Company Secretarial Software UK: What Self-Filing Directors Need

Much company secretarial software is built for accountancy practices and professional company secretaries managing many client companies. If you're a director who files your own Companies House returns, the features you actually need look very different — and you shouldn't be paying professional prices.

Here's how to evaluate company secretarial software as a self-filing director, what features matter, and what you can safely ignore. (If you're still deciding whether you need a secretary at all, start there first.)

What Company Secretarial Software Actually Does

Company secretarial software manages the administrative obligations that come with running a UK limited company. At its core, it tracks and files:

• Confirmation statements (CS01) — the yearly statement confirming your company's details are up to date (see our step-by-step guide to filing a CS01 confirmation statement)
• Annual accounts — financial statements filed with Companies House
• Officer changes — director appointments, resignations, and address changes
• PSC information — people with significant control details, filed to Companies House (the local PSC register was abolished on 18 November 2025)
• Share management — allotments, transfers, and shareholder records
• Register of members — since 18 November 2025 the only statutory register a company still keeps itself

Professional-grade tools add features like multi-client management, practice workflows, and bulk filing — none of which a self-filing director needs.

What Self-Filing Directors Actually Need

If you file your own returns (no accountant, no company secretary), your requirements are much simpler:

Must-have features:

1. Deadline tracking with reminders — you interact with Companies House 2–3 times per year. The gap between filings is long enough to forget. You need automated reminders at multiple intervals (30, 14, 7 days before), not a single email.

2. Filing status dashboard — see at a glance which filings are due, which are overdue, and which are complete. If you have multiple companies (SPVs, dormant entities), this becomes essential.

3. Identity verification tracking — the new identity verification requirement (effective November 2025) adds another compliance layer. Software should track verification status for every director and PSC across all your companies. Each director can run our free identity verification readiness check for a readiness score and next steps before you evaluate tools.

4. Pre-submission validation — Companies House rejects filings that don't meet the requirements (for example, accounts with an unsigned balance sheet), and if the corrected accounts then arrive late, a late filing penalty follows. Catching these before you submit saves you from involuntary late filings and penalties.

5. Companies House integration — direct filing to Companies House reduces manual entry errors and speeds up the process.

Nice-to-have:

• Multi-company dashboard (essential if you have 2+ companies, nice-to-have for single-company directors)
• Calendar export for filing deadlines
• Filing history and audit trail

Features you can safely skip:

• Practice management and multi-client workflows — these are for accountants managing client portfolios
• Share management and cap tables — unless you regularly issue or transfer shares
• Advanced statutory register management — for most micro-companies, basic records are sufficient
• Bulk filing tools — you're filing for one company (or a handful), not hundreds

The Pricing Gap

Company secretarial software pricing falls into a few broad bands:

Tier	Typical cost	Who it's for
Free	£0	Companies House email reminders when filings are due, plus free tiers from some software providers (for example, online registers and deadline reminders)
Professional	Priced by portfolio — for example, a monthly fee for the first company and a much lower rate for each additional one	Accountants and professional company secretaries managing client portfolios
Enterprise	Price on application	Large practices and corporate groups

The problem for self-filing directors is this: between Companies House's free email reminders (which around 318,000 late-filing penalties a year suggest aren't enough on their own) and practice software, there are free tiers and pay-per-action options — but many are built around accountants' workflows rather than a director's.

What's missing is affordable software built specifically for directors who file themselves — simple deadline tracking and identity verification status, without the professional practice features that inflate the price. (If your existing tool keeps pushing you toward those professional tiers, our guide on choosing company secretarial software in 2026 breaks down each pricing band and when a switch makes sense.) That's the gap CompanyMinder is aimed at: it tracks deadlines, records each officer's identity verification status (Director plan), and keeps the register of members and company documents — £9 a month for the first company and £5 for each additional one, with a free plan for a single company, and none of the practice-management overhead. It doesn't check filings before you submit them.

How to Evaluate Software for Your Situation

Before choosing a tool, answer these questions. For a standalone walkthrough of how to choose company secretarial software, we cover the same criteria as a buyer's framework.

How many companies do you manage?

• One company: A basic deadline tracker with reminders may be all you need. Don't pay for multi-client features.
• 2–5 companies (common for portfolio landlords with SPVs): Multi-company dashboard is essential. Per-company pricing adds up fast — look for flat-rate or tiered pricing that covers multiple entities.
• 5+ companies: You likely need a more structured system, but you still don't need practice management features unless you're managing filings for other people's companies.

Do you handle your own accounts or use an accountant?

• Self-filing everything: You need deadline tracking for both confirmation statements and annual accounts, plus pre-submission validation.
• Accountant handles accounts, you handle confirmation statements: Simpler needs — focus on confirmation statement tracking and identity verification status. Missing the 14-day window means your confirmation statement becomes overdue with strike-off risk.

What's your biggest risk?

• Missed deadlines: Prioritise multi-interval reminders (not just one email) and a clear dashboard showing what's due and when. Try our free filing deadline countdown tool to see how deadline tracking works in practice.
• Technical rejections: Prioritise pre-submission validation — catch errors before they cause involuntary late filing penalties.
• Identity verification compliance: Prioritise verification status tracking, especially if you have directors and PSCs across multiple companies.

Software-Only Filing: What's Changing in 2026

HMRC's Company Accounts and Tax Online (CATO) service, run jointly with Companies House, closed on 31 March 2026. Corporation tax returns (CT600) must be filed using commercial software or through an agent who files via software. This affected companies that used the joint service to file their accounts and Company Tax Return together.

The closure also ended that joint route for filing accounts at Companies House: since 1 April 2026, accounts go to Companies House separately — through software, Companies House's online filing service or on paper — while confirmation statements can still be filed online as before. Companies House plans further changes to accounts filing, including software-only filing, from 1 April 2028. All of this is another reason to have a proper software workflow in place rather than relying on manual processes. Our separate guide to Companies House software filing covers what filing through commercial software looks like in practice.

Key Takeaways

• Much company secretarial software is built for accountants — self-filing directors pay for features they don't use
• The three features that matter most: deadline tracking with multi-interval reminders, filing status dashboard, and identity verification tracking
• Per-company pricing penalises directors with multiple entities — look for flat-rate pricing
• Companies House's free email reminders aren't enough on their own — around 318,000 late-filing penalties a year suggest that
• Since 1 April 2026, HMRC has required Company Tax Returns (CT600) to be filed using software (paper only with a reasonable excuse or if filing in Welsh) — make sure your whole filing workflow reflects that

Sources

• Late filing penalties — GOV.UK
• Verify your identity for Companies House — GOV.UK
• Confirmation statement guidance — GOV.UK
• Filing company accounts and tax returns if you previously used the HMRC online service — GOV.UK
• The online accounts and Company Tax Return service is closing — GOV.UK
• Changes at a glance — Changes to UK company law (GOV.UK campaign)