A number of important changes to the way that small and medium-sized companies prepare and file their accounts with Companies House have been introduced.

The Companies, Partnerships and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2015 came into force on 6 April 2015.

Small and medium-sized companies can no longer file abbreviated accounts to Companies House. Smaller businesses can still prepare micro entity accounts, while others can prepare abridged accounts for members within the company.

The regulations apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016, while some companies may choose to apply earlier for accounting periods on or after 1 January 2015.

Other changes include:

• Required statement – to deliver small company abridged accounts to indicate that the members have agreed to the abridgement
• Changes to small company size threshold – for small companies the turnover limit rises from £6.5m to £10.2m and the balance sheet total limit rises from £3.26m to £5.1m
• Changes to medium-sized company threshold – turnover limit rises from £25.9m to £36m and the balance sheet total limit rises from £12.9m to £18m
• Employees – the total number of employees remains at 50 for small companies and 250 for medium sized companies.