Abbreviated Accounts Explained: Filleted, Abridged, and Micro-Entity Options

Abbreviated accounts were a reduced form of annual accounts that small UK companies could file with Companies House, showing far less financial detail than their full statutory accounts. The category was abolished in 2016 and replaced by two separate options under the Companies Act 2006: filleted accounts and abridged accounts. Both still allow a qualifying small company to keep sensitive figures, particularly its profit and loss account, off the public record, but they work in different ways and carry different consent requirements.

Why Abbreviated Accounts No Longer Exist

Regulations introduced in 2015 removed the abbreviated accounts category from UK company law with effect from 2016. In its place, Companies House now accepts two reduced filing routes. A small company that would once have filed abbreviated accounts now chooses between filleting its full accounts before filing, or preparing abridged accounts in the first place. The underlying purpose is the same: less public disclosure for smaller businesses. The mechanics are not.

Filleted Accounts

Filleted accounts are the more common replacement and the easier of the two to use. The company prepares a full set of statutory accounts for its shareholders and HMRC, then omits certain documents from the version delivered to Companies House. No special shareholder permission is required.

What can be left out of the public filing:

The profit and loss account
The directors’ report
Notes that relate solely to the profit and loss account
The auditor’s report (if the profit and loss account is not filed)

What stays on the public record is the balance sheet and the notes that relate to it. The balance sheet must carry a statement confirming the accounts were delivered under the small companies regime and noting that the profit and loss account was not filed.¹ Full statutory accounts, including everything that was withheld from Companies House, must still be prepared for shareholders and submitted to HMRC with the Company Tax Return.²

Abridged Accounts

Abridged accounts go further by simplifying the documents themselves rather than withholding them. The company prepares a condensed balance sheet and, if it chooses, a condensed profit and loss account, each with fewer line items than the standard versions.

The price of that simplification is consent. Every member of the company must agree to the abridgement, and the consent has to be obtained fresh each year, after the year end but before the accounts are approved. The balance sheet must include a statement confirming that members agreed to the preparation of abridged accounts.¹

Choosing Between the Two

For a company with a handful of shareholders, abridged accounts can be workable, but the annual unanimous consent is a real administrative task. Filleted accounts achieve a similar level of public privacy with no shareholder vote required, which is why most small companies take that route. The two options can also be combined: a company can prepare abridged accounts and then fillet them before filing.

Who Qualifies as a Small Company

Access to either replacement depends on qualifying as a small company. A company qualifies by meeting at least two of three size tests. For financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, those thresholds are:

Turnover of £15 million or less
Balance sheet total of £7.5 million or less
50 or fewer employees on average

The turnover and asset limits were raised from £10.2 million and £5.1 million respectively; the employee figure stayed at 50.³

A single bad year does not strip a company of its small status. The company only ceases to be small after failing the tests in two consecutive financial years, and the same two-year rule applies in reverse to a growing company gaining small status. A newly incorporated company qualifies immediately if it meets at least two of the three tests in its first financial year.

Companies That Cannot Use the Regime

Meeting the size tests is not the end of the story. Section 384 of the Companies Act 2006 shuts certain companies out of the small companies regime no matter how small they are. The main exclusions cover public limited companies (traded or not), banking companies, authorised insurance companies, e-money issuers, and investment firms regulated under UK financial services law. Belonging to any of those categories at any point during the financial year disqualifies the company for that year.

Groups face additional rules. A group must qualify as small in aggregate, and groups containing a public company or a regulated financial entity are excluded entirely.

The Micro-Entity Option

Below the small company tier sits the micro-entity regime, which strips public disclosure down further still. Qualification requires meeting at least two of three tests:

Turnover of £1 million or less
Balance sheet total of £500,000 or less
10 or fewer employees on average

These limits also rose for periods beginning on or after 6 April 2025, up from £632,000 turnover and £316,000 in assets.⁴ The same two-consecutive-years rule governs movement into and out of the status.

A micro-entity can file a simplified balance sheet with fewer required line items than even the small company version. The balance sheet must carry a prominent statement confirming the accounts were prepared under the micro-entity provisions and delivered under the small companies regime, positioned above the director’s signature. Micro-entities are also exempt from preparing a directors’ report at all, not merely from filing one.³ In practice, what the public can see is a bare snapshot of assets and liabilities.

Planned Changes to Reduced Filing

The current replacements for abbreviated accounts are themselves on borrowed time. Under proposals linked to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, small companies would be required to file a profit and loss account and a directors’ report publicly, and both abridged and filleted accounts would be abolished.⁵ The original target date of April 2027 has been pushed back, and the government has committed to giving at least 21 months’ notice before any new requirements take effect.

For now, filleted and abridged accounts are the two routes a qualifying small company has if it wants to keep its profit and loss figures out of the public record. Any business that relies on that privacy today should expect the ground to shift and plan for a regime in which fewer documents can be withheld.