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Consultants file some of the healthiest balance sheets in Britain
Professional services run at 14.7 per cent in deficit, well under the 17.4 per cent national rate, across 155,983 filings.
The industries that need almost no capital to start file the strongest balance sheets. Across 155,983 sets of accounts from consultants, accountants, engineers and agencies, 14.7 per cent reported liabilities larger than assets, against 17.4 per cent across the register as a whole.
Key points
- Professional services run at 14.7 per cent against a 17.4 per cent average.
- Management consultancy alone accounts for 54,867 filings at 14.8 per cent.
- IT consultancy files 31,742 at 14.5 per cent.
The group
| Classification | Accounts | In deficit |
|---|---|---|
| Management consultancy activities other than financial management | 54,867 | 14.8% |
| Information technology consultancy activities | 31,742 | 14.5% |
| Business and domestic software development | 18,214 | 20.3% |
| Accounting and auditing activities | 10,817 | 11.3% |
| Advertising agencies | 7,036 | 15.6% |
| Other engineering activities | 6,974 | 11.0% |
| Engineering related scientific and technical consulting activities | 5,737 | 11.3% |
| Architectural activities | 4,943 | 14.0% |
| Construction of other civil engineering projects n.e.c. | 3,849 | 10.5% |
| Public relations and communications activities | 3,357 | 13.1% |
| Engineering design activities for industrial process and production | 2,367 | 14.9% |
| Activities of patent and copyright agents; other legal activities n.e.c. | 2,100 | 15.4% |
Why the rate is low
A consultancy owns a laptop. There is nothing to borrow against and little to buy before the first invoice, so the balance sheet stays small and positive. Management consultancy is also where a great many one-person companies sit, which flatters the figure: a contractor billing through a limited company rarely has liabilities at all.
It is worth saying what this is not. A low deficit rate is not evidence that these businesses are thriving, only that they carry little debt. A consultancy with no work and no liabilities still files a clean balance sheet.
What this does and does not mean
A deficit here means the accounts reported liabilities larger than assets at the balance sheet date. It is not insolvency. Companies funded by a parent or by director loans routinely report negative net assets while paying everything they owe, which is why this reports groups rather than naming companies.
Companies House does not verify the information filed with it. Everything here is what companies reported about themselves.
What happens next
This group is the closest thing the register has to a control. When the national rate moves, whether professional services move with it tells you whether the pressure is broad or concentrated in capital-heavy industries.
How this was produced. Companies House publishes the accounts registered with it as open data each working day. Cap News downloads that file, reads the tagged figures out of each filing and joins them to the company register. Nothing here is hand picked. The method sets out what is counted and what is not.