How we work and match
What Register data, Checked and Spoken to mean
Every company and firm we show carries one of three labels: Register data, Checked or Spoken to. The label says how much we have checked. It does not say how good the firm is.
The short answer
Register data means the facts come from public records, such as Companies House, and we have not checked them with the firm. Checked means we have checked what the firm says it does, on its own website or with the firm, and we show what we checked and when. Spoken to means the firm has confirmed what it does in a conversation with us. None of the three is a rating, and today every company we list is at Register data.
Where things stand today
All 63,661 companies on our list are at Register data. We have not yet checked or spoken to any firm, so no company shows Checked or Spoken to. We will update this page when that changes.
The three labels
| Label | What it means | Evidence we need |
|---|---|---|
| Register data | Facts from public records, such as the Companies House register. Not checked with the company. | The record itself, with the date of the file we used. |
| Checked | We have checked what the firm says it does, on its own website or with the firm. | For each fact: where we found it (the web page or the firm's written reply) and the date we checked it. |
| Spoken to | We have spoken to the firm and it has confirmed what it does. | The date of the conversation and which facts the firm confirmed. |
Register data
Every company on our list starts here. The facts come from Companies House: the company name and number, its status, when it was incorporated, its registered office, the type of accounts it files, the staff number in its latest accounts and who is listed as having significant control.
Companies House publishes what companies file. Since March 2024 it can query and remove information it believes is wrong, but a record being on the register does not guarantee it is accurate. A registered office is the company's official address, which may not be where anyone works. And a company is not the same as a practice: one practice can run several companies.
Checked
A firm moves to Checked when we have looked at what it says it does, for example its services, the kinds of business it works with and the software it uses, and recorded where each fact came from. We show what we checked and the date.
Checked means we have seen the firm say it. It does not mean we have tested whether the firm does that work well.
Spoken to
A firm moves to Spoken to when we have talked to it and it has confirmed what it does. We record which facts it confirmed and when. It is still the firm's own account of itself.
Checks have dates, and they go out of date
Every Checked or Spoken to fact carries the date it was checked. Firms change what they offer, take on or lose staff, and change owners, so a check can go out of date. We plan to set how long each kind of fact stays current before it must be checked again, and to move a firm back down a label if its checks go out of date. We have not set those periods yet.
What none of the labels means
- None of them is a quality rating, a score or a recommendation.
- We do not check whether an accountant is competent, qualified or suitable for your business.
- A higher label means we have checked more. It does not mean the firm is better.
If you want to know about a firm's professional body membership or registrations, ask the firm and check the body's own public register.