Forming a limited company, whether for the purposes of your contract work or as part of a wider business plan, means coming to grips with a lot of new terms and concepts you may never even have encountered before.
This week we’d like to spotlight one of the most-often misunderstood terms – ‘company secretary’, which is a far more important office than new business owners tend to give credit for.
Do You Need a Company Secretary?
Company secretaries are not strictly necessary for private firms anymore, but a public limited company does have a legal requirement for one.
If your limited company is fully owned and directed by one person, there’s no need for a separate company secretary role. However, staying aware of the role’s obligations can help you to ensure key work gets done.
Company secretaries can also hold a position as a director, but they don’t have to, and their responsibilities and obligations are different.
What Does a Company Secretary Do?
In general, the role of the company secretary is to make directors’ work easier and to ensure all directors have access to the information they need for their role. In cases where multiple directors or shareholders exist, they act as a neutral party, ensuring everyone has the information and access they need.
Their duties include:
- Ensure all registered details are up to date both at Companies House and with any other relevant official body
- Understanding the company’s tax opportunities and obligations
- Preparing and filing annual returns, management accounts, and other necessary documents
- Maintaining all required company records and register entries, and ensuring accounting records are up to date
- Being familiar enough with the company’s financial position to offer insight when directors are making key fiscal decisions
- Monitoring financial records for discrepancies and alerting directors and shareholders if found
- Appointing auditors, accountants, and solicitors in the event they’re needed
The above obligations should be filled in your business even if your business consists entirely of you. However, they also need to:
- Issue share certificates
- Arrange general meetings, board meetings, and even some committee meetings
For this reason, many smaller businesses choose to vest secretarial services in their accountancy firm, as a number of these obligations can be handled by accountants as a matter of course.
ICS Accounting have extensive experience in the provision of secretarial services. If you’d benefit from our support, please get in touch.
