The confirmation-statement window: timing outreach to filing deadlines

Every UK company must confirm its details with Companies House every 12 months, with 14 days to file once the review period ends. That published, predictable window is one of the best timing signals in UK B2B sales.

Every UK limited company must confirm its details with Companies House at least once every 12 months, and once its review period ends it has just 14 days to file. Those rules, set out in GOV.UK's confirmation statement guidance, mean every company on the public record has a known, published date on which it must look at its own paperwork. For anyone selling compliance, accountancy or company-admin services, that is a timing signal you can set a calendar by, months in advance.

How the confirmation statement works

The mechanics, per GOV.UK:

• Every company files at least one every 12 months. The confirmation statement (form CS01) confirms that the information Companies House holds is up to date: directors, people with significant control, registered office, SIC codes.
• The review period is 12 months from incorporation or from the date of the last statement.
• The filing window is 14 days after the review period ends. A company incorporated on 1 February has a statement due by 15 February the following year, and every year after.
• Filing costs £50 online or £110 on paper, per Companies House fees current as of 2026.
• Not filing has teeth. GOV.UK notes that Companies House may issue a financial penalty and the company may be struck off, and directors can be prosecuted. There is no quiet way to skip it.

Companies can file early, which restarts the review period from the new date. Most do not: the deadline arrives, the reminder lands, and the task gets done inside the window or shortly before it.

The confirmation statement deadline, precisely

Every company must file at least one confirmation statement every 12 months. The 12-month review period starts at incorporation or the day after the last statement's review period ended, and the filing deadline is 14 days after the review period ends. Unlike annual accounts there is no automatic late-filing penalty, but not filing at all is an offence and the road to being struck off the register, which is why almost everyone files and why the due date is such a reliable, recurring moment to know about a company. A company's next due date is public on its Companies House record, which is exactly the field the searches below run on.

Why a routine filing is a sales signal

The confirmation statement is deliberately mundane, and that is exactly what makes it useful. It is the one moment each year when every company, however quiet, must engage with its own statutory admin. Three things are true in the weeks around that date:

1. Attention is on the paperwork. The directors are looking at their registered office, their officers, their records. A message about handling exactly that is arriving in context instead of interrupting.
2. The date is public and forward-looking. Unlike almost every buying signal in B2B, you do not infer it from behaviour. The public record states when the next statement is due, for every company, in advance.
3. It recurs. Miss a company this year and the same window opens next year. A watch on the window never runs out of road.

The confirmation statement's bigger sibling, the annual accounts deadline, works the same way with higher stakes, and the two are covered together in our filing deadlines guide.

Who the window suits

The signal fits anyone whose product removes statutory admin:

• Accountants and bookkeepers, for whom the statement is a natural entry point to the wider compliance relationship. The full deadline-driven playbook is in our guide for accountants and on the accountants page.
• Company secretarial and formation services, for whom the statement is the product itself.
• Virtual office and registered-address providers: the statement is when a director trading from a kitchen table re-reads their home address on a public document and reconsiders.
• Software that manages filings, records or company admin.

Timing the approach

The window rewards being early rather than exact. A practical rhythm:

• 60 to 30 days out: the useful zone. The date is close enough to matter and far enough that nothing is late. A first touch here, referencing the upcoming statement date, reads as informed rather than opportunistic.
• Inside the 14-day window: for most companies the task is now done or in hand, so a first touch lands late. This zone suits a lighter, service-oriented message rather than a pitch.
• After a missed window: GOV.UK is clear about the consequences of not filing, and a company drifting past its date may have a real problem. Tread carefully: a genuinely helpful note beats anything that reads like a circling shark.

One honest caveat: unlike an overdue accounts deadline, an approaching confirmation statement is routine, not distress. It is a context signal, not a crisis signal, and messages should sound like it.

Building the search once

In Leadistry the window is a filter, not a research project. Signals reads filing dates from the public record for every active company, so a search like "companies in my region with a confirmation statement due in the next 60 days, in these SIC codes" is a few clicks, saved once, with the signal watch left on. The watch delivers only companies you have never been given before, each with a named director and a verified business email, and can feed a Pipeline so the intro and the follow-up send themselves.

The compliance position

The usual rules apply, unchanged by the signal. These are incorporated companies, so B2B email without prior consent is permitted under PECR; identify yourself and carry a working opt-out in every message. The filing dates themselves are public record data about companies, and the named contact you write to is personal data processed under legitimate interest, which we unpack in what legitimate interest actually requires. Nothing about knowing a company's statement date changes your obligations; it just changes when your message is worth reading.

The other deadline, and the wider window

The confirmation statement is the easiest window to work because it is small and unavoidable. It is not the only one.

Annual accounts run on their own clock, and they carry more weight: a bigger job, a bigger fee, and a decision the owner actually thinks about. Four moments are worth separating, because they are different conversations:

• Accounts already overdue. The date has gone, penalties are accruing, and whoever was meant to be filing is not doing it. Around 6% of active companies at any time.
• Confirmation statement overdue. The clearest public sign nobody is minding the paperwork, because it is a small annual job that is hard to forget on purpose. Closer to 16%.
• First accounts coming. A company roughly eighteen to twenty-four months old, approaching its first ever filing. The founder has never done it, and most have nobody lined up.
• Accounts due in the coming months. The largest group, and the one most people reach too late.

Why ninety days beats thirty

The instinct is to make contact close to the deadline, when it feels urgent. That is backwards.

Somebody deciding who files their accounts decides in the run-up, not on the day. By the deadline week the work already sits with somebody. A thirty-day window covers about 4% of active companies; ninety days covers about 17%. That is not simply four times the volume, it is four times the volume at a point when the question is still open.

Saying it without shaming anyone

Two rules, both learnt the hard way.

Do not hedge a fact you filtered on. If the search selected companies with accounts due, that is true of everyone receiving the email, so "if you have a filing coming up" reads as though nobody looked. Naming the date reads as though somebody did.

And do not point at a missed deadline with any relish. "Your accounts were due on 5 January" is a fact and reads as helpful. Anything sharper is an accusation about somebody's difficult year, and it is the fastest route to a deleted email.

Is this a warm lead?

No, and it is worth being straight about that. A warm lead means somebody asked to be contacted. This is cold outreach where you happen to know why you are writing: the deadline is real, it is public, and it is dated. The recipient has not put their hand up. What changes is that your first line can be a fact about them rather than a guess, which is most of the difference between a reply and a delete.

See your patch's calendar

Every company in your target market already has its next statement date on the public record, and its accounts date alongside it. Start free with 25 free leads, filter by the deadline window, and look at what the next 60 days hold.