How To Find Companies When You Can’t Search Across Their Financials
More companies are becoming ‘invisible’.
As of 7 April 2025, the audit threshold for UK companies changed. Companies now only need to file accounts if they have a £15m turnover, an increase from the previous £10m.*
This means a lot more companies won’t have to share as much about their finances as they used to. The UK government estimates that around 113,000 companies and LLPs will shift from small to micro status, with another 14,000 moving from medium to small, and 6,000 from large to medium. Each step down means fewer reporting and audit requirements.
Beauhurst data shows that there are currently 11,566 active UK companies that fall into the bracket of £10-£15m turnover – meaning over ten thousand businesses can now skip the detailed financial reports — and fly under the radar.
For those businesses, it means less paperwork and fewer hoops to jump through, which is great for them. But it also means there’s less information out there for people trying to understand how these companies are really doing. Advisors, sales teams, and local government might find it harder to get a clear picture.
So while the change takes pressure off growing businesses, it also creates some challenges. So, how can you find a company if you can’t see its financials?
*Under UK law, all registered companies have to file their accounts at Companies House. However, small companies may not need to file full accounts if they meet two out of the following criteria: annual turnover of no more than £15m; a balance sheet total of no more than £7.5m; and no more than 50 employees on average. The turnover threshold has recently changed from £10m to £15m.
The visibility gap in UK companies
With the new threshold in place, thousands of companies will no longer be required to file full financial accounts. Instead, they can submit much shorter, simplified reports — or in some cases, barely any financial detail at all. But what does that mean in practice?
For sales teams it could mean losing a vital tool for qualifying leads. Without access to revenue or profit data, it becomes harder to know which companies are actually in a position to buy, or worth spending time on. It turns prospecting into more of a guessing game.
“A full set of company accounts gives you a great sense of whether a company is growing, stable, or struggling,” Toby Brown went on to tell us. “Now, for a huge chunk of the market, that clarity just won’t be there any more —it makes it harder to find the right companies to target.”
Investors will have a harder time mapping and prioritising their total investable market, and will likely miss out on more opportunities that match their investment thesis.
Advisory firms and consultants are also going to face challenges; whether that’s building lists for corporate finance mandates and risking leaving out key opportunities, finding fewer local businesses to invite to networking events, or missing out on prospective client work.
For many economic development teams and councils, their key focus sits with smaller revenue-making businesses, where growth rates can be pushed further than larger nine-figure revenue businesses, as this can make a more significant impact in the growth of the economy overall.
These audit changes represent a significant new blindspot at the smaller end of the market, among a segment of businesses that are lower risk but still have significant potential for growth. This makes it more difficult for economic development teams and councils to effectively engage businesses that can effect positive change on their economy.
Not only that, but this loss of data will ultimately impact economic developers’ ability to spot trends in the first place, consequently impacting their ability to intervene with meaningful policy.
In short, when companies disappear from the financial radar, it doesn’t just affect them, it affects the whole economy.
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How to find companies when you can’t see their financials using Beauhurst
Just because a company isn’t filing detailed accounts doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. In fact, many of the most exciting, fast-growing businesses in the UK are private, early-stage, and now, possibly invisible.
So in a world where financials are no longer the full story, what alternative data points can you use to find, research and track companies of interest?
With Beauhurst, you can use Signals.
Our proprietary Growth Signals enable you to find companies showing signs of current and future success, regardless of their size or reporting requirements. They highlight companies that are hiring, growing, launching new initiatives, and investing in operational efficiencies to improve profitability.
These companies are most likely to be growing fast and looking to transact; in other words they represent a goldmine for sales teams, investors, and advisory firms. And for local governments, these are the companies with the greatest potential to impact GDP and job creation.
Beauhurst tracks the following Growth Signals:
- Equity and debt fundraisings
- Management buyouts (MBO/MBI)
- Accelerator participation
- 10% and 20% scaleup flags
- Inclusion in curated high-growth lists
Beyond these Growth Signals, there is a whole host of data points available on the Beauhurst platform to help identify more specific types of growth companies. Things like new hires, office expansions, new product or geography launches, and key leadership appointments often point to companies scaling quickly, well before the financials would ever show it. Our platform reports these moves and changes in companies, allowing you to identify relevant companies and spot trends before anyone else.
You can also track innovation indicators using our Innovation Signals. Innovation Signals highlight companies which are IP-rich or are developing cutting-edge technologies. This is ideal for sales teams looking to sell to innovative sectors and advisors wanting to help out with IP, R&D, equity investment, or M&A. And for councils, these are the companies that have the greatest capacity to shift the structural employment of the region toward more skilled labour.
Beauhurst’s Innovation Signals are:
- R&D grant received
- Academic spinout
- Patent granted
Just as importantly, we also monitor Risk Signals. These help identify companies entering periods of decline or uncertainty. For many this may be a reason to qualify the business out of a target list, but for some advisors and investors these represent great opportunities. For local governments, they help spot companies that need support. Targeted intervention towards these businesses will save jobs and enable growth just as much as supporting the high flyers.
Beauhurst’s Risk Signals are:
- Liquidation or insolvency
- County Court Judgements (CCJs)
- Short cash runway
- Down round
Manually gathering this kind of insight would mean hours digging through news reports, databases, and financial filings. But Beauhurst brings it all into one platform, so you can spot high-potential companies faster and with more confidence.
By tracking this kind of non-financial data, Beauhurst helps uncover the true potential of companies that might otherwise be missed. Even without full accounts, there are still clear signs of momentum — if you know where to look.
Want to know more about our other Signals, including ESG Signals, find out here.
Using Beauhurst to adapt and overcome
If you are using tools that derive their data from Companies House alone then thousands of companies will drop out of your target lists in the coming years. If this applies to you, or perhaps you think you are lacking data on private companies in general — we can help.
Discover more on our product pages:
BeauhurstAdvise for financial and professional services
BeauhurstSales for sales teams and recruiters
BeauhurstInvest for investors and accelerators
BeauhurstImpact for universities, councils and government
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