Corporate Secretarial Software
The work a company secretary actually does in Singapore, the deadlines it runs on, and the features a secretarial system needs to carry each duty without a spreadsheet on the side.
Published
Corporate secretarial services are the statutory housekeeping that keeps a Singapore company in good standing: the registers, the minutes, the resolutions, the AGM and the annual return, plus every change ACRA needs to hear about within a fortnight. None of it is glamorous. All of it has a deadline, and most of it has a penalty attached.
If you provide those services, whether to one group of companies or to four hundred clients, the duties themselves are fixed by law. What varies is how much of your week goes on remembering them. That is the gap a well-built corporate secretarial system is meant to close, and the duties are the fairest way to judge one.
Key takeaways at a glance
| Key takeaway | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