You heard about it from the client's bank
A director resigned three months ago. The client did it themselves online and did not mention it. Your practice only finds out when preparing the accounts and the officers do not match. Or worse: a proposed strike-off notice appears for a client who missed a filing because the reminder went to an old address, and you hear about it from the client's bank.
For a practice with many company clients, these surprises come regularly, and each one creates a small scramble.
Nobody is watching the register
Companies House is public and updated constantly. But checking it means someone searching each client, one at a time, which nobody has time to do. So practices check when they are about to do work for a client, which is often too late to be useful.
Clients also file things themselves, or through other agents, without telling you. Director changes, share allotments, changes to people with significant control and address changes can all happen without the practice knowing. The information is public. It is just not being read.
Clients themselves may not notice. A director who resigned years ago may still be on the record, or a change filed by a company formation agent may never have been mentioned to anyone at the practice.
What late news costs
| Missed change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Officer changes | Wrong records in your systems and in the accounts |
| Registered office moved away | Post goes elsewhere and notices are missed |
| Gazette notice | A client company at risk before anyone reacts |
| Filing by another agent | A sign the client may be moving away |
| PSC changes | Your own client records and checks out of date |
Some of these changes also matter for the practice's own obligations, such as keeping client records and checks up to date, which is harder when you are the last to know.
How we build monitoring and alerts
- Your company clients are matched to their Companies House company numbers, with any mismatches listed for your team to resolve.
- We connect to the Companies House streaming API, which publishes changes as they happen, and filter it to your clients.
- Each change is classified, such as officer appointment or resignation, registered office change, new filing, PSC change or gazette notice.
- Alerts go to the manager responsible for the client, by email or Microsoft Teams, in plain language with a link to the record. Urgent types, such as gazette notices, are marked clearly.
- Every change is logged against the client in your practice management system or CRM, so the history is in one place.
- Where a change should update your own records, such as a new director's details, the alert includes a one-click task to update them.
What to do about each change is for your team and the client. The monitoring makes sure you know about it quickly.
No more surprises from the register
Managers hear about client changes as they are published, rather than months later. Gazette notices get attention while there is still time. Records in your systems stay in line with the register. And a filing made by another agent becomes an early warning, not a discovery at year end.
It also gives the practice something useful to talk to clients about. A quick call to say you have seen a change, and asking whether anything else needs updating, is the kind of attention clients remember.
Does this sound familiar?
- You find out about director changes when preparing accounts
- A client's registered office has moved without telling you
- A gazette notice has caught the practice by surprise
- Clients file things themselves without mentioning it
- Nobody checks Companies House except when work is due