SIC codes: choosing your business activities

A Standard Industrial Classification code describes the company's business activity on the Companies House register. Choosing a SIC code is an administrative classification decision. It does not authorise a regulated activity or replace a licence, tax registration or professional permission.

Describe the activity before searching for a code

Write a plain-English description of what the business will actually provide. Identify the product or service, the customers and how income will be earned. A description such as online business is usually too broad to choose a meaningful classification.

An online retailer, a software developer and a marketing consultancy may all operate through websites while carrying out very different activities. Begin with the activity, not the technology used to sell it.

Use the Companies House list

Use the official condensed SIC list linked in the sources. Companies House states that only codes from its condensed version should be used in filings. Read the category description rather than choosing a number copied from another company's record. ^[1]

A competitor's classification may reflect an old activity, a different business model or an inaccurate filing. It can help you identify a possible category, but it is not a substitute for checking the official description.

Handle more than one business activity carefully

If the company genuinely conducts different activities, review the categories needed to describe them. The available filing service explains how many classifications can be supplied. Avoid adding speculative activities merely because the business might pursue them in the distant future.

Keep a note of why the selected descriptions fit. That record is useful when the business changes or someone else prepares a later confirmation statement.

Check consistency across the application

The activity description should make sense alongside the company name, business plan and information supplied to a bank or insurer. Those organisations may ask more detailed questions; the SIC code does not remove the need to explain the business accurately. ^[2]

A practical selection checklist

• Describe the main income-generating activity.
• Search the official condensed list for the closest description.
• Consider any genuinely separate activities.
• Check that the selected codes are current and supported by the filing service.
• Keep the rationale with the incorporation documents.

Distinguish what you sell from how you deliver it

Take a business that creates websites and also sells its own downloadable software. Its work may include a service performed for clients and a separate product sold repeatedly. Write down the revenue streams before searching for classifications. The fact that both use computers does not make them one indistinguishable activity.

Conversely, a retailer accepting orders through a website is not necessarily a software business. Its main task might be buying and selling a particular type of product. Describe the goods, whether sales are wholesale or retail, and any manufacturing or repair activity. These distinctions are more useful than choosing a code because it contains a fashionable word.

Create a short selection record

For each candidate code, copy the official description into an internal note and explain how the planned activity fits. Include the date checked and the person who confirmed the business description. If the company has not launched, identify which activities are actually intended at launch and which remain speculative proposals.

A useful note might say that most projected income comes from designing software for clients, while an additional service will be offered only if a separate project proceeds. That statement gives the filer a basis for the present selection and a reason to revisit it later. It also makes it easier to explain the company to a bank without presenting an exaggerated list of future activities.

Do not create your own code or substitute a broader classification system because a third-party website makes it look more convenient. The official Companies House list is the reference for this filing decision. ^[1]

Deal with a business that changes direction

Review the recorded activities when the company materially changes what it sells. A former retailer becoming a consultancy should check its classification and the appropriate update process, rather than assuming the original formation details remain suitable indefinitely. Ask whoever prepares the confirmation statement to include this in their review.

At the same time, check the connected practical arrangements. An insurer may need a fuller description of a changed risk, and a bank may need information about new payment patterns. Updating the SIC entry is one administrative step; it does not automatically update those separate relationships.

Resolve uncertainty without guessing at a competitor's position

If two categories seem plausible, write down the difference you cannot resolve. For example, are you manufacturing the goods yourself, purchasing finished goods for resale or providing a design service to the manufacturer? Clarifying that fact may make the appropriate description much clearer.

Where uncertainty remains, show the actual activity and candidate descriptions to the person preparing the filing. Ask them to record the rationale for the choice. The objective is a defensible description of the business, not a classification selected to suggest a licence, credit standing or tax outcome that the code cannot provide.

Where two classifications appear plausible, resolve the factual description first. If the activity is regulated, ask the relevant professional or regulator about authorisation separately. A correct SIC code is useful for the company record, but it cannot validate an otherwise unauthorised service.

If classification is one of several unresolved application details, explore limited company formation support.