plene.ai / Company assessment
Find out what your accounts say about you before a buyer does.
Lenders and public-sector evaluators score your filed accounts, often months after the year end.* We apply the same kinds of measure, show you the results for every filed year, and tell you what to change.
Works for any UK limited company or LLP from its Companies House number, so you can run it on your own business, a competitor, a subcontractor or a company you are looking to buy. Sole traders and partnerships do not file accounts, so we cannot assess them.*
Who uses it
Usually someone who has just been asked a question about the accounts and does not have a ready answer. The three situations below are typical of the enquiries we get; the quotes are illustrative, not from named clients.
The owner or managing director
Runs a profitable business that is always short of cash, and is about to bid for a contract twice the size of anything it has delivered before.
"The PQQ asks for three years of accounts and a credit report. What will they see?"
The finance director or bookkeeper
Responsible for the year-end numbers, but not usually told how outsiders score them. Often hears about a problem from a supplier's credit controller first.
"A merchant has cut our credit limit and won't say why."
The bid manager
Answering a financial standing question worth ten per cent of the marks, without knowing whether the answer will pass.
"Is there anything in our filings that a buyer will find before we do?"
What the report shows
Four chapters on what the public record says about a business
Liquidity and working capital; profit and distributions; filing behaviour and data quality; company, ownership and market. The charts below come from one company's public filings, anonymised, and each one is explained in terms of what it means for you.
Where the cash went
A company can be profitable and still run short of cash when the money is with customers who have not paid yet, or in work that has not been invoiced. In the example, cash fell from £473k to £30k over two years while trade debtors rose to £975k. We reconcile one year's balance sheet to the next and show which line the cash went into.
So what: when the bank, a buyer or the board asks where the cash went, you already have the answer.
How your balance sheet reads to a credit scorer
Liquidity measures such as cash against what is owed within twelve months are standard in public-sector financial standing assessments.* We calculate cash cover for every filed year against an indicative range for your sector, so you can see what an evaluator sees and which way it is heading.
So what: you can plan the next year-end position with the score in mind, and explain the last one in the bid before it becomes a question.
What the profit was used for
A large dividend followed by a tight year looks different to a lender than it does to the shareholders who took it. We show how much of each year's profit was paid out and how much was kept, alongside year-end cash.
So what: you know how your dividend history looks to the people setting your credit terms, and can time the next one accordingly.
How your filing record is drifting
Late accounts, re-filed accounts and filings made on the deadline are all visible on the public register, to anyone who checks it before extending credit or awarding work.* Late filing also carries automatic penalties from £150 to £1,500 and is a criminal offence.** We show how many days early each year's accounts were filed and whether that margin is shrinking.
So what: a small change to the finance calendar can remove a risk flag that has been costing you PQQ marks.
Which of your claims the filings back up
Each strength, weakness, opportunity and threat in the assessment is graded by where its evidence comes from: the public register, a third party or your own website. Where a claim can be checked against the filings, it is, and any that the filings contradict are marked.
So what: the strengths you put in a bid are ones a buyer's due diligence will confirm, and you fix the weaknesses they would find first.
Find out what your filings say about you before a buyer or lender reads them.
Ask about an assessmentWhat else is in the report
The five charts above are the ones most clients act on first. The full report has thirty-one, plus an appendix that shows the working.
- Working capital cycleDebtor days against creditor days: how long you fund customers before suppliers fund you back.
- Cash movement and runwayEach year's change in cash per month, and how long the latest balance lasts at the latest rate.
- Balance sheet compositionWhat funds what, year by year: shareholders, the supply chain or the group.
- Intercompany balancesAmounts owed by and to group undertakings, against cash, from the related-party notes.
- Charges registerEvery charge from creation to satisfaction. A new charge to an invoice financer as cash falls is a public signal.
- Turnover, profit and marginAgainst an indicative sector band, with years that disclose no profit line shown as gaps rather than filled in.
- Effective tax rateTax charge against the statutory rate; a material gap is a question for the tax note.
- Revenue and profit per employeeScaling or hiring ahead of the work, from average headcount in the accounts.
- Filing timeline and re-filingsEvery accounts document on the register, with superseded originals linked to their amendments.
- Corporate eventsDirectors, control changes, charges, director loans and related-party notes on one timeline.
- Filing-derived risk indexA transparent index from the public record only, with the factors that fired in each year.
