Guides
Micro-Entity vs Abridged Accounts: Which Applies?
Updated 10 Jun 2026
If your company qualifies as a micro-entity, micro-entity accounts are usually the simpler choice. Abridged accounts only come into play if you're small but too big for micro — and the option disappears in April 2028. The two get treated as interchangeable, but they're different kinds of thing: micro-entity is a size category with its own accounts regime; abridged is a reduced-disclosure option within the small-companies regime.
The two, side by side
| Micro-entity accounts | Abridged accounts | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A separate accounts regime for the smallest companies | A reduced-disclosure format within the small-companies regime |
| Who can use it | Meet 2 of 3: turnover £1m or less, balance sheet £500,000 or less, 10 or fewer employees (FYs beginning on/after 6 Apr 2025) | Companies that qualify as small: 2 of 3 at £15m / £7.5m / 50 |
| What's filed today | A minimal balance sheet — the most reduced format available | Balance sheet and P&L with reduced detail; the P&L can currently be left out of the public filing |
| After April 2028 | Regime continues — but a P&L must be filed (publish opt-out confirmed, mechanism pending) | Removed entirely — small companies file the full small-format accounts including the P&L |
| Best for | The smallest companies wanting minimum preparation and disclosure | Small-but-not-micro companies wanting less on the register — for the time it remains available |
Choose micro-entity accounts if…
…you meet the micro thresholds. The format is the most reduced available, the regime survives the 2028 changes (with the added P&L), and there's rarely a reason for a qualifying company to prepare anything fuller for Companies House. Detail: micro-entity accounts.
Abridged only matters if…
…you're small but over the micro limits. Then abridged is the lighter-disclosure option — for now. With the format being removed in April 2028, treat it as a closing window rather than a long-term plan: abridged accounts covers what's changing and what to do instead.
One more distinction worth keeping straight
"Filleted" accounts — the practitioner term for filing without the P&L — is a filing choice, not a format. A small company can prepare abridged accounts and file them filleted today. Both routes effectively end in April 2028, when filing the P&L becomes mandatory for small and micro companies alike.
Frequently asked questions
Can a micro-entity file abridged accounts? It wouldn't normally want to — abridged belongs to the small-companies regime, and a micro-entity's own format is more reduced still.
Which keeps more information off the public register? Today, micro-entity accounts for the smallest companies; abridged-plus-filleted for small ones. From April 2028 both must file a P&L, with a confirmed (but not yet detailed) opt-out from publishing it.
Do the deadlines differ? No — both follow the normal accounts deadlines: 9 months after the year end, 21 months for first accounts. See company accounts.
I'm a sole trader — does this apply to me? No. Sole traders file no accounts with Companies House — see sole trader accounts.
Not sure which regime your numbers put you in — or what the 2028 changes mean for what's public? See how we help →