Previous period comparatives explained
What Are Comparatives?
Previous period comparatives are the financial figures from your company's preceding accounting period. They are displayed alongside your current year's figures in your annual accounts to provide context and show financial trends.
Why They Are Needed
Companies House mandates that full statutory accounts must include comparative figures for the previous financial year. This transparency allows shareholders, creditors, and the public to assess whether the company's financial health is improving or declining.
WeFile Auto-Population
To save you time and reduce data entry errors, WeFile automatically pulls your comparative figures if you filed your previous year's accounts through our platform. These figures are mapped directly into the relevant fields in your current filing.
Editing Comparatives
While WeFile auto-populates these figures, you retain full control. If you need to make prior year adjustments (for example, if an error was discovered after the previous filing), you can edit the comparative fields directly within the wizard.
What If There's No Prior Filing?
If this is your first time using WeFile and you previously filed elsewhere, you will need to manually input your comparative figures from your last set of accepted accounts. Ensure these match your historical records exactly.
First Year Exemption
If this is your company's very first accounting period since incorporation, you naturally will not have any previous period comparatives. WeFile handles this automatically by omitting the comparative columns from your generated IXBRL documents.