You probably already know about checking Companies House for the trading status of a business, but it's often slow to catch up with events on the ground. You may also already know about using the search capability on the London Gazette website to search for insolvency notices - these are often much more up to date, but the results can be confusing to non-specialists.
I'd be interested in any feedback you might have on a new service we've just put online that lets you search both together from a single place to check out whether a company has gone into liquidation or is still trading. We're hoping that people find it easy and convenient, especially when they have a customer that owes them money and has stopped answering the phone!
<< Innacurate softyware removed from the site >>
Let me know what you think.
-- Edited by Shamus on Tuesday 10th of October 2017 03:50:51 PM
I would be more concerned if it was a paid or/and registration required service.
Where however something is free and it doesn't expect the member to enter any details beyond the company that they are searching maybe let this one slide? (the most that is being given is increased web traffic)
Keeping things fair though lets remember everyones favorite : www.companycheck.co.uk. (love that one for tracking directors).
Also, everyone should know where to look in the gazzette. It's very easy to use and great for investigating things like all businesses of a certain type in a local area. www.thegazette.co.uk/companies
And of course don't forget webcheck
Have fun all,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Ok, I, plus one other in my team whose expertise I highly respect, have now reviewed the service offered and drawn the same seperate conclusion that this software is dangerously inacurate.
The product uses a key word search and if that word appears in the name of a company that has gone into liquidation then all companies with that word as part of their name are shown as having liquidity issues.
The site cannot be associated with software so simplistic and dangerously inaccurate so all reference to the software has hence been removed from the site.
I would suggest that the company producing this software reconsiders making it available even for free in it's current state and takes down their site until their software does not show completely healthy companies as having question marks over their future viability. (Such information in the hands of suppliers tends to become a self fulfilling prophecy).
Joanne, as always your initial instinct was correct.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Keeping things fair though lets remember everyones favorite : www.companycheck.co.uk. (love that one for tracking directors).
Also, everyone should know where to look in the gazzette. It's very easy to use and great for investigating things like all businesses of a certain type in a local area. www.thegazette.co.uk/companies
And of course don't forget webcheck
Have fun all,
Shaun.
Plus dont forget you can look up and then 'follow' a company via companies house beta! Oooo, just like twitter!!!!! Guessing the government think a 'follow' must be trendy. That 'follow' now replaces companies house monitor, which will still work for existing names you have on it but not for new ones.
Cant recall the last time I used company check now its all freely available on the one site.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Have you looked at beta.companieshouse.gov.uk ? I used to use Companycheck but find this much better, plus its bang up to date.
Hi John,
I have and it's really good. My afinity for companycheck is more to do with the simplicity of tracking directors to all associated companies and finding the commonalities. I recently found a link showing me why a director had purchased not completely suitable software from one company rather than one of the industry norms.
These are all great tools to be incredibly nosey with. As you indicate though, company check is just a Companies house scraper so not completely up to date.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
You probably already know about checking Companies House for the trading status of a business, but it's often slow to catch up with events on the ground. You may also already know about using the search capability on the London Gazette website to search for insolvency notices - these are often much more up to date, but the results can be confusing to non-specialists.
