Start­ing a Busi­ness in the UK? Check­list for Legal Doc­u­ments

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Aatos
06/02/2025 ● 4 minutes
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Set­ting up a busi­ness in the UK is an ex­cit­ing ven­ture, filled with po­ten­tial for growth and suc­cess. Wheth­er you're launch­ing an in­nov­at­ive tech star­tup, open­ing a boutique shop, or ex­pand­ing your con­sultancy firm, one factor re­mains con­sist­ent: the need for robust legal doc­u­ment­a­tion.

Sort­ing out legal doc­u­ments might not be the most ex­cit­ing part of start­ing a busi­ness, but it’s some­thing you can’t afford to skip.

We have listed 10 doc­u­ments that aren't just red tape—they lay the found­a­tion for your busi­ness, keep­ing everything clear, com­pli­ant, and pro­tec­ted.

💡Legal doc­u­ments in just minutes with Aatos’s ser­vice. We’ll guide you in every step of the pro­cess so you can focus on your busi­ness.

Legal doc­u­ments provide struc­ture to your busi­ness re­la­tion­ships and op­er­a­tions. They clearly define roles, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, and ex­pect­a­tions, re­du­cing the like­li­hood of mis­un­der­stand­ings and dis­putes.

Beyond in­tern­al be­ne­fits, they ensure com­pli­ance with UK-spe­cif­ic laws such as the Com­pan­ies Act 2006 and the Gen­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion (GDPR). Fail­ure to es­tab­lish these doc­u­ments can lead to reg­u­lat­ory pen­al­ties, op­er­a­tion­al dis­rup­tions, and repu­ta­tion­al damage—issues that could jeop­ard­ise your busi­ness’s sur­viv­al.

💡Ap­ply­ing for a star­tup grant? Ensure all the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments are pre­pared and in place before sub­mit­ting your ap­plic­a­tion for ex­ample to In­nov­ate UK Smart Grantsthe Prince’s Trust En­ter­prise Pro­gramme or the New En­ter­prise Al­low­ance (NEA).

Be­ne­fits of Doing UK Busi­ness Re­gis­tra­tion Online

When re­gis­ter­ing your busi­ness online, there’s no need to draft cer­tain es­sen­tial doc­u­ments manu­ally, such as Memor­andum of As­so­ci­ation and Form IN01—they’ll be auto­mat­ic­ally cre­ated during the pro­cess.

To re­gister your busi­ness online in the UK, visit the of­fi­cial gov­ern­ment web­site HMRC Busi­ness Re­gis­tra­tion.

During the busi­ness re­gis­tra­tion pro­cess, you can:

  • Re­gister a private lim­ited com­pany: Submit your ap­plic­a­tion dir­ectly to Com­pan­ies House.
  • Pre­pare ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments: The online pro­cess auto­mat­ic­ally gen­er­ates es­sen­tial doc­u­ments, such as the Memor­andum of As­so­ci­ation and Form IN01, sim­pli­fy­ing the re­gis­tra­tion.
  • Pay the re­gis­tra­tion fee: The cur­rent fee for online re­gis­tra­tion is £50.

The online re­gis­tra­tion pro­cess is straight­for­ward and typ­ic­ally takes around 24 hours to com­plete. Once re­gistered, your com­pany will re­ceive a Cer­ti­fic­ate of In­cor­por­a­tion, con­firm­ing its legal ex­ist­ence.

💡 Memor­andum of As­so­ci­ation con­firms the intent of the found­ing mem­bers (ini­tial share­hold­ers) to form the busi­ness and their agree­ment to become its mem­bers. It’s a legal re­quire­ment filed with Com­pan­ies House during in­cor­por­a­tion but is auto­mat­ic­ally gen­er­ated when you re­gister online.

💡 Form IN01 is the of­fi­cial ap­plic­a­tion form to re­gister a lim­ited com­pany with Com­pan­ies House. It in­cludes vital de­tails like your com­pany’s pro­posed name, re­gistered office ad­dress, dir­ect­or and sec­ret­ary in­form­a­tion, and ini­tial share­hold­ings. When you re­gister online, this form is auto­mat­ic­ally com­pleted as part of the pro­cess.

We have iden­ti­fied 10 es­sen­tial legal doc­u­ments that every newly es­tab­lished busi­ness needs. Wheth­er you’ve set up a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship or a multi-owner star­tup, don’t over­look this list.

Ad­di­tion­ally, we’ve in­cluded useful tips on in­voicing and cre­at­ing other key doc­u­ments to help your busi­ness op­er­ate smoothly once it’s up and run­ning.

