New Board Intelligence research with 200 UK businesses finds gaps in corporate records, heavy reliance on manual processes, and mounting pressure from Companies House reforms.
London, 9 November 2026 – Every governance professional surveyed for new research by Board Intelligence said their organisation had experienced at least one problem in the past two years linked to entity information, including delayed transactions, audit findings, late statutory filings, and financial penalties.
The study of 200 company secretaries and general counsel in UK businesses showed that a third (33%) had found an error in a Companies House record about their organisation in the previous two years. Nearly as many (31%) had experienced delays to a transaction, financing, or account opening linked to incomplete, inaccurate, or difficult-to-access entity information, while the same proportion had encountered a dispute over which record was correct.
More than one in four (28%) reported an audit or assurance finding, and the same proportion said a director appointment or resignation had been recorded late. A fifth (21%) had filed a statutory return late, and 20% said their organisation had received a penalty or fine.
The findings point to a broader corporate data challenge, with weaknesses in entity information affecting transactions, financing, audit, and regulatory compliance well beyond the governance function.
Pippa Begg, CEO of Board Intelligence, said: “These findings highlight the value of high-quality entity management. When corporate records are incomplete, outdated, or hard to access, the consequences are felt in transactions, audits, and the boardroom.
“Boards and leadership teams need confidence in this data and the workflows around it. Too often, that assurance depends on people stitching together information from documents, systems, registries, and colleagues. For governance teams already stretched thin, that is a real challenge.
“The goal should be continuous control: giving organisations a trusted, dynamic view of their structure, responsibilities, and obligations, without waiting for a transaction, filing, or regulatory deadline to expose a problem.”
Organisations are struggling to maintain a reliable picture of themselves
The research also reveals how many businesses are unable to quickly establish basic facts about their own corporate structures. Most respondents oversee large and complex group structures: seven in ten (71%) manage more than 1,000 legal entities.
More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents said it would take them 13 hours or longer to provide an exact number of the legal entities in their organisation. Only 13% could give an exact figure in under an hour, while four in ten (40%) would need at least 24 hours.
The same pattern holds for more specific questions. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents would need at least 13 hours to establish exactly how many entities were dormant or redundant, while 64% would need the same amount of time to determine how many entities their organisation had created or acquired in the previous 12 months.
Together, the findings suggest that having the data is not the same as having confidence that it is current, accessible, and usable.
Corporate records remain heavily reliant on manual work
More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents already use specialist entity management software, but much of the work involved in keeping corporate records up to date still depends on manual inputs.
Across seven core entity management tasks tested, only 36% to 43% said their technology completed each task automatically.
Just 37% said their tools automatically identified discrepancies between their own records and Companies House. A further 39% said the necessary data was held in their systems, but someone still had to carry out the reconciliation manually.
Similarly, 44% said extracting information from incoming documents and suggesting changes still required manual work, while the same proportion said someone had to manually draft routine filings or resolutions.
Six in ten respondents (60%) continue to use spreadsheets for entity management alongside, or instead of, specialist software.
The manual burden is substantial. On average, governance teams spend an estimated 37 hours a week recording entity changes, re-keying data between systems, reconciling discrepancies, answering questions from other teams, and updating structure charts. That is roughly the equivalent of one full-time employee, and four in ten organisations (41%) spend at least that much time on these processes.
Most of that time goes on work that creates no new information. Re-keying, reconciling, and answering other teams’ questions account for 59% of the hours, a share that holds broadly steady regardless of team size or the number of entities managed.
Megan Pantelides, Head of Research at Board Intelligence, added: “Most companies have systems in place for managing entity information and obligations. The challenge they face is that those systems rely heavily on people to keep the picture accurate and up to date.
“Governance teams spend huge amounts of time chasing source documents, checking records against external sources, and piecing together changes across different systems. That adds a great deal to their already heavy workload, so it’s no surprise that records drift over time.”
Companies House reforms are exposing further weaknesses
The challenge is coming into sharper focus as Companies House reforms put the quality of corporate information under greater scrutiny. Since 18 November 2025, new directors and persons with significant control (PSCs) have had to verify their identity with Companies House, and existing directors and PSCs have a 12-month transition period to do the same.
Preparing for these checks is already surfacing problems. Almost four in ten respondents (39%) found their own records did not match Companies House, and a similar proportion (38%) found filings made by people no longer authorised to make them.
Download the report for the full findings.
Founded in 2008, Board Intelligence is EMEA’s largest board technology and advisory firm and the leader in boardroom AI. Trusted by more than 85,000 leaders across the Fortune 500, FTSE 100, and OMX 30, and rated #1 in EMEA by customers on G2, Board Intelligence’s AI-powered software and services supercharge boards with the science of board effectiveness.
In October 2026, Board Intelligence launched IQ Entities, the first AI-native entity management system to bring Extractive AI, Agentic AI, and Intelligent Insight AI together. IQ Entities takes on the complex work involved in managing legal entities and turns entity information into a strategic asset for company secretaries, general counsels, chief governance officers, and their teams.
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The research was conducted by Censuswide among 200 mid-level and above governance professionals (general counsel and company secretaries) working at UK-based organisations with turnover of at least £50 million and at least one legal entity in addition to the organisation itself.
The data was collected between 28 August and 4 September 2026.
The sample was evenly split between privately owned and publicly listed businesses. Seven in ten respondents (71%) manage more than 1,000 legal entities, and around half (51%) work in financial services.
Time figures are estimates based on banded responses. Full-time equivalents assume a 37.5-hour working week.
Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society and British Polling Council, a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge, and adheres to the MRS Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles.
Download the report for the full findings.
Edelman Smithfield
E: boardintelligence@edelmansmithfield.com
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