Answer
Company records an investor will ask for
What statutory records must a UK company keep?
GOV.UK says a company must keep records about itself and its finances. The company records cover shareholders and votes, share transactions, debentures, indemnities and loans secured on its assets. The accounting records cover money in and out, assets, debts and stock. They are kept for 6 years from the end of the last relevant financial year, or longer.
Last reviewed 1 November 2026. Written by HAM Agency.
An investor reads a company's public record first and then asks for what sits behind it. The records GOV.UK says you must keep are the ones they ask for, so it helps to know where each belongs before they do.
Records about the company
GOV.UK says a limited company must keep details of:
- shareholders, and the results of any shareholder votes and resolutions
- debentures, which are promises to repay loans at a set date, and who they are owed to
- indemnities, which are promises to pay if something goes wrong and it's the company's fault
- transactions when someone buys shares in the company
- loans or mortgages secured against the company's assets
These are the core of the legal section of a data room. Companies House shows some of this publicly: its free service includes officers, document images and mortgage charge data. Your own records should agree with it. The cap table article shows how to test the share records against the register.
Accounting records
GOV.UK says the accounting records must include:
- all money received and spent by the company, including grants
- details of assets the company owns
- debts the company owes or is owed
- stock held at the end of the financial year, and the stocktakings used to work it out
- all goods bought and sold, and who they were bought from and sold to
It adds that you must keep any other financial records and calculations you need to prepare and file your annual accounts and Company Tax Return. Its examples are receipts, petty cash books, orders and delivery notes for money spent, and invoices, contracts, sales books and till rolls for money received, plus bank statements and correspondence.
This is where the financial model gets its numbers. If the model can't be traced to these records, an investor will notice. The article on reconciling a model to your accounts covers that.
How long to keep them
GOV.UK says 6 years from the end of the last company financial year the records relate to. It lists three reasons to keep them longer:
- a record shows a transaction that covers more than one accounting period
- the company bought something it expects to last more than 6 years
- the Company Tax Return was sent late
GOV.UK also says HMRC may check your records with a compliance check, and that you must keep company finances clearly separate from the owners' and directors' own, starting with a separate business bank account.
Where each record goes in a data room
| Record | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| Shareholder details, votes and resolutions | Corporate and legal |
| Share purchase transactions | Corporate and legal, beside the cap table |
| Debentures and secured loans | Corporate and legal, beside the charges on the register |
| Indemnities | Corporate and legal |
| Money in and out, debts, assets and stock | Finance, behind the model |
| Invoices, contracts and bank statements | Finance, as the evidence for the figures |
Whether a particular document counts as a statutory record is for your solicitor to confirm. Your accountant confirms the tax records and the retention period. What you can do first is find each item and note where it lives, which Raise Ready does with you. The full contents list is in the seed data room checklist.
Questions
How long does a company have to keep its records?
GOV.UK says 6 years from the end of the last company financial year the records relate to. It says longer if a record shows a transaction covering more than one accounting period, if the company bought something it expects to last more than 6 years, or if the Company Tax Return was sent late. Your accountant confirms the period that applies.
Do the records have to be at the registered office?
No. GOV.UK says you must tell Companies House if you keep the records somewhere other than the registered office address. It also says to tell Companies House within 14 days if you change the address where you keep them, or which records you keep there.
What if a record has been lost?
GOV.UK says that if records are lost, stolen or destroyed and can't be replaced, the company must do its best to recreate them, tell its Corporation Tax office straight away and include this in its Company Tax Return. Tell your accountant before an investor finds the gap.
Does Raise Ready keep my company records?
No. Raise Ready sorts the records you already hold into a data room and checks that they agree with each other and with the public register. It doesn't keep your statutory records, and it doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. Your accountant and solicitor confirm what you must keep and for how long.