In order to form a company a Certificate of Incorporation must be received from the Registrar of Companies. Before the Certificate of Incorporation can be issued the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association have to be completed by the business.
All companies must produce a set of accounts each year that are given to each shareholder. A copy of these accounts must be kept at Companies House and contain the following information:
This means that limited companies have less privacy than sole traders and partnerships because anybody can pay to view the accounts. The accounts of a public limited company (plc) must be very detailed and be available to anyone on request. The accounts produced by a private limited company (ltd) do not have to be as detailed and they are less widely available.