Monitoring customers for insolvency: a credit-control checklist

Updated 30 September 2026. This guide describes what the public register shows; it is not legal, credit or tax advice.

The signs, in the order they usually appear

Insolvency rarely arrives without warning on the public register. For most small companies the sequence looks something like this:

1. Accounts filed late, then overdue. A company that is struggling often stops filing on time. Companies House flags overdue accounts and confirmation statements on the company's record.
2. A new charge. A debenture or fixed charge registered in favour of a lender, factoring company or director means someone now has security over the company's assets and ranks ahead of you.
3. Directors leaving. Resignations, especially of the finance director or a founder, and appointments of people connected to insolvency advisers.
4. Registered office moved to an accountant's or agent's address, or a change of name to something anonymous (a common step before a pre-pack sale).
5. A winding-up petition advertised in The Gazette, or a first Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off.
6. Administration, liquidation or a voluntary arrangement. By now the company's assets are under an office holder's control.

A routine for a small business

• Watch every customer you give credit to and every supplier you could not replace within a month. For most small businesses that is 10 to 50 companies.
• Get told the day something changes. The register is updated daily; a weekly look is fine for housekeeping but too slow for a petition.
• Act on the critical events (petition, strike-off notice, administration): stop credit, chase the balance, and if the sum is large take advice quickly.
• Note the warnings (overdue filings, new charges, director changes) against the account and tighten terms if they accumulate.
• Keep evidence. If a customer fails, the dates of what you knew help when you make a claim or defend a preference challenge.

For bookkeepers and accountants

The same routine works for a client list, with two differences. First, most of the events are about your clients' own filings: an overdue confirmation statement or a strike-off notice against a client is a job for you before it is a risk. Second, clients expect you to have seen it. A watchlist of every client, with a weekly summary of what is outstanding, turns that from a worry into a five-minute review.

Free ways to do it

Companies House's Follow feature emails you about every filing for the companies you choose; The Gazette can be searched by hand. Both work. The gap is that neither tells you what an event means, neither sorts a list by urgency, and Follow does not see Gazette petitions until the register catches up. Filing Radar exists to fill that gap for people who would rather not build the routine themselves.