Company Secretarial Services

Company Secretarial Services

You may be overwhelmed with the numerous administration tasks involved with running a company. Berry Smith’s corporate secretarial team can assist you in reducing the strain on your internal resources by managing such tasks for you.

Below are some of the key services our corporate secretarial team offers

Filing Annual Returns

You must file an annual return to Companies House every year, within 28 days of the anniversary of the company’s incorporation.

The annual return must include certain specified information including details of:

• the type of business the company deals with;
• the number of shares in the company, the value attached to them and details of who owns them;

the company’s registered office address;

• the address at which the list of company’ shareholders is kept;
• whether the company is limited by shares or guarantee; and
• the name and address of all company directors and the company secretary (if there is one).

If you continually fail to file the annual company return on time, Companies House can prosecute you personally. You could also be disqualified from acting as a company director.

Keeping Adequate Company Records

Under the Companies Act 2006, a company is required by law to keep certain records about the company itself.

To comply with legislation, you must keep details of:

• directors, shareholders and company secretaries;
• directors’ meetings;
• the results of any shareholder votes and resolutions;
• promises for the repayment of loans by the company at a specific date in the future and who such loans must be paid back to;
• indemnities made by the company;
• transactions involving the purchase of company shares; and
• loans or mortgages secured against the company’s assets.

We can help with ensuring that such records are filed appropriately.

Keeping Financial and Accounting Records

In addition to keeping records about the company itself, you must also keep thorough accounting records. Such records must include details of:

• all money the company receives and spends;
• assets owned by the company;
• debts that the company owes;
• debts that the company is owed;
• stock the company owns at the end of the financial year;
• the stocktakings used in order calculate the stock figure; and
• all goods bought and sold; and who they were bought and sold to and from (unless the company is a retail business).

If you fail to keep adequate accounting records, you can be fined £3,000 by HM Revenue & Customs, or even disqualified from being a company director.

If you require further advice or assistance on any aspect of compliance, we are happy to help with this.

Keeping Companies House Informed

Keeping Companies House informed of key changes to your company is essential, for example, you must always:

• inform Companies House if you want to change your company’s registered office address;
• advise Companies House within 14 days if you make changes to:
  • the location of company records;
  • the identity of directors or company secretaries; or
  • directors’ personal details (such as addresses); and
• within one month if the company issues more shares.

We can advise you if you are unsure about any aspect of your duties or responsibilities, and would like further advice in this regard, or need help with filing companies house updates.

Registered Office/ Mail Forwarding

Our company secretarial team can set up your registered office as our firm address.

This means that we would receive mail on your behalf, reduce the junk being sent to you and forward all non-junk mail to your email address and/ or office.

Running a company inherently comes with numerous administration tasks and duties to meet regulatory, governance and legal requirements, on top of the many other challenges involved in running a business.

Such requirements can be time-consuming and burdensome but our corporate secretarial team can assist and you to focus on the other core elements of your business operations.