This article provides you with some information about cleaning up your corporate records—who needs to do it, what is involved, and how to make it happen.
Who needs help with cleaning up corporate records?
Generally, it is companies that have been active for a year or more and have yet to keep up their corporate records. This means they still need to maintain the records in their minute book, or they might not even have a minute book.
Annually, each company or corporation in Canada needs to file a return with the jurisdiction where they are incorporated, and they also need to pass specific resolutions of directors and members or shareholders—depending on whether it is a not-for-profit or for-profit corporation.
If the above still needs to be taken care of, you probably need your corporate records cleaned up. Many companies run into a situation where they have not recorded changes in who the directors are, who the officers are, and sometimes even who the shareholders are. This is understandable—people get busy growing their businesses, running their businesses, managing their businesses… Corporate records are not really front-and-centre in the minds of most people, so if you find yourself in a situation where you need to clean up your corporate records, don’t worry—most cases (however, not all) can be dealt with. You can clean up your corporate records and establish a nice foundation for moving forward.
What is involved in cleaning up corporate records?
Firstly, you need to review your records to see what they say, and then you need to compare them with today’s reality.
Once you have found out what is different from today’s reality than when you first had your corporate records produced, you need to have a plan for correcting the deficiencies.
You also need to look back and see how many years have passed and what has happened in those years—have dividends been paid out? Have there been annual general meetings that have been missed?
For the most part, all of this can be dealt with on paper rather than in in-person meetings, but you need to go back and look and see where things stand.
How do you go about cleaning up corporate records?
Click here to get started, or access our library for more resources. Take a closer look if you have any questions, and please contact us—we’d be happy to be in touch!
Alternatively, the Tobuso platform offers a secure solution for business owners who want to move their minute books to digital format and manage their records going forward.