- Ownership and marketPersons with significant control, affiliates the website describes, services and client sectors.
- Evidence-graded assessmentStrengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, each graded by source and tested against the filings.
- Tests and estimatesEvery test the report applied, whether it fired, and how each derived figure was computed.
Ask us to run a company assessment for your business
We do not send out sample reports. Instead we build a first version for your business and walk you through it on a call. All we need to start is your company number.
The first version is free and is ready before the call. If it is useful we can talk about the full report; if not, you still have the findings.
How the report is built
Everything comes from documents you can check, processed by rules you can read. Every report prints the rules and thresholds it applied, so you can challenge any finding. Our approach.
Sources
Filed accounts, filing history, the charges register, officers and persons with significant control at Companies House, for every year on record.* Your website and any capability statements you send us, which the report treats as your own description rather than evidence. We do not buy or resell third-party credit data.
Rules
A fixed set of tests, each with a stated threshold. When a test flags something, the report quotes the figures behind it. When it does not, the test is still listed, so you can see what was checked. Where a year has been re-filed, the latest figures are used but the original filing date is kept, so an amendment never makes an on-time filing look late.*
Benchmarks and estimates
Indicative ranges for margin, debtor days, liquidity and dividend payout are chosen from your industry classification and printed on the charts they apply to. Any figure that has been calculated rather than read is listed in the appendix with the method used. Where a later filing restates an earlier year, the restated figures are used and the originals shown alongside.
Where this sits
The services are designed to be used in sequence. Each one picks up from the last, so you are not asked for the same information twice.
Questions we get asked
Why did our credit score drop after the year end when we made a profit?
Scoring is done on the filed balance sheet, and a profit does not by itself improve liquidity. If profit went into unpaid invoices or work in progress rather than the bank, cash held against what was due within twelve months fell. The assessment bridges one balance sheet to the next and shows which line absorbed the cash, so you can explain it before you are asked.
What does a PQQ financial standing question actually test?
Cabinet Office guidance on economic and financial standing sets out standard ratios drawn from filed accounts, including turnover against contract value and net asset value, appraised against pre-determined thresholds, and says bidders should normally not be eliminated on turnover alone.* Many buyers also ask for a third-party credit report. The assessment computes these measures and shows the trend over every filed year, so you know roughly how you will score before the buyer tells you.
Does re-filing accounts hurt our supplier risk score?
It can. Amended accounts are filed alongside the original, not in place of it, so a second document for the same period is visible to anyone on the register.* The assessment lists every re-filed period and every restatement, quotes the note that explains it, and shows how it feeds our risk index.
Our accounts are abridged. Is there enough in them to assess?
Yes. Abridged and filleted accounts still disclose the balance sheet, creditors, average employees, the filing dates and the notes on related parties, charges and prior-year adjustments. The report says plainly which periods disclose no profit line, and derives what it can from the tax charge, marking every estimate as such.
What is cash cover and why does it matter to buyers?
Cash at bank divided by creditors due within one year. Below one times means the business depends on collecting debtors to pay its bills. Liquidity ratios of this kind are part of standard financial standing assessments.* The report classes each year against an indicative range for your sector.
Can you assess a competitor, a supplier or an acquisition target?
Yes. The method only needs a company number, so it works on any UK company. Firms use it to check a subcontractor before relying on them, to see how a competitor is funded before bidding against them, and to test the claims in an information memorandum against the filings.
What does the risk index measure?
It is our own index, built only from what anyone could compute from the public record, such as filing conduct, liquidity, restatements and changes on the register. The report shows which factors contributed and how they are weighted. It is not a credit reference agency score and does not predict one; it shows which public-record factors would draw a scorer's attention.
Can you assess a sole trader or a partnership?
No. The assessment is built from accounts filed at Companies House, and sole traders and general partnerships do not file them. It covers limited companies, LLPs and other entities with a Companies House number.
How long does an assessment take and what do we need to provide?
A Companies House number for a limited company or LLP. The first draft is built from the public record within a few working days. If you want the assessment to test claims on your website or in a capability statement against the filings, send those too and each claim is graded by where its evidence comes from.
Talk to us
Send us a company number and we will tell you what the public record says about it.
Our phone line is answered 24 hours a day by Katie, an AI assistant we built and host in the UK. She can explain what we do, take a message, book a callback or put you through. Someone from the team replies to every enquiry the next working day. About Katie.
Or email hello@plene.ai.
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