The are 3 stages to forming a company:
1. Completing an application (IN01) to form a company using the Inform Direct wizard; - between 5 and 10 minutes
2. Submitting the completed form IN01 to Companies House together with the applicable fee; - about 5 seconds
3. Waiting for Companies House to approve the application. - varies
1. Completing the application
Generally, it does not take more than a few minutes to complete an application to form a company, assuming you have the information needed to hand.
Overview of the formation wizard
What information do I need to form a company?
If necessary, you can complete some of the application form and then save it until you are ready to finish and submit it. See How do I save a part completed form?
2. Submitting the application
Inform Direct enables all the information contained in the IN01 to be submitted to Companies House electronically.
Companies House will only consider the application to form the new company if the applicable fee has also been settled. The fee can be paid by:
- Inform Direct settling it and recovering the same from you; or
- Using your own presenter code
3. Waiting for Companies House
Companies House will electronically check the application details before the company is formed.
Please be aware that even if all the fields have been completed, Companies House will sometimes reject an application to form a company. See Why might my application to form a new company be rejected?
How long Companies House take to approve a formation depends on how busy they are. They split all applications into two:
- Same Day service
- Standard service
For both application types, Companies House operate a strict cab rank rule. i.e. No software provider can say that their submissions will be processed more quickly than submissions from another firm. Companies House will process all Same Day requests in the order received and all Standard service requests in the order received.
Note: The exception to this is if the application needs to go to specific team. Examples of this are if the application contains sensitive data, a director/PSC has protection in place or a word in the company name is on the restricted list. Such cases may take longer than an ordinary submission.
When it is urgent to form a company do consider using the Same Day service for an additional Companies House fee. To guarantee formation the same day the application must be submitted by 14.30 on a working day. Our experience is that Companies House will often process a same day incorporation within minutes.
How do I tell the current status of my incorporation?
If you already have a portfolio with Inform Direct then you will see a section called ‘Your pending companies’ which details the name of each company you have awaiting Companies House approval.
When the application to form the new company is approved, we will email you with the details and it will also be automatically added to your portfolio. You will see it alongside all the other companies when you next log in.
If you do not see your company listed under 'Your pending companies' or 'Your current companies' then it is possible the formation has been rejected by Companies House. Our support team will be in touch with the primary user on your account via email to confirm the reason.