Minute Book

A corporate minute book is essentially a collection of all important corporate records, including the articles of incorporation, which the corporation’s shareholders and creditors can access. A minute book may be a physical binder containing all of the required documents, or your corporation may choose to keep their corporate minute book online for easy sharing.

corporate minute book includes

A corporation is required to maintain records to be viewed by shareholders and creditors upon request. The required documents include:

• Articles of amendment
• Bylaws and amendments
• Unanimous shareholder agreements
• Minutes of meetings and shareholder resolutions
• Notices filed
• A share register with shareholder names and addresses and details of the shares held
• A securities register

It sounds like a lot, but when you incorporate your business with Ownr, we’ll provide all of the corporate formation documents you need. These include:

• First Directors Resolution
• Director Consent(s)
• First Shareholders Resolution
• Notice(s) of Issuance
• Subscription for Shares
• Securities Register
• Directors Register
• Officers Register
• Shareholders Ledger
• Bylaws

If you need any answers to questions about the specific documents Ownr provides, you can call, email, or use our online chat feature to get in contact.

benefits of keeping a minute book

Keeping an up to date corporate minute book will allow you to keep track of all your important corporate documents in one location. This will also make it easy for you to provide your records to shareholders, creditors, or potential buyers should you choose to sell your corporation.

How to keep your minute book up to date

Not only are corporations required provincially and federally to maintain certain records, but they are also required by law to keep them up to date. When a business is incorporated, no matter how large or small it is, an annual shareholder meeting must be held and documented in the corporate minute book. Failure to hold an annual meeting or to comply with laws on corporate record-keeping can result in consequences including government penalties, tax issues and disruption to the corporation’s daily business.

Many corporations choose to have a lawyer look after their corporate minute book, ensuring all of the documents are updated and in accordance with the law. However, if you want to keep your own minute book, there are some simple organizing tips that might help you. In order to organize your corporation’s minute book and keep it up to date, you can separate your minute book into four different sections. These are:

• Certificate of Incorporation (and any subsequent amendments)
• Bylaws (and any subsequent amendments)
• Board of Directors
• Minutes from a meeting regarding basic company operations
• Signed minutes of all meetings
• Written consents approving actions in between board meetings
• Stockholders (and actions executed by the requisite majority)

You may also choose to include a list of officers and directors, tax information and other relevant company records.