Expected duties of a company secretory

Company law imposes some administrative duties and obligations on entrepreneurs. Whether or not they have a company secretory formally appointed, these duties need to be carried out. There could be an internal or external company secretory to take care of the business needs.

The scope of the duties of a company secretory varies depending on several factors. It depends on the type of the company, how it organises itself, and other factors. Discussed below are some of the most common responsibilities of a company secretory:

Organising a company’s board and shareholder meetings

The scope of company secretory services includes organising board meetings, any general meetings including the annual meet. A company’s articles of association in combination with the Companies Act will decide the formal requirements of organising meetings. However, only secretory is responsible for complying with the laws, taking minutes, and dealing with filings or updating the records.

Corporate governance practices

Ensuring good corporate governance is crucial to all companies irrespective of their size and nature of business. However, complications increase if the size of the company and the count of stakeholders increase.

A company secretory is the important advisor to the board of directors on the crucial matters of corporate governance and their responsibilities as a director. This includes managing the interests of the shareholders as well as other stakeholders, dealing with conflict of interests, applicable codes and investor guidelines.

Upholding company’s Statutory Registers

Companies are required to keep some statutory registers depending on the type of the company. They are required to maintain register of members, allotments, transfers, directors, secretaries, charges and register or debenture holders, minutes of meetings, service contracts of directors, and all other types of reports or documents.

Managing company’s records

A company has to maintain certain statutory records, as required by the law, but it is also considered a good practice to maintain other records which are not strictly asked by the law. The company secretory is also expected to keep a close tab on these records even if someone else maintains them. These records generally include:

•  VAT registration
• Accounts and tax related records
• Insurance and pension information
• Other compliance records for data protection
• PAYE information

Updating the records

Updating crucial records is also a part of the company secretary services. Every company is required to make certain filings – annual filings, event driven filings, and so on.

A secretory has to keep track of everything to ensure records are up to date. In addition, they are also expected to maintain a company’s Registered Office for proper communication.