Prior Year Balance Sheet Figures Missing, Zero, or Wrong — How to Fix

Why the prior year balance sheet column is blank, zero, or wrong in your accounts — how the figures auto-fetch from Companies House, and how to fix mismatched prior period dates.

When you file a second or later set of accounts, TinyTax fills in a prior year column on your balance sheet — last year's figures shown next to this year's. If that column is blank, showing zero, or shows the wrong numbers, this guide explains where those figures come from, why they sometimes don't appear, and how to correct them.

Where the Prior Year Figures Come From

TinyTax does not store last year's balance sheet from memory. When it can, it automatically fetches your prior year figures from the accounts you previously filed at Companies House and copies them into the prior year column for you.

For that fetch to work, three things have to be true:

This is not your first filing — there has to be a previous set of accounts to read from.
Your filing includes accounts (not a CT600-only submission — see below).
The prior period end date on your form matches the period of the accounts already filed at Companies House.

When all three line up, the prior year column populates on its own. The fetched figures are editable — if any are wrong, you can simply type over them.

Why the Prior Year Column Is Blank or Showing Zero

1. This is your first set of accounts

If the company has never filed accounts before, there is no prior year to show — the column is intentionally hidden or empty. This is correct, not a fault.

2. You are filing CT600 only

A CT600-only submission (corporation tax return on its own, with no accounts) does not produce a set of accounts, so TinyTax does not auto-fetch prior year balance sheet figures for it. In a CT600-only filing the prior year comparatives are entered by you, not fetched.

ℹ If you have already filed your accounts at Companies House separately and are now filing CT600 only, your balance sheet is not part of that HMRC submission at all — see the "Why the CT600 Has No Balance Sheet" guide.

3. The prior period dates don't match your filed accounts

This is the most common fixable cause. The auto-fetch looks for accounts at Companies House whose period ends on your prior period end date. If that date is wrong — even by a day — or empty, the fetch can't find the right accounts and the column stays blank or comes back as zero.

4. There's nothing to read in the filed accounts

If your previous accounts were filed somewhere other than via TinyTax, were very abbreviated (micro-entity / filleted accounts with minimal balance sheet detail), or have not yet been processed and published by Companies House, there may be no figures available to fetch.

How to Fix It

Check and correct your period dates

Most prior year problems come down to the prior period end date. To fix it:

Open the filing and use the "Need to file for different dates?" link to enter custom accounting period dates (see the "How to Edit or Change Your Accounting Period Dates" guide for the full walkthrough).
Make sure the prior period end date matches the period of the accounts you last filed at Companies House. If you're unsure of the exact date, check the company's filing history at Companies House.
Save the dates. TinyTax re-runs the prior year fetch automatically when the dates change.

⚠ Set the prior period end to match the accounts already on the Companies House record — not the current year you are filing now. The fetch reads the year before this one.

Enter or correct the figures by hand

The prior year figures are editable. If the fetch brought back nothing, or brought back a figure you know is wrong, type the correct number straight into the prior year box. Your entered value is used in the filing.

Remember that some balance sheet rows are calculated totals (Net Current Assets, Net Assets, Shareholders' Funds, Retained Earnings) — these are worked out from the line items and can't be typed into directly. Correct the line items above them and the totals update themselves.

Common Questions

The prior year column is all zeros — did my last accounts get lost?

No. Zero in the prior year column means TinyTax couldn't fetch last year's figures — almost always because the prior period end date doesn't match your filed accounts, or because this is a CT600-only filing. Your previously filed accounts are safe at Companies House regardless; this only affects the comparative column on the new filing.

I corrected a figure but it changed back — why?

If the figure is a calculated total (shaded, read-only), it recalculates from the line items and won't hold a typed value. Edit the underlying line items instead. Editable line items keep whatever you type.

Do the prior year figures affect my tax?

No. The prior year balance sheet column is a comparative — it's there for presentation and to carry forward opening balances. It does not change the corporation tax calculated on this year's return. Losses brought forward, which do affect tax, are entered separately.

My prior period dates are right but it still won't fetch

If the dates match the Companies House record and the column is still empty, the previous accounts may not contain fetchable balance sheet detail (very abbreviated accounts), may have been filed outside TinyTax, or may not yet be published at Companies House. Enter the figures by hand from your last accounts, or contact us at [email protected] and we'll take a look.

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