1. Art­icles of As­so­ci­ation: Your Busi­ness Con­sti­tu­tion

If you’re form­ing a lim­ited com­pany in the UK, Art­icles of As­so­ci­ation are man­dat­ory under the Com­pan­ies Act 2006. This found­a­tion­al doc­u­ment out­lines how your com­pany will be run, de­tail­ing the re­spons­ib­il­it­ies of dir­ect­ors, voting pro­ced­ures, and share­hold­er rights.

Think of Art­icles of As­so­ci­ate as the rule­book for your busi­ness, en­sur­ing smooth gov­ernance and set­ting the ground­work for de­cision-making pro­cesses. A well-craf­ted Art­icles of As­so­ci­ation re­duces the risk of dis­putes and provides clar­ity for all stake­hold­ers.

2. Share­hold­er Agree­ments (for Multi-Owner Busi­nesses)

For busi­nesses with mul­tiple owners, a Share­hold­er Agree­ment is in­valu­able. This doc­u­ment out­lines the rights, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, and ob­lig­a­tions of each share­hold­er, fos­ter­ing align­ment and pre­vent­ing con­flicts.

Share­hold­er Agree­ment covers crit­ic­al as­pects like voting rights, profit dis­tri­bu­tion, and pro­ced­ures for selling shares. Without this agree­ment, dis­putes among share­hold­ers could es­cal­ate into costly legal battles, un­der­min­ing the busi­ness’s sta­bil­ity.

3. Stat­utory Re­gisters: Es­sen­tial Com­pany In­form­a­tion

Under UK law, spe­cific­ally the Com­pan­ies Act 2006, com­pan­ies are re­quired to main­tain spe­cif­ic re­cords known as stat­utory re­gisters.

Stat­utory re­gisters con­tain crit­ic­al in­form­a­tion about the com­pany’s struc­ture, man­age­ment, and own­er­ship. They must be kept at the com­pany’s re­gistered office, a des­ig­nated Single Al­tern­at­ive In­spec­tion Loc­a­tion (SAIL), or some­times filed with Com­pan­ies House. Share­hold­ers are en­titled to access these re­gisters upon re­quest.

Here’s an over­view of the key stat­utory re­gisters that every busi­ness must keep:

  • Share­hold­er Re­gister keeps track of all in­di­vidu­als or en­tit­ies that hold shares in the com­pany. It also en­sures clar­ity re­gard­ing own­er­ship and changes in share­hold­ing.
  • Dir­ect­or Re­gister lists all the com­pany’s dir­ect­ors and must in­clude in­form­a­tion sub­mit­ted to Com­pan­ies House at the time of their ap­point­ment.
  • Res­id­en­tial Ad­dress Re­gister for Dir­ect­ors: Com­pan­ies are also re­quired to main­tain a con­fid­en­tial record of dir­ect­ors’ home ad­dresses. This in­form­a­tion is not made public and is only ac­cess­ible to au­thor­ised bodies like HMRC or law en­force­ment.
  • Sec­ret­ary Re­gister: For com­pan­ies that ap­point a sec­ret­ary (op­tion­al for private lim­ited com­pan­ies).This re­gister tracks in­di­vidu­als re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing the com­pany’s com­pli­ance with legal ob­lig­a­tions and fil­ings.

⚠️ Fail­ing to main­tain or update stat­utory re­gisters can lead to legal and fin­an­cial pen­al­ties.

4. PSC Re­gister (People with Sig­ni­fic­ant Con­trol)

Every busi­ness must main­tain a PSC Re­gister to record in­di­vidu­als who have sig­ni­fic­ant in­flu­ence or con­trol over the busi­ness, often re­ferred to as "be­ne­fi­cial owners."

A Person with Sig­ni­fic­ant Con­trol (PSC) typ­ic­ally meets one or more of the fol­low­ing cri­ter­ia:

  1. Holds more than 25% of the com­pany’s shares
  2. Con­trols more than 25% of the voting rights
  3. Has the power to ap­point or remove a ma­jor­ity of dir­ect­ors

This re­gister is a legal re­quire­ment under the Com­pan­ies Act 2006 and en­sures trans­par­ency re­gard­ing own­er­ship and con­trol. Using a stat­utory re­gister tem­plate can help you easily in­clude a sec­tion for PSC de­tails.

