Frequently asked questions

Kestrel Alert is an early-warning service for UK businesses that extend credit to other businesses. You add the companies you invoice, supply, or depend on to a watch list, and we email you a plain-English alert when something financially significant is filed against one of them, such as a new charge, overdue accounts, an insolvency notice, a strike-off notice, or a director change.

We alert on new charges and debentures (a company pledging its assets to a lender), accounts that become overdue at Companies House, insolvency events such as administration and liquidation, winding-up and strike-off notices published in The Gazette, and significant director changes. Each alert explains what happened and what it might mean for you as a creditor.

From the official public record: Companies House (the UK registrar of companies) and The Gazette (the UK's official public record, covering the London, Edinburgh and Belfast editions). Every alert links to the underlying filing or notice so you can verify it at the source. We don't buy second-hand data from brokers.

We monitor filings continuously as they are published, so alerts typically arrive shortly after the event appears on the public record, usually the same day, not weeks later in a monthly report. Overdue accounts are checked daily, because 'overdue' is a state that changes on a deadline rather than a filing.

No. A credit report is a snapshot with a score attached; Kestrel Alert is continuous monitoring. Scores are useful when you first take on a customer, but they age quickly: the danger period is the months afterwards, when trouble shows up as filings: new charges, late accounts, resignations, insolvency notices. We watch for those events and tell you when they happen, in plain English.

Any UK business that extends trade credit, meaning it does the work or ships the goods before being paid. Wholesalers, builders' merchants, manufacturers, recruitment agencies, creative and professional agencies, hauliers, printers, and freelancers with a few large clients. If an unpaid invoice from one customer would hurt, you're who we built this for.

Yes. We cover companies registered anywhere in the UK, and we monitor all three Gazette editions: London (England and Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). Insolvency and winding-up notices are picked up wherever your counterparty is registered.

No. Kestrel Alert is an information service built on public records. It tells you what has been filed and explains what that kind of event generally means, with a link to the source. Decisions about credit terms, supply, or legal action are yours; for significant exposures, speak to a solicitor or insolvency practitioner.

Every account starts free and can watch one company, no card needed. Paid plans are metered by how many companies you watch: from £9/month for 5 companies up to £219/month for 500, with two months free on annual billing. All prices include VAT and you can cancel any time. See the pricing page for details, or email info@kestrelalert.com for larger portfolios.

Create an account, search for a company by name or number, and add it to your watch list; it takes about a minute. From then on you'll get an email whenever something significant is filed, with a link to the full timeline for that company. You can add or remove companies at any time.