Close or restructure

1. Establish the current position

List entities, assets, creditors, employees, registrations and disputes. Reconcile the financial position before making closure declarations.

Create a dated position pack showing bank balances, receivables, deposits, equipment, stock, borrowings, employee amounts and other unpaid balances. Distinguish confirmed amounts from disputed or estimated items. Include guarantees, pending refunds and unresolved notices even when they do not appear as an ordinary supplier balance.

Reconcile this pack to the books and supporting schedules. An inactive bank account or a year with no sales is not a substitute for understanding what remains to be collected, paid, transferred or resolved.

2. Compare the available routes

Distinguish transfer, reorganisation, strike-off and formal liquidation or insolvency procedures. Involve the qualified professionals required for the proposed route.

State the intended outcome first: stop one activity, transfer a business, combine entities, or end the entity itself. Record the reason for the proposed route, the facts still needing assessment and who will advise on eligibility. The business closure checklist provides the preparation questions; the merger and demerger guide addresses a different reorganisation path.

3. Sequence the actions

Coordinate stakeholder approvals, contracts, filings and registration changes. Keep ongoing compliance active until the relevant obligations end.

• Map each asset and liability to its proposed treatment and supporting evidence.
• Identify contracts, premises, employee matters and service arrangements needing a separate handover or resolution.
• Track each registration individually, including pending applications, queries and the evidence of its final status.
• Plan access to banking, portals and records while outstanding actions are completed; do not remove the only authorised access prematurely.
• Assign an owner to rejected applications, missing documents and unresolved balances instead of treating submission as completion.

4. Preserve the closing record

Retain orders, acknowledgements and supporting documents. Assign responsibility for later inquiries, claims and record retention.

Create an indexed archive connecting the closing position pack, decisions, submitted documents, payment records and final outcomes. Name a records custodian and a contact for later correspondence. Set the retention arrangements with the advisers handling the route, including how records remain accessible after ordinary staff and systems are no longer available.

Bring these facts to the first discussion

• Latest accounts and liability schedule
• Entity and registration records
• Stakeholder and dispute information

Watch the dependency

Stopping sales does not itself close the entity or its registrations. Track each formal closure action and any continuing duty separately.

Example: a business stops trading but still expects a landlord deposit refund and has a disputed supplier balance. Keep both items visible in the position pack, with an owner and next action. Do not label them settled solely to make the closure tracker appear complete.

How responsibilities are agreed

You confirm business facts and approve decisions. Kosha’s engagement identifies the documents, coordination and filings included, together with any specialist adviser or authority dependency. The service links below explain the relevant workstreams and their limits.