Maintaining Your Corporate Records

A corporation is a high maintenance structure without doubts. It requires the constant organization of its different legal records in minutes, from the shareholders' proceedings to those of the directors' board and committees. Moreover, these minutes must be written in most states. While in others, they need to be in a convertible form.

In all cases, it is always advised to keep a duplicate copy of your records, whatever the form you are using. This is to avoid any data loss that may lead you to legal complications.

Other than that, every corporation is requested to keep records of any information related to its shareholders, like their names, addresses, and the number of shares they own, for instance.

As for examination records, the corporation guarantees to each shareholder their right to receive a copy of the entity's books and records after a short notice and a reasonable cause.

To proceed, a shareholder must precise which records they wish to examine and for what purpose, for a fee to make the copies needed in return.

This is when the conversion to the written form takes place for a fee that the corporation must cover if the records are not in a written form already.

The records that must be in a written form range from amendments, articles of incorporation, any resolutions to execute by the administrators, in addition to the most recent reports filed with the state corporate office.

Finally, when it comes to balance sheets, every corporation is required by the state to keep its shareholders updated through financial statements.

In case a corporation refuses to furnish the shareholders with copies of the records, they can then seek help from the state court.