Review and shortlist newly incorporated companies

Reviewing a newly incorporated company is deciding, from filed facts alone, whether it is worth a considered approach, needs more information, or should be excluded.

The Companies House record cannot show whether a company needs an accountant, is trading, or would respond to contact — only what was filed. A useful review process turns that limited record into one of three outcomes for every company, with a reason attached, and stops once the batch is done. This guide sets out a tool-neutral review card, an exclusion-reason taxonomy, a research boundary and a completion test. It works with nothing more than a spreadsheet, and applies before reaching newly incorporated companies at all.

What the record can and cannot tell you

A Companies House record is self-reported and Registrar-held fact, not a verified business profile. For what each field means across the wider register, see the Companies House data guide. Incorporation is not proof of trading, an "active" status is a register state rather than economic activity, a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code is self-selected and may be one of up to four, and a registered office may or may not be where the company operates — see registered office vs trading address for how to read it cautiously. Review works within those limits, not around them.

The field-by-field review card

Run every company through the same fields, in the same order, so two reviewers reach comparable notes even when their final judgement differs. The card below is tool-neutral: it works as columns in a spreadsheet as well as inside any workspace.

An exclusion-reason taxonomy

Every exclusion needs one reason code, not a general "not interested". Keep the list closed so a reviewer finds a fit rather than inventing categories mid-batch.

Out of area

The registered office, or the trading location where it is known, falls outside the practice's service area.

Activity not served

None of the declared SIC codes match a sector the practice serves.

Company type not served

The filed type or subtype is outside what the practice serves — for example a public limited company or limited liability partnership the practice does not act for, or a company whose only declared activity is a dormant or non-trading code (such as 99999 or 74990) where the practice's approach depends on live trading.

Provider or service address, where reaching a trading location matters

The registered office is a known provider or service address and the practice's approach specifically relies on reaching the company's trading premises.

Duplicate or existing client

The company is already a client, or the existing-relationship or duplicate check found a confirmed match.

Insufficient information

The record cannot be read with confidence — a malformed address, an implausible filing date, or a Companies House default address that means post will not currently reach the company.

Conflict of interest

The practice has a reason, unrelated to the record itself, not to approach this company.

Recently dissolved or proposal to strike off

The status or status detail shows the company is dissolved, or a strike-off proposal is on record.

"Review later" is a distinct outcome, not an exclusion reason: it means a specific, resolvable question remains — not a general feeling of uncertainty — and it is only complete once it carries a target date to return to the record.

The research boundary

Proportionate research for one company is the Companies House record itself, plus the company's own public website or listing if readily identifiable. Agree a small, fixed time cap per company and stop there; needing longer is a signal to mark "insufficient information" or "review later", not to keep searching. Never profile a director's private life, scrape personal contact details, or infer where someone lives from a company address. Whether a shortlisted company may then be contacted is a separate question, governed by GDPR and contacting new companies — review decides whether a company is worth that next step, not whether the step is lawful.

When review is complete

A batch is reviewed, not merely opened, when every record has exactly one outcome (Lead, Review later or Not suitable), one reason code, a reviewer's initials and a date. Excluded records are kept, not deleted, so they support later suppression and duplicate checks, and every "Review later" record carries a specific question and a date. If any of those four things is missing, the batch is not finished. Running this card on a fixed cadence, not in occasional bursts, is covered in the weekly new-company outreach workflow.

A worked batch (fictional)

The eight records below are fictional composites, run through the card above to show how outcomes and reason codes are recorded, and where two reviewers could reasonably disagree. The disagreement note is a designed example written to illustrate the card, not a report of an observed test.

Where two reviewers could reasonably disagree (designed example, not an observed result): for Sample Business Support (Fictional) Ltd, one reviewer might mark Review later, reasoning that a catch-all SIC code leaves the activity genuinely unclear. A second might mark Lead directly, reasoning that the record is in area with no hard exclusion, and that the accountancy-practice address is context, not a reason to pause. Neither reading is wrong on the card alone; recording a reason code rather than a bare decision lets the two reviewers compare notes and agree, in advance, which reading their practice will use next time a catch-all code appears.

How Launch Register can help

The matches list carries these filed fields already gathered against your saved criteria, together with a Lead, Review later or Not suitable decision that records a reason and a note in one action. The practice still makes every call; Launch Register only reduces the manual assembly of the record before that call is made. Read how Launch Register works for the full profile-to-review workflow, or see the Outreach Playbook for how a Lead decision continues into a first approach.