A helping hand
Please find below the answers to the most common questions about Inform Direct.
Try selecting an FAQ category or using the search box below to narrow the list of FAQs or if you have a question that is not answered anywhere please get in touch with us.
Inform Direct is an online software service that allows you to manage your company statutory records simply and efficiently.
It allows you to maintain records of your company's officers, shareholders and PSCs. Any changes that require notification to Companies House are automatically submitted electronically. This includes appointment of new officers; termination of officers; change of an officer's details; adding a new PSC or removing a PSC; updating PSC details; allotment of shares and share reorganisation transactions. Inform Direct can also electronically file changes to company details (such as registered office, accounting reference date and single alternative inspection location); changes to your company name; filing of dormant company accounts and incorporation requests.
Each year your company is required to submit a confirmation statement (formerly an annual return) to Companies House. Our software makes this quick and easy by using the records you have maintained in Inform Direct to file your confirmation statement in just a few simple steps. Inform Direct also updates and maintains your statutory registers and monitors time-critical events, alerting you to take action when required.
With Inform Direct you have no need to understand which Companies House forms need to be submitted or how to fill out any of the Companies House forms currently supported. Inform Direct takes you step by step through any changes you are making to your company records and electronically submits the data to Companies House once you confirm the changes. Our clever software will also suggest documents that may be required to support your transaction. It can produce over 100 different documents, including template board minutes and resolutions, company letters, forms and certificates and these will be pre-populated with the information you entered when completing your transaction, so you won't need to enter it all again.
In addition to all of the above great features, Inform Direct offers each account:
Yes, Inform Direct is a Companies House approved service. This approval enables Inform Direct to electronically exchange data direct with Companies House.
Yes. We store your data securely in a third party hosted UK data centre. Access to the data halls is restricted to employees and agents of the third party that need access to provide the data centre to us.
Any data you enter into your Inform Direct account is protected with SSL Encryption Certificates (secure socket layer technology) issued by leading certificate authority Verisign. This ensures all data you enter is encrypted when it is transmitted to the Inform Direct data centre.
Read more about our commitment to security.
You can read our full terms & conditions here Terms of Service
Simply click here to access Inform Direct and use the simple software to manage your company statutory records or submit your Companies House confirmation statement with ease.
Inform Direct is an online service and you do not need to download any software. You can access it online 24/7 using your browser.
All you will need to get started is your Companies House authentication code. If you don't have your authentication code, it is easy to get a reminder sent out to your company's registered office address. When you start using Inform Direct and we ask for your authentication code, select the 'What's this?' link. We will ensure a reminder code is sent out to you and you should receive this at your company's registered office address within a day or two.
Inform Direct has been specifically designed to help you manage your company records, even if you have no previous experience. Inform Direct guides you step-by-step through each important company record change providing comprehensive help at every stage.
Should you need further guidance then simply contact the Inform Direct support team. Our support is provided free of charge to those who have an Inform Direct account. Free telephone support is available Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm excluding UK bank holidays. Contact our support team on 0844 409 9494.
Please be aware that our support service is provided to assist you in using Inform Direct. We are unable to provide professional advice relating to your company or your statutory records.
Inform Direct currently supports private companies limited by shares; public limited companies that are not traded on a market; private companies limited by guarantee; limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and community interest companies. It supports companies that have been incorporated in England and Wales, Wales only, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
With regards to share capital, the current version of Inform Direct supports companies that have:
Future versions of Inform Direct will also support other company types including:
Inform Direct automatically recognises which changes you make need to be submitted to Companies House. With your approval, wherever possible it will electronically submit these changes to Companies House using the Companies House electronic interchange system. For forms where Companies House does not allow electronic filing, Inform Direct will fully pre-populate a paper form that you can post to Companies House.
Inform Direct supports each of the following forms for limited companies:
Inform Direct supports each of the following forms for LLPs:
Inform Direct automatically creates your statutory registers based on the data it imports from Companies House. It will then automatically update the registers as you make changes to your company data.
The following company registers can be produced at any time for a private company limited by shares or unlisted plc:
Inform Direct supports all the registers required by a company limited by guarantee:
All of the following statutory registers for LLPs are fully supported:
* Companies House to not provide information relating to members of a company limited by guarantee so this will need to be entered manually into Inform Direct.
Yes. Inform Direct offers each account a sophisticated and secure online document storage area - that we call your Document Library. It is easy to upload and store all your company's documents in your Document Library, and if you tag your files,using either the tag lists we have created for your or your own bespoke tags, it will be simplicity itself to retrieve any document.
For subscribers, all of the features of the Document Library are available free of charge, and the total data storage allowance available is calculated by applying an allocation of 250MB for each company included in your Inform Direct account.
PAYG users also have free access to the Document Library, but to a more narrow offering. Documents that have been generated using Inform Direct will be automatically stored in your Document Library, and you can tag and manage these files as you require.