Companies House WebFiling service

Companies House WebFiling service is a new secure way for UK companies to submit information on their business activities. It is another example of Companies House leading the way in offering digital services. It is also quite amazing when you think that only 10 years ago most Companies House services were carried out entirely by snail mail. Microfiche was a revelation in its time. Some historical documents are still stored in this way.

Already some commentators are describing the new WebFiling service as replacing the ‘conventional way’ of filing. Since this ‘conventional way’ has usually included downloading or requesting forms via the Internet and posting them back by a specified date it is already evident that a process reliant on the (new?) Internet channel has been become out dated. Is this a first for any government agency, let alone Companies House? Deploying a web service that trumps a previous web service in terms of digital delivery?

As you would expect, Companies House is aware that this process could be exploited. In the past damage has been caused by criminal elements who ‘Hijack’ companies. The checkSURE team has written of this elsewhere. This involves fraudulent changing of details of maybe the Company’s directors or the registered office of a particular company. The criminals can then use the false details to order goods on credit, sell them on but never have to pay for the products. With fraudsters changing details of a company without their knowledge, it leaves the companies left with the unenviable task of correcting its public records. This is why we recommend that all companies monitor their own business by taking a checkSURE Keep it Live report.

Companies House has this year introduced new systems to protect companies from this kind of fraudulent activity. One of these systems is WebFiling.

How does Companies House WebFiling work?

The WebFiling service is different to electronic filing. It provides a secure system that allows you to submit company information online. The service is secure as two different codes are required before you can submit data online.

1) You register online and Companies House will send out a security code to your e-mail address.

2) A second authentication code is posted to your company’s registered office. The authentication code is unique to your company and is used in place of a signature.

Each time you need to submit company information, both secure codes must be provided, allowing only legitimate changes to be submitted and only the company to register such changes. If Companies House do receive any paper versions of those forms, they will reject them and send them back to the company unless they have been specifically authorised to accept them.

Forms that can be submitted in this way include

* 363s – Companies House Annual return
PDF example of 363s Annual return

* 287 – Companies House Change of situation or address or registered office
PDF example of 287 Change of situation or address or registered office

* 288a – Appointment of Director or secretary
PDF example of 288a Appointment of Director or secretary

* 288b - Terminating appointment of Director or Secretary
PDF example of 288b Terminating appointment of Director or Secretary

* 288c – Change of particulars of a Director or secretary
PDF example of 288c Change of particulars of a Director or secretary

* 353 - Location of register of members
PDF example of 353 Location of register of members

* 88(2) – return allotment of shares
PDF example of 88(2) return allotment of shares

* 123 - Notice of increase in share capital
PDF example of 123 Notice of increase in share capital

Of course, once completed and filed in this way, Companies House documents on every company since 1995 are then available to buy from checkSURE for just £7.95 plus VAT. These images of the original documents are then stored in your checkSURE Portfolio for later search and retrieval. Register for free to search and buy checkSURE Companies House documents today.