Home/How it works
What actually happens, in order
No stage is skipped and none is hurried past. Where a decision is permanent, we say so before you make it.
The eight steps, in order
The name
Checked against the statutory rules and the register. Sensitive words are identified with the body whose non-objection is needed. A name that reduces to one already registered is a hard stop, and we will tell you that plainly rather than submitting and hoping.
The jurisdiction
England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. It sets the number prefix, the registry that holds the file, and the address the registered office must be in. It is permanent — a company cannot be moved between jurisdictions afterwards.
The structure
Private company limited by shares, limited by guarantee, LLP, PLC or CIC. Each has a different ending, different filing obligations, and different consequences for how profits and control work.
Officers and shares
Directors, secretary if you want one, shareholders and people with significant control. Share classes, numbers and nominal value. Getting this right at formation is far cheaper than correcting it later.
Addresses
Registered office in the right jurisdiction, service addresses for each officer, and a trading address if the company will actually receive post. This is the step that decides what the public register shows about you personally.
Identity verification
Directors and people with significant control verify their identity. We do this before an address is activated, not after payment — an address that goes live before anyone is checked is how addresses end up abused.
Submission
We file the incorporation and pass on what Companies House says in the words they use. Their processing times are published by them, and we will not advertise a speed that is not ours to control.
The weeks after
Corporation tax registration, the company UTR, a bank account, VAT and PAYE if relevant, and the first confirmation statement date recorded. This is where new companies most often drift.
What we will tell you before you pay, not after
If your name has a problem, if your jurisdiction choice looks wrong for where the company will be run, if the bank account you are counting on is unlikely given the directors' residence — you hear it first. A formation sold into a situation that cannot work is a refund waiting to happen and a client who was let down.