Keeping your company information up to date

By Team Starling

When something significant changes in your business, it's important to update certain organisations, platforms and service providers. This includes your records with Companies House, the UK’s public registrar of businesses. It’s also important to update Starling, if you’re one of our customers.

Even though it may feel like one more thing to add to your to-do list, updating your business address when you move premises or sharing the details of an additional director if you add one, is vital to the smooth running of your business.

Companies House is an important public record of your company. Your bank, as well as suppliers and customers, will often rely on it to verify your details, so it’s important to keep it up to date and in particular, to file accounts regularly in order to meet the requirements to continue operating as a company.

For Starling, having your updated information, helps us keep your account secure and lets us tailor our services to best suit your needs as a business.

Changes to directors and people with significant control

When it comes to changes involving directors or people with significant control, it’s good to be proactive. You can update your information with Companies House, on their website. You can contact Starling Customer Service through live chat in the app, on the phone or by email.

Examples of when to update your information include:

• Adding a director or person with significant control

• Removing a director or person with significant control

• If a director of person with significant control is no longer residing in the UK

• If your business is no longer trading

• a change to the nature of your business, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code or registered company address

Updating your company accounts and providing a confirmation statement

As a business owner, you need to submit your accounts to Companies House. For private companies, the annual accounts deadline is nine months after the end of your company’s financial year. For first accounts submission, the deadline is 21 months after registering with Companies House.

You also need to provide a statement confirming that all the information at Companies House is correct (a ‘confirmation statement’ or ‘annual return’). Your confirmation statement is due a year after you filed your last confirmation statement (or a year after you incorporated if you are in your first year).

If you don’t send Companies House your accounts or confirmation statement by the deadline, you may be fined or even ‘struck off’, the term for when a business is removed from Companies House and ceases to legally exist. You usually receive two months notice of a strike off. If you don’t intend for this to happen, it’s important you get in contact with Companies House as soon as possible to discontinue the strike off and submit any outstanding documents.

It’s essential to know that if your company is dissolved, any remaining assets (including funds in your bank account) become assets of the Crown and you will no longer have access to them. This means it’s important you remove all funds from your bank account prior to the dissolution date or to act quickly if you do not intend to cease trading.

If your business is not trading, but you wish to retain the company in case you want to trade in the future, you can ask Companies House to note your company as 'dormant'. If you bank with Starling, it’s also important to tell us that you're no longer operating as a trading business, so that we can deliver banking services that best suit your needs.

Dormant companies are still required to submit accounts to Companies House but can stay 'active' and won't be proposed for strike off.

If you’re a Starling customer, please get in touch to let us know when there have been changes to your details at Companies House.

This article is intended as general information only and does not constitute advice in any way. For any specific questions, you may want to consult your legal advisor or accountant.