5. In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­erty (IP) Agree­ments: Se­cur­ing Your Cre­ations

Your in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty—wheth­er it’s a trade­mark, patent, or design—is a valu­able asset. An IP As­sign­ment Agree­ment en­sures your busi­ness owns any in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty (IP) cre­ated by con­trib­ut­ors, such as co-founders, con­tract­ors, or ad­visors, even if it was done before the busi­ness was in­cor­por­ated.

IP Agree­ments ensure that own­er­ship and usage rights are clearly defined, pro­tect­ing your cre­ations from un­au­thor­ised use or in­fringe­ment. Without it, IP cre­ated for your busi­ness doesn’t auto­mat­ic­ally belong to the com­pany, risk­ing dis­putes and making your busi­ness less ap­peal­ing to in­vestors.

To pro­tect your assets and avoid com­plic­a­tions, secure an IP As­sign­ment Agree­ment with every­one who has worked on your product or busi­ness, re­gard­less of the sig­ni­fic­ance of their con­tri­bu­tion.

6. Con­sultancy Agree­ment: For Short-term Roles

A Con­sultancy Agree­ment is used for freel­an­cers, con­sult­ants, or con­tract­ors—anyone work­ing for your busi­ness who isn’t an em­ploy­ee (also known as Ser­vice Agree­ments). For someone on your payroll, an Em­ploy­ment Agree­ment is more ap­pro­pri­ate.

Con­sultancy Agree­ments are suited for short-term roles that pro­duce tan­gible de­liv­er­ables. Unlike an Ad­visor Agree­ment, which is for long-term col­lab­or­a­tion fo­cused on guid­ance, this con­tract is for non-ex­ec­ut­ive in­di­vidu­als or those work­ing ex­tern­ally on spe­cif­ic tasks.

The agree­ment out­lines the con­sult­ant’s roles, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, in­voicing, and pay­ment terms. It should also in­clude an IP as­sign­ment clause to ensure any work cre­ated during the en­gage­ment is owned by your busi­ness.

⚠️ Avoid im­pos­ing em­ploy­ee-like con­di­tions on con­tract­ors, such as fixed work­ing hours or man­dat­ory office pres­ence, as this could re­clas­si­fy them as em­ploy­ees. This would make your busi­ness re­spons­ible for Na­tion­al In­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions and em­ploy­ee be­ne­fits.

7. Em­ploy­ment Con­tracts: Build­ing a Com­pli­ant Work­force

Em­ploy­ees are the heart of any busi­ness, and Em­ploy­ment Con­tracts are a legal re­quire­ment in the UK. These agree­ments out­line job roles, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, and terms of em­ploy­ment, such as salar­ies, be­ne­fits, and ter­min­a­tion con­di­tions.

Em­ploy­ment Con­tracts also pro­tect your busi­ness by in­clud­ing clauses on con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, en­sur­ing that sens­it­ive in­form­a­tion re­mains secure.

A clear, com­pre­hens­ive con­tract not only fosters trust but also safe­guards your busi­ness against po­ten­tial dis­putes with em­ploy­ees.

⚠️ If your busi­ness has five or more em­ploy­ees, you are re­quired to create a Health and Safety Policy too.

8. Sup­pli­er and Client Con­tracts: En­sur­ing Smooth Op­er­a­tions

Sup­pli­er and Client Con­tracts form­al­ise the terms of your busi­ness re­la­tion­ships, min­im­ising risks and mis­un­der­stand­ings. These agree­ments spe­cify de­liv­ery timelines, pay­ment terms, and li­ab­il­ity clauses, en­sur­ing that all parties are aligned.

For in­stance, clearly defined pay­ment sched­ules pro­tect your cash flow, while ter­min­a­tion clauses provide a roadmap for ending agree­ments am­ic­ably.

In­vest­ing in robust con­tracts with sup­pli­ers and cli­ents cre­ates a re­li­able frame­work for your op­er­a­tions, fos­ter­ing long-term part­ner­ships.

9. Non-Dis­clos­ure Agree­ments (NDAs): Pro­tect­ing Con­fid­en­ti­al­ity

NDAs are cru­cial for safe­guard­ing sens­it­ive in­form­a­tion, es­pe­cially when col­lab­or­at­ing with part­ners, sup­pli­ers, or em­ploy­ees.

NDAs spe­cify what in­form­a­tion is con­fid­en­tial, the re­ceiv­ing party’s ob­lig­a­tions, and the con­sequences of breaches. By im­ple­ment­ing NDAs, you pro­tect your trade secrets, in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­erty, and com­pet­it­ive edge, en­abling you to share in­form­a­tion with con­fid­ence.

