When you form a company you are required to indicate the type of business it will be.
You do this by selecting one or more of the Standard Industrial Classification (or SIC) codes.
At Step 1 of the formation wizard after having entered the registered office, you are required to give the new company's planned business activity.
If you instead need to change the SIC code for an existing company then please see How do I change or add a SIC code?
1. Start writing a word that best describes the business. Possible options will then start being displayed.
Note: If your company is dormant start typing "dormant," and that option will be presented.
2. Click on the description(s) that best fits the company. You need to click on the suggestion and let Inform Direct populate the field for you. Do not just type the 5 digit number.
If you are truly stumped, then we have a list of the SIC codes that can be used available here.
If necessary, you can add further codes. To do this, click on the 'Add further business activity' link and repeat.
Note: Companies House allow a maximum of 4 SIC codes per company. You can repeat the process above to add further codes, but only up to a total of 4 — if you need to describe more than 4 business activities, choose the 4 that best represent the company's main activities.
Note: Only UK SIC codes (as published by Companies House) are accepted. If in doubt, you can check the validity of a SIC code using the official Companies House lookup: https://resources.companieshouse.gov.uk/sic/
3. Having added the desired codes, click on 'Continue'.
Note: There won't always be a SIC code that's an exact match for what your company does — experiment with keywords to find the code that best describes your company's activities. That said, under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, Companies House now has stronger powers to challenge, reject or remove SIC code information that looks incorrect or inconsistent — most commonly where a company still shows a dormant or non-trading code after it's started trading. So while there's no need to worry about a good-faith, reasonably close match, do make sure your code reflects what your company actually does, and update it if that changes. See How Do I Choose the Right SIC Code for My Company? for more.