This story is being replicated in Singapore startup scene on a regular basis. Founder incorporates company, becomes caught up in the construction and sale, and puts the appointment of corporate secretary as something to do sometime. Ultimately will arrive in the form of an ACRA penalty notice. The Companies Act makes this clear, every company registered in Singapore must have a qualified company secretary who has to be appointed within six months of registration. The requirement is not elastic to product releases or capitalization of funds. It is just there, and the punishment of disregarding it increases the duration the situation remains. When updating company changes, view page on company secretary service singapore procedures.

The ground covered by the corporate secretary is more than what most founders envisage. Statutory registers should be kept up to date, directors, shareholders, share allotments, the lot of them up to date and correct at any one time. Annual returns are submitted to ACRA on a schedule that includes the end of your financial year. Board decisions must be documented to make key decisions have a legal force. General meetings require proper preparation and proper minutes. Beneath this all is ongoing deadline monitoring on a rolling compliance schedule. It is the type of operational activity that is undetectable when operating smoothly and appears excruciatingly when it does not.

Selection of providers is something that should be thought over more than founders do. Entry level services process regular filing and have a limited scope. Anything unorthodox, such as the resignation of a director, a shareholding restructuring, a regulatory inquiry, and the fringes of a bare engagement become instantly visible. Better providers are active and pose compliance implications before decisions are cemented in instead of responding to consequences after. A helpful screening question: inquire of any shortlisted provider how they deal with urgent requests that are not within normal business hours. Their service brochure will not tell you much, but the particularity of their answer will.

The average costs are around S$300 to S1,500 per year. That diffusion indicates the complexity of the company, the amount of transactions, and the actual depth of service underlying the package. Firms that have share movements and board activity are at the upper end. Both secretarial/accounting/tax packages Bundles of secretarial, accounting and tax services are worth considering – they tend to lessen coordination strain and usually cost less than the equivalent in individual vendors.

The finest corporate secretaries create value by catching it before it becomes an issue. An organization charter gagging behind the times. An intended deal having filing consequences that the founder had not contemplated. A deadline that is slipping nearer at a time of the year when everybody is otherwise preoccupied. Such active interaction is truly difficult to discover in the market, but the distinction between a corporate secretary who works that and one who merely stampses on paper at least once a year is soon noticed – typically at the time in your life when you most need actual advice.