The SME marker is calculated using three values from a company's latest filed accounts:
- Turnover
- Total Assets (Balance Sheet total)
- Number of Employees
|
SME Type |
Turnover not more than: |
Balance Sheet Total not more than: |
Monthly average number of employees, not more than: |
| Micro | £1m | £500k | 10 |
|
Small |
£15m |
£7.5m |
50 |
|
Medium |
£54m |
£27m |
250 |
|
Large |
Exceed at least 2 of the 3 criteria for Medium classification |
||
Notes on SME Type Calculation
- A company will be categorised as a Micro, Small, or Medium entity if it meets any two of the criteria in the table above (Turnover and/or Balance Sheet Total and/or Number of employees)
- If only one of the three metrics is available, the company can still be classified using the two that are — and where the available metrics disagree, the smaller category always wins.
- Any company that exceeds at least two of the Medium SME criteria in the table above ( i.e. its Turnover, Balance Sheet Total or Number of Employees) is classified as a Large company.
Example: Turnover greater than £54m AND Number of Employees = 300. - If a company’s financial statements show Turnover = 0, Total Assets = 0, and Number of Employees = null, the company is classified as “Not available” for the SME marker, as there is not enough data to apply the calculation.
- If the accounting period is not 12 months, the turnover value is annualised accordingly before the thresholds are applied.
Example: Company Sales = £0, Employees = null, Total Assets = £1,008,000,000.
Even though Total Assets is far above the Large threshold, the company is classified as Micro — because Sales falls in the Micro range, Employees is not available, and the smaller of the two usable indicators determines the category.
Scope of the Calculation Rules
- The rules apply only to live companies.
- The rules apply only to companies with an account year-end date from 2016 onwards.
- The following company number prefixes are never assigned an SME marker value: #, FC, SF, NF.
Exceptions
- Companies with accounts pre-2016 may still show an SME value calculated using a rule set different to the current outlined above.
- Dissolved companies may also still show an SME value, based on whichever rules were in effect when their last accounts were loaded.
Where to find SME data on the Company Watch platform:
Where to find SME data in the Data Builder tool:
