Companies in England and Wales are fortunate to have a transparent and easily accessible public register, Companies House, which contains a snapshot of the information and records for registered companies. However, companies cannot and should not rely on the public register alone to be fully compliant.
A company’s statutory books and registers are the key registers required to be maintained and updated by company law, including in relation to its shareholders and directors.
They include:
the register of members;
the register of directors;
the register of directors’ usual residential addresses;
the register of secretaries; and
the register of people with significant control
The most important register is the Company's register of members. This register is the definitive record of a company’s shareholders and who is entitled to exercise the legal rights attaching to the shares.
These requirements apply to all companies in England and Wales regardless of size – it is not just a necessity for big companies who have a large shareholder base.
Historically, statutory books may have been stored in hard copy, or as un-structured data in Microsoft Word or Excel.
CompanyBooks provides an easy to use, secure online platform, for advisors to store and share important company records digitally.
How to maintain a compliant share register?
The good news is that meeting company compliance minimum requirements doesn’t need to be a concern or a tedious job. Instead, it is a case of developing a process to keep on top of updates, using an effective system, and ensuring changes are reflected at Companies House.
An online equity management platform like CompanyBooks offers an easy way to ensure company law requirements are met, whilst also creating a single source of truth. Company documents can also be saved on the CompanyBooks platform for stakeholders to access.