and loss account and the directors’ report.
• Micro-entity accounts — the regime for FRS 105 micro-entities. A further-abbreviated Companies House format that is essentially just the balance sheet plus a small set of mandatory disclosures.

In casual conversation, “abbreviated” usually means either filleted or micro-entity depending on context. In professional writing, use the precise term.

2. The April 2025 threshold changes

For accounting periods commencing on or after 6 April 2025, the company-size thresholds increased materially:

A company is eligible for a regime if it meets at least two of the threethresholds. The “two consecutive years” rule governs movement between regimes — you need to be inside or outside the threshold for two years in a row before the status flips.

Practical implication: if your client was filing full FRS 102 accounts because they exceeded the old small-entity thresholds (£10.2m turnover / £5.1m balance sheet / 50 employees), they may now qualify for filleted filing under the new thresholds. Check the re-classification at year-end.

3. What's actually published — filleted vs micro

Companies House publishes the filed accounts on its public register at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Anyone in the world can view them for free.

The full accounts you prepare for HMRC, shareholders, the bank and any other internal audience include all the components above. The filed version is the reduced public-facing subset.

4. When filleted is the right call

• Privacy matters to the client. Profit margins, dividend policy, salary structure stay out of the public record.
• The audience for the public filing is narrow. Companies House and HMRC are the primary users; no bank lender or buyer relying on the public record.
• The client is small but expects growth. Filleted format makes sense up to and including the new £15m turnover threshold.
• Cost-conscious clients. The reduced disclosure means slightly less preparation work, though the underlying full accounts still need to be done.

5. When micro-entity is the right call

• The client is genuinely tiny. Owner-managed company, single director, no external lenders or prospective buyers reading the accounts.
• Maximum privacy. Even less in the public record than filleted.
• No material investment property. FRS 105 uses cost-less-depreciation rather than fair value for investment property — if the company holds property at scale, FRS 102 1A is more representative.
• No significant timing differences. FRS 105 doesn’t require deferred-tax recognition; for clients with material timing differences (capital allowances vs depreciation, revaluations) FRS 102 1A gives a more honest picture.
• Cost is a binding constraint. FRS 105 accounts are typically 30–50% cheaper to produce.

6. When filleted/micro isn’t right

• Bank lender is reading your accounts. Lenders typically require the full set including P&L. Filing filleted at Companies House but giving the bank a full set is fine and common; just don’t expect the filed version to be sufficient.
• Sale process is imminent. Prospective buyers will look at the public record first. Filleted limits what they can assess without asking. For a company preparing for sale, full filing (or even moving up from FRS 102 1A to full FRS 102) tells a better story.
• Investment round is being raised. Same as sale — investors want the full picture.
• You have material related-party transactions that benefit from being framed in a directors’ report rather than left as a footnote in a balance-sheet-only filing.

7. Filing mechanics

Companies House accepts filings via three routes:

• Companies House WebFiling — manual web form, suitable for very small one-off filings. Free.
• Companies House API — programmatic filing from accounting software. The route most firms use at scale.
• iXBRL upload via the WebFiling portal — for accounts produced in iXBRL format by external software.

The filing deadline for private limited companies is 9 monthsafter the accounting reference date. Filing late triggers automatic penalties: £150 if up to 1 month late, escalating to £1,500 if more than 6 months late, with multipliers for repeat offenders. Build the year-end filing dates into your firm’s deadline tracker.

8. Filed accounts vs the internal full set

A key conceptual point: the filed accounts are a public-facing subset of the full accounts you prepare internally. Most firms produce one master set of full accounts, then extract the filed version. The split:

• Full accounts — what HMRC and the company’s shareholders see, what gets sent to the bank, what you use as the working copy.
• Filed version — the reduced subset that goes to Companies House public register.

Good accounts-production software handles the split automatically: produce the full set, and the filing format extracts cleanly for the public submission.

9. Where SmartBooks fits

SmartBooks ships FRS 102 Section 1A and FRS 105 accounts production inside the Firm plan, no add-on subscription. The workflow:

1. Pick the framework per client (filleted FRS 102 1A or FRS 105 micro-entity) in the year-end pack.
2. Software produces the full set under the chosen framework.
3. Filed version (filleted or micro-entity) is extracted automatically.
4. Companies House submission via the official API once production credentials are granted (currently sandbox-tested — status on /security). In the meantime, iXBRL output is downloadable for filing through the firm’s existing route.
5. The submission record — payload, Companies House receipt, approval trail — sits in the client’s year-end pack for the statutory retention period.

For firms switching from Sage Final Accounts, Xero Tax or external accounts-production tools, the workflow is concierge during Cohort 1 pilot. Book a 15-minute demo if you want to walk through the year-end workflow against your specific client mix.

Related guides

• FRS 102 1A vs FRS 105 — accounts production in practice — the framework choice that drives this filing decision.
• MTD ITSA April 2026 — what it means for firms
• Pricing MTD ITSA quarterly returns
• SmartBooks vs IRIS — firm-side accounts production comparison.
• SmartBooks vs Sage — if you’re on Sage Final Accounts.

FAQ

A note on advice

This guide is general operational guidance on UK Companies House filing options. It is not regulatory or accounting advice for a specific entity. UK firms should consult their professional body (ICAEW, ACCA, AAT) for institute-specific guidance, the FRC’s published standards (FRS 102 Section 1A, FRS 105), and Companies House’s current filing guidance. The April 2025 threshold changes and the iXBRL filing format are evolving; verify against current published material before relying on this guide for a specific filing.