What a week's list looks like for accountants

This is a real week for Chelmsford, exactly as a subscriber receives it: every company incorporated in the council that week, all of them, ranked A to E, with what each one is and how to reach the ones that are already up and running. Cut for accountants: the companies with nobody doing their books yet, and the ones with accounts falling due, with the columns you work from first. 26 companies; the ones worth your time are at the top.

Start at the top. Of the new companies we ranked A, 89% were still registered three years later, against 49% of all new companies, and each spent 2.3 times as long trading. Why a ranked lead is worth more

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Every company incorporated in the council that week is here, whichever trade the list is cut for: the order and the columns change, the week does not. Company names and numbers are from the Companies House public register (OGL). Descriptions, bands and flags are Salenovo's own reading of the public evidence and can be wrong for an individual company; the method and its measured accuracy are on the method page.

What arrives every Monday

One email, with a spreadsheet attached. It opens on the companies you can reach today rather than on the whole week, because a company a week old rarely has a website or a phone number yet.

1. Read me: what each sheet and column means, and where every figure comes from.
2. Ready to contact: the sheet the workbook opens on. Every company in the week's lists with a website, a mailbox, a contact page or a phone number: this week's new companies first, ranked, then established companies at the moments that matter most to your trade from the last fortnight, then companies from your area's last twelve weekly lists with their contact details as we hold them today, then the companies with accounts due. It's a shortcut, not a filter: every row is also on its own sheet, and so are the companies with no contact details yet.
3. This week: every company incorporated in your council that week, all of them, ranked A to E. The table above is this sheet.
4. Accounts due: for accountants, the companies with accounts due about twelve weeks out that aren't registered at an accountant's address, soonest first, with the due date and the registered office.
5. Something changed: established companies at a moment that usually means buying, chosen for your trade, with the reason beside each and the ways to reach them.

How contacts arrive

Companies a week old rarely have a website yet, so a fresh week's list is mostly names, bands and types. The contact columns fill in as each company is re-checked at 7, 14, 28 and 56 days and its website, mailbox or premises registration appears, and the row comes back to you when they do. These are Chelmsford companies formed between August and October 2026, with what the re-checks found; every website is the company's own and every mailbox is a generic one shown on it. Rows like these are the ones Ready to contact carries after each week's new companies.

The other half: companies that changed

A new company is one moment to sell into. The other is when a company that already exists does something: takes on its first staff, wins a public contract, gets a new owner, moves away from its accountant's address, registers a kitchen with the council, borrows against property, puts up a website. Subscribers get these on the Something changed sheet each week, chosen for their trade, with the reason beside each and the ways to reach the company. A few of Chelmsford's from the last fortnight:

Measured on 30,000 companies we followed for three years: 85% of those that registered a charge in their first six months went on to trade, against 35% of all new companies.

The Accounts due sheet, for accountants

1,491 companies in Chelmsford have accounts due in the next three months and are not registered at an accountant's address (239 within a month, 250 in one to two, 1,002 in two to three); 70 more are already overdue but not yet in strike-off. Every one has filed trading accounts before, is up to date with its confirmation statement, isn't in strike-off, and is registered at its own address (not an accountant's, not an agent's). A late set of accounts costs the company £150 rising to £1,500, doubled the second year. Each Monday's workbook carries one week's batch, a slice of the companies due in the month about twelve weeks out (January, batch 3 of 4: 106 for Chelmsford), so the list arrives in working batches rather than all at once. Over three months that's 1,218 in Chelmsford, and a new subscriber gets the whole three months once, as a catch-up. The first five of this week's batch:

Accounts due comes with accountancy subscriptions (sign up from the accountants page or the council page). Free on every council page: how many. Free in the Monday email: five names and the month. In the paid list: each week's batch with the exact date, the last accounts filed and the address to write to.

What each column means

Band

A to E, quintiles of the score among companies formed since the 2024 fee rise. On held-out companies band A went on to trade about 67% of the time and band E about 15%. A ranking, not a verdict: work the list from the top.

Fit

Whether a company of this kind is a customer for your trade, with the reason beside it, and the list ordered by it. It is a second axis, not a second band: the band says whether the company will trade at all and is the same for every subscriber. Nothing is left out, so a low-fit row is still your week, further down. The rules are written out for each trade, and two of the measures behind them come from what the register says companies turned into: how often a company like this ends up at a trade address or on a food register, and how often one has a charge registered against it.

