What’s on a small company balance sheet

A balance sheet shows what a company owned and owed on its last day of the year. The law sets the headings and their order. Once you know what each one holds, the page is easy to read, and it’s also the one part of the accounts every company files at Companies House.

Last checked against GOV.UK on 31 October 2026.

A4O Accounts files your accounts and CT600 from the same figures. Get started free, no card required.

A worked example

This is an invented small company, in the most common layout (Format 1 in the regulations).

The two totals of 22,000 are why it’s called a balance sheet. Net assets are what’s left after everything owed is paid, and capital and reserves show who that belongs to.

What each heading holds

Fixed assets are things the company keeps and uses for more than a year. Tangible assets are equipment, vehicles and property, shown after depreciation. Intangible assets are items such as purchased goodwill. Investments are shares or loans the company holds for the long term.

Stocks are goods to sell, materials to use and work in progress, as counted at the year end. Value them at what they cost, or less if they’re damaged or won’t sell for that. See counting, valuing and writing down stock.

Debtors are amounts owed to the company: customers who haven’t paid, and other debtors such as a director who owes the company money. Anything due after more than one year must be shown separately.

Cash at bank and in hand should agree with your reconciled bank statements on the year-end date.

Prepayments and accrued income are costs paid this year that cover next year, such as insurance paid in advance, and income earned but not yet billed.

Creditors due within one year are amounts the company must pay in the next 12 months: suppliers, overdrafts, VAT, PAYE, the Corporation Tax on this year’s profit and any money owed to a director. Tax and social security must be shown separately from other creditors. Accruals, such as the accountant’s fee, can go here or on their own line.

Net current assets are current assets and prepayments, less creditors due within one year. If the creditors are bigger, this shows as net current liabilities.

Creditors due after more than one year are the later parts of longer-term debts, such as a bank loan. Split each loan, with the next 12 months’ repayments in the line above.

Provisions for liabilities are amounts the company expects to pay where the timing or amount isn’t certain. Many small companies have none.

Capital and reserves show how the net assets were funded. Called up share capital is the value of the shares issued. The profit and loss account is the profit built up over the years, less dividends paid and any losses. It isn’t a pot of cash: the profit may be sitting in stock or unpaid invoices.

The order is set by law

A small company’s balance sheet must follow one of two formats in Schedule 1 to the 2008 regulations, using their headings in their order. Format 1 is the single column above. Format 2 lists assets, then liabilities and capital.

A micro-entity only has to show the main lettered headings, without the detail beneath them. So it has one figure for current assets, not separate lines for stocks, debtors and cash.

Balance sheet total: the figure the size limits use

The size limits look at your balance sheet total, which GOV.UK describes as the total of your fixed and current assets. It’s measured before anything you owe is taken off, so it isn’t your net assets.

A company needs to meet at least 2 of the 3 limits. These apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 6 April 2025. Some companies can’t use these sizes whatever their figures: see filing company accounts with Companies House.

What goes above the director’s signature

The board approves the accounts, and a director signs the balance sheet on the board’s behalf. The director’s name must be printed on it too. These statements go above the signature, where they apply:

• Small companies regime: that the accounts were prepared under the provisions for companies subject to the small companies regime.
• Micro-entity: that the accounts were prepared under the micro-entity provisions.
• Audit exemption: the exemption being claimed, that the company qualifies, that the members haven’t required an audit, and that the directors accept their responsibilities for the records and the accounts.
• No profit and loss account filed: a small company that doesn’t deliver its profit and loss account must say so on the balance sheet.

What Companies House sees

The balance sheet goes on the public record, so customers, suppliers and lenders can read it. A small company doesn’t currently have to deliver its profit and loss account, and a micro-entity can send only its balance sheet, with less information. A small company can also send abridged accounts with a simpler balance sheet, if all the members agree.

The plan to make small companies and micro-entities file their profit and loss accounts from April 2028 was paused on 23 October 2026. The move to software-only filing still goes ahead: see the April 2028 change.

HMRC gets more. Whatever you file at Companies House, the Company Tax Return includes accounts with the profit and loss account: see micro-entity accounts and Corporation Tax.

Getting the figures right

The balance sheet is only as good as the year-end work behind it. Reconcile the bank, enter unpaid invoices and bills, post accruals, prepayments and depreciation, and count the stock first. The year-end checklist gives the order.

Then read it back. Cash should match the statements, debtors and creditors should match the lists of what’s unpaid, and the Corporation Tax creditor should match the tax computation.

In A4O Accounts

A4O Accounts builds the balance sheet from your books, for micro-entity, small, full, abridged, audited and dormant accounts, and tags it in iXBRL for filing. See Companies House filing software.