Know the top 5 functions performed by the secretarial services in Singapore

Posted by Bradley Hoeger on May 21st, 2019

To run a business flawlessly, there are several conditions you need to follow, such as following the company’s act, the ACRA regulations, etc. So if you are a business person or want to start a new business venture in Singapore, you need to abide by the company’s law in Singapore, which mandates that every company must appoint a secretary of the company.

The company’s secretary is responsible for assuring the company is operating with relevant legislation and regulations. Also, the secretary also keeps the board members informed of their legal responsibilities towards the company. Thus for managing any business flawlessly in Singapore, secretarial services are utmost important for the efficient administration of a company, particularly with regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

What is the company’s secretary?

A company’s secretary is usually appointed by a director or the board of directors of a company. His primary duty is to take on some of the responsibilities of the directors, in order to reduce their workload. Company’s secretarial services in Singapore involves assisting the company with ongoing statutory company matters along with the various other mandatory services, such as;

Functions of company’s secretary in Singapore:

1. Company’s Incorporation and Registration:

Incorporation and registration is the legal process used to form a corporate entity or limited company. In this process these following functions are performed;

1. Finalizing company’s name, by companies name check and reservation
2. The nomination of company’s directors
3. Business monitoring and auditing
4. Handling corporate compliance with disclosure requirements

Also, some other business regulations are performed during this process. Company registration Singapore requires several documents that include company name, profile, and the workers of the business, shareholders, address, business description, and a lot more and for this process, Singapore business registration services and other websites offer a great deal of information about these documents.

2. Maintaining Statutory Registers and Minute books:

Preparing minutes and/or resolutions of Directors and Shareholders are a very important task performed by the company’s secretary. The minute book of the company is primarily applicable for keeping the official account regarding what was done or talked about at formal meetings, including any decisions made or actions taken. Also, you need to set-up the statutory register of your company by law. As it is one of the most vital legal documents to run and maintain your business transparently, which include;

®     The list of board of directors of the company

®     The register of the company’s members

®     The registered addresses of the company’s directors and members.

®     Bank account details of the company.

®     The standard constitution of the company, formerly business memorandum and articles of association.

®     The number of shares of the company and the resolution of shareholders.

®     Also, the charges registered against the company (if any).

3. Filing of Annual Returns:

An annual return is the record of publicly available information about your company that appears on the Company’s Register, which is subjected to be file to ACRA as per the company’s act of Singapore. Here ACRA is the national regulator for the business entities and also plays the role to assist in the development of business entities in Singapore. Here the annual return is the annual submission of your companies' financial health and status to the registrar which is maintained by the company’s secretary.

4. Nominee Services:

If you are not a resident of Singapore or want to operate your company from abroad and intend to attend to company matters on a short-term basis, then in such cases, you need to find a local director to fulfil the minimum one resident director requirement, as per the legal requirements of the government of Singapore. Nominee services facilitate nominee resident director, nominee agents and nominee shareholder for companies having foreign or non-resident owners, till such time as an actual resident can be arranged.

5.    Good communication skills:

For working in a large company, the company’s secretary may be required to work alongside accountants and other departments within the company that may require their direct assistance. So they need to be able to communicate with everyone easily and effectively, whether it is face-to-face communication or communication via phone and email, as being able to communicate effectively is very essential for this role.

Conclusion:

In Singapore, secretarial services are mandatory to engage as per the rules and regulations have given by the government. If you don’t comply with corporate obligations, you might have to face financial penalties applied by the government, so hiring a professional secretarial service can eradicate any such issues and help you to run your business flawlessly. Now you can hire a secretarial service for a full-time basis. But this will be costly if you are running a small scale business then outsourcing the secretarial service will come within your budget and also serve your purpose with expertise without any dispute