The German Company Register is an important starting point for published financial records. Search for the specific legal entity and reporting year. A commercial register extract is not a set of annual accounts, and annual accounts do not show a company’s bank balance today.
Identify the entity and reporting period
Use the full registered name and identifier from reliable documents. Decide which financial year you need. Separate the publication year from the accounting period: a document may be made available in a later calendar year.
Distinguish balance sheets and different account types
A balance sheet is one component of annual accounts. The publicly available documents depend on factors including legal form, size and applicable disclosure relief. Consolidated group accounts cover a different scope from the individual accounts of a subsidiary. Check each document’s heading and reporting period.
Understand why some figures are absent
Companies do not necessarily have to make all their internal accounting information public. Small and micro companies can benefit from disclosure relief. Deposited documents and openly displayed publications can have different access procedures. Missing revenue figures do not automatically mean that your search failed.
Investigate missing results in a clear order
First verify the entity and financial year. Then check former names and whether you have confused the company with another group member. Record the search date and documents checked. An absent result alone establishes neither insolvency nor a disclosure violation.
- Correct entity and individual or consolidated accounts?
- Correct reporting period rather than publication year?
- Former company name or different document description?
- Publication or deposit as the relevant access route?
Keep the dates and scope in view
Where possible, compare several reporting periods on a consistent basis. Read the reporting date, explanatory information and changes in company structure. Older accounts cannot fully reflect later economic developments. Record which questions the documents answer and where more current evidence is needed.