Company

Name and registered number as on the Companies House register. The number is the key you match on in your own systems.

What it does

One plain-English line, read from the name, SIC codes and website together, because a third of SIC codes are generic or wrong. Marked lower-confidence where the evidence is thin.

Type

Operating business, property vehicle, holding or investment company, dormant or shelf company, or non-profit. Most buyers want operating businesses only; the others are shown so you can see why they are excluded.

Sector

The sector the company appears to be in, from the same reading, not the raw SIC section.

Formed via

Own or home address, an accountancy firm, or a mass-formation agent or virtual office. Companies formed through an accountant trade nearly twice as often as those at a home address; those at mass-formation addresses least of all.

Accountant

'Likely has accountant' when the registered office is an accountancy firm's address; 'probably none yet' for an own or home address; 'shared address: unknown' for serviced offices and other shared addresses.

Website

Only where a site has been fetched and judged to be this company's. 'Confirmed' means the company's registered number appears on the site. Parked pages, placeholders and other businesses with a similar name are excluded.

Email

The generic business mailbox shown on the company's own website (info@, hello@, enquiries@…), with the page it came from and the date. Never a personal mailbox. The domain is checked for a mail server.

Contact page

Where the company's own website shows no mailbox, the page it links to as Contact, which is how that business asks to be reached. Only a page on the company's own site.

Phone

The company's landline or 03 number, from its own website or from a business listing under its name at its own postcode, with where it came from. A mobile number isn't copied into the list, because it's often someone's own phone: where a company's only number is a mobile on its own website, the column links to the page that shows it. A landline in the area is a stronger sign of premises. Screen numbers against the TPS and CTPS before you call.

What the site is built on

For a company with a website of its own, what we saw on the page: the platform it runs on (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and the rest), whether the certificate is valid, whether there is a layout for phones, whether it sells online, takes bookings, has a contact form or lists a delivery platform, and which social accounts it links to. Facts about the page, from the same fetch that verifies the site is theirs. We never grade it: what the site needs is the buyer's judgement, not ours.

Borrowing

Whether a lender has taken security over something the company owns, from the Companies House charges register: who it is in favour of, the date, whether it is fixed or floating, and whether it is still outstanding. A charge is the strongest signal we measure, since 85% of the companies that registered one in their first six months went on to trade, against 35% overall. A private individual who lends is shown as "a private lender" and never named. It is a reason to call, never a credit assessment.

Premises clue

What kind of address it is, when the address says something: food premises on the council's register (the strongest sign, because a food business has to register at least 28 days before it opens), a trade or industrial address, a shop or high street address, an office or business centre, or a landline on the company's own website. Blank where the address says nothing either way, which is most home addresses.

Flood risk

The Environment Agency's long-term flood risk for the postcode: high where at least one address in it sits in an area with a 3.3% or greater chance of flooding in a year from rivers, the sea or surface water, then medium (1% to 3.3%), low (0.1% to 1%) and very low. It describes the area around the addresses, not the building, and the Environment Agency says it is not suitable for judging a single property, so treat it as a prompt to check. England only; the full note in the spreadsheet says how many addresses and whether groundwater flooding is possible.

Crime nearby

Property crime (burglary, criminal damage and arson, shoplifting, vehicle crime) recorded by the police in that neighbourhood over three months, rated very low to very high against every neighbourhood in the country. It is what was recorded, not what happened, and a town centre will always count more than a village. England, Wales and Northern Ireland; the spreadsheet gives the count and the months.

Premises

A registered food premises from the council's register, with the trading address, business type and hygiene status (often 'awaiting inspection', which means brand new). Other premises registers to follow.

What to do with it

1. Start with the rows marked strong fit: band A or B, registered at their own or a home address, not an accountant's.
2. Skip anything registered at another practice's address. The Accountant column says which those are.
3. Write in the first month, before the first year end makes the choice for them.

Business-to-business email to a limited company or LLP is permitted under PECR without prior consent, provided you say who you are and offer an opt-out. Every row says where the address came from. No director names, no home addresses.