Filing micro-entity and small company accounts after April 2028: iXBRL, abridged accounts and your first software filing

acrenvo.com/guides/micro-entity-and-small-company-accounts-after-april-2028, last reviewed 31 October 2026

Daniel is fictional. He runs a small web design company with one other director, and since their accountant retired he has prepared its micro-entity accounts himself and filed them on the Companies House website. The Company Tax Return already goes through software, which he bought when HMRC’s free service closed. He wants to know what April 2028 means for the accounts and whether he can keep filing the shorter version. He also wants to know what the new format called Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or iXBRL, involves, whether one product can do both jobs, and which year’s accounts will be his first through software.

Abridged and filleted accounts stay available

Daniel files a shorter version of the accounts today, which GOV.UK allows. It says that if your company is small, a micro entity or dormant, you might be able to send simpler (‘abridged’) accounts.

Companies House had planned to end that option, and it paused the plan in an update on 23 October 2026. The update says: “In practical terms, this means the government will continue to allow companies to file abridged accounts and retain the option for smaller companies to remove, or ‘fillet’, their profit and loss information from the accounts filed at Companies House after 1 April 2028.” Filleting means leaving the profit and loss information out of the accounts filed at Companies House. The guide to accounts by software only covers the pause and the other accounts changes on the same date.

What iXBRL means, in plain words

The change is about format as well as software. Companies House says: “As announced earlier this year, from April 2028, we will require all UK registered companies to file their accounts in Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format using commercial software.”

Companies House describes the format in its guidance on software filing. This is a worldwide technical standard that combines HTML with machine readable ‘tags’. It allows documents to be read by both machines and humans. In practice, each figure in the accounts carries a hidden label that tells a computer which line it belongs to, while the page still reads normally to a person.

Daniel has used this format for a while without noticing, because HMRC already asks for it with the Company Tax Return. GOV.UK says: “The computations and accounts must be in Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL).”

Software for the accounts, the tax return, or both

A company files two things each year, and they go to different bodies. The accounts go to Companies House, and the Company Tax Return, made up of the form CT600 with the accounts and computations, goes to HMRC. Companies House notes that one product can sometimes do both. Some commercial software will also allow you to file with HMRC at the same time. Check with your software provider for more information. HMRC’s list says the same from its side. Some of the commercial software listed allows you to file your return and annual accounts together.

We compare 11 products that are on both HMRC’s list for the Company Tax Return and Companies House’s list for accounts. We read both lists on 25 October 2026. Companies House lists every one of them for unaudited micro-entity accounts, and eight for unaudited small company accounts. Two of them say on their own sites that they send the accounts and the return together, and the rest do not say either way.

We also compare five products that file the Company Tax Return only. Companies House’s list did not include them when we read it, so from 1 April 2028 a company using one of them would need software from that list, or an accountant, for the accounts. If you already have software for the return and only need something for the accounts, Companies House’s own finder lets you search by the type of accounts you file.

• The company filing products we compare
• Companies House’s tool for finding software to file accounts

Even when one product files both, the two filings can fall due on different days. You may have different deadlines for sending your accounts to Companies House and your Company Tax Return to HMRC. GOV.UK adds that you may be able to file them together if you have a private limited company that does not need an auditor.

When your first software-only filing falls

GOV.UK says annual accounts go to Companies House 9 months after your company’s financial year ends. So which accounts are the first to need software depends on when the company’s financial year ends. Here is how that works out for a few example year ends, counting from the deadline above and the date the website closes for accounts, 1 April 2028.

For a year ending in June 2027, the accounts fall due before the change, so Daniel could still use the website if he files on time. For a year ending in July 2027 or later, they fall due once only software is accepted. Those will be his first accounts through software unless he files them before 1 April 2028.

A new company runs to a different clock for its first accounts, which are due 21 months after the date you registered with Companies House. The Company Tax Return keeps its own deadline as well, and GOV.UK says to file it 12 months after your accounting period for Corporation Tax ends.

Plenty of companies still file the way Daniel does. In September 2026, 24.2% of the accounts filed electronically at Companies House came through its own service, as our monthly counts of the software used to file company accounts show.

Questions about micro-entity and small company accounts after April 2028