10. Data Pro­tec­tion Policies: Com­pli­ance with GDPR

Data pro­tec­tion is a non-ne­go­ti­able aspect of run­ning a busi­ness in the UK. Com­pli­ance with GDPR re­quires you to im­ple­ment policies that ad­dress data col­lec­tion, usage, and se­cur­ity.

For ex­ample, your pri­vacy policy should out­line how cus­tom­er data is stored, the rights of in­di­vidu­als to access or delete their in­form­a­tion, and your pro­ced­ures for hand­ling breaches. Robust data pro­tec­tion meas­ures build cus­tom­er trust and ensure legal com­pli­ance.

⚠️ Fail­ure to comply can result in hefty fines, as seen in high-pro­file cases like the Brit­ish Air­ways data breach in 2018 that led to a £20 mil­lion pen­alty.

Other Rel­ev­ant Doc­u­ments

Once you have es­tab­lished and re­gistered your busi­ness and are ready to begin op­er­a­tions fully, you may also want to con­sider pre­par­ing the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments.

Terms and Con­di­tions

Terms and con­di­tions are a set of rules and guidelines that out­line the rights, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, and ex­pect­a­tions between a busi­ness and its users or cus­tom­ers. They help pro­tect both parties by cla­ri­fy­ing legal ob­lig­a­tions, pay­ment terms, dis­pute res­ol­u­tion, and other key policies.

💡 For online ser­vices, these terms often cover: user ac­counts, pay­ment terms, ac­cept­able user, pri­vacy and data usage and li­ab­il­ity lim­it­a­tions.

Create In­voices

In­voicing in the UK is an es­sen­tial aspect of run­ning a busi­ness, en­sur­ing you get paid for goods or ser­vices provided while stay­ing com­pli­ant with tax reg­u­la­tions.

An in­voice must in­clude key in­form­a­tion to be leg­ally com­pli­ant and useful for both you and your cus­tom­ers.

This in­cludes:

  • Your Busi­ness Name
  • Ad­dress and Con­tact De­tails
  • The Cus­tom­er’s Name and Ad­dress
  • A Unique In­voice Number
  • The In­voice Date
  • The Pay­ment Due Date
  • For the Items Sold or Ser­vices Provided: Add a De­scrip­tion, Quant­ity, Unit Price, and the Total Cost

If you’re VAT-re­gistered, in­clude your VAT re­gis­tra­tion number, the VAT rate, and the VAT amount charged. Fi­nally, provide the total amount pay­able and clear in­struc­tions on how to make the pay­ment.

⚠️ Keep re­cords: The HMRC re­quires busi­nesses to retain in­voices for at least 6 years.

💡A pay­ment late? Man­aging over­due pay­ments is es­sen­tial for main­tain­ing smooth busi­ness op­er­a­tions, and a Final Pay­ment Re­mind­er Letter is a cru­cial tool for this task.

Ad­visor Agree­ment: For Ment­ors, Ad­visors or Coaches

Having the right sup­port is es­sen­tial when build­ing a busi­ness. An Ad­visor Agree­ment helps form­al­ise your re­la­tion­ship with a mentor, ad­visor, or coach, en­sur­ing clear ex­pect­a­tions and pro­tec­tion for both parties.

Ad­visors bring valu­able ex­pert­ise, of­fer­ing guid­ance in areas such as in­dustry in­sights, net­work­ing, or stra­tegic plan­ning. Com­pens­a­tion can vary de­pend­ing on their con­tri­bu­tions, ran­ging from cash pay­ments to equity, or a com­bin­a­tion of both.

An Ad­visor Agree­ment defines the ad­visor’s re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and sets bound­ar­ies, such as con­fid­en­ti­al­ity re­quire­ments. It also in­cludes terms for their de­par­ture or ter­min­a­tion and, if ap­plic­able, spe­cifies a vest­ing sched­ule for equity.

💡 For Ex­ample: An ad­visor might earn the right to pur­chase 3% of your com­pany’s shares over a set period, such as 0.1% vest­ing each month, tying their equity to their con­tri­bu­tions.

In­stantly Create Any Busi­ness Doc­u­ment

You can count on Aatos Bind to gen­er­ate all the es­sen­tial doc­u­ments you need when start­ing a busi­ness.

The ser­vice is powered by AI, com­bined with legal input from our law­yers, to tailor each doc­u­ment to your spe­cif­ic situ­ation while en­sur­ing it is leg­ally bind­ing.

Your first doc­u­ment is free!

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