How is Inform Direct supporting accountants with ECCTA?

ACSP registration

From 18 March 2025, accountants and other agents have been able to register as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), which must be undertaken directly with Companies House. This enables a firm to:

• Undertake valid identity checks for clients, whether via inspection of physical documents or use of an electronic service, as required for all individual directors, PSCs and others under the new regime; and
• From spring 2026 (at a date to be confirmed by Companies House), file documents with Companies House on behalf of your clients.

While Companies House only allows the registration process to be completed directly, rather than via software, once registered you can record your firm’s ACSP details in Inform Direct. This will mean you benefit from an uninterrupted experience when making submissions in the future, and if you later want to use Inform Direct’s identity checking service to verify your clients.

Recording Companies House personal codes

Some of your clients may have already verified their identity directly and obtained their Companies House personal code. Acting as an ACSP, you may already have begun the process of verifying clients’ identities, registering this with Companies House and thereby causing a code to be issued.

You can record these personal codes in Inform Direct, so they are ready to be submitted to Companies House once the new regime takes effect from 18 November 2025.

Simplifying the process of obtaining and recording personal codes

For those accountants with lots of clients, the process of obtaining and recording personal codes for every director, PSC and the other roles affected may seem daunting. As ever, we want to help accountants wherever we can. So we’ve introduced new features to:

• Check for other instances of the same person on other companies in your portfolio, and easily enter the personal code once to cover all occurrences.
• Review your portfolio of companies via tailored reports, enabling you easily to see who you’ve entered personal codes for and who you need to follow up with. That also makes it easier to prioritise which clients you need to follow up with.

Integrated identity verification

Many accountants already have their own trusted identity verification software to verify their clients. Others will instead rely on their clients undertaking their own verification directly via Companies House. However, we’ve heard from many accountants, including some existing users of Inform Direct, that you’d like us to provide an option to initiate identity checks on your clients.

We’ve therefore partnered with Credas, a leading provider of identity verification technology, trusted by thousands of businesses for their market-leading technical capability and customer-focused user journeys.

Accountants can initiate identity checks via Credas for existing clients from within Inform Direct, providing you and your clients with an integrated, user-friendly experience. It’s easy to start checks for directors, PSCs and LLP members, with your client then able to complete their part. You can easily see the status of checks, enabling you to follow up where required. Once a check is complete, you can submit details to Companies House under your ACSP account on their dedicated portal to obtain the client’s personal code.

To use this identity verification service, you will need to be registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, and have recorded your ACSP details in Inform Direct. Initially, identity verification are charged on a per check basis, with a special introductory price of £3 per biometric identity check or £4 with an address check included.

Enhancements when adding new directors, PSCs and when forming companies

From September 2025, Inform Direct subscribers who have recorded their ACSP details in the software are also able to undertake identity checks:

• When new individuals are appointed as directors or LLP members to existing companies
• When new individuals are added as PSCs to existing companies
• When providing details of directors and PSCs as new companies are formed

Ahead of 18 November 2025, this provides ACSPs the opportunity to initiate identity checks for individuals, so they can be completed – and a Companies House personal code obtained – ahead of needing to do so in the transitional period from that date.

From 18 November, it will be a requirement for individuals added to new and existing companies to have their identity verified at that point. A personal code obtained will need to be provided to Companies House at the time their are notified of  to evidence that fact.

The fact you can re-use existing people on your companies when making appointments or forming new companies also helps – if you’ve recorded the personal code once and re-use that person, it will automatically appear and not need to be entered again.

Changes to Companies House submissions

From 18 November 2025, various forms will change to include the Companies House personal code as a compulsory item. Alongside other changes, this will include updates to:

• Appointments of new directors (and, subject to confirmation from Companies House, LLP members)
• Addition of new individual PSCs to companies (and, subject to confirmation from Companies House, LLPs)
• New company formations
• The first confirmation statement following the date of implementation for each existing company (and, subject to confirmation, LLP). This first confirmation statement will need to include the personal code for every individual director
• Submit the personal code for PSCs via a separate, new transaction being introduced by Companies House

Further plans

We and our colleagues in the Bright Software Group also have our eyes on later phases of the implementation of ECCTA, including:

• From spring 2026, further changes to filing with Companies House – including the requirement for accountants and others filing on behalf of a company to be registered as an ACSP.
• Changes to the submission of annual accounts. From 1 April 2027, all accounts must be filed using commercial software rather than directly on Companies House. There are also planned changes to the content of certain accounts.
• Other, smaller changes as and when they are introduced by Companies House.

We’ll continue to keep our customers informed of changes. As well as updates to our software to enable accountants and others to maintain full compliance, which you can view any time on our software timeline, we’ll share insight on how accountants can look to get ahead and best support your clients.

A previous version of this article was published on 19 August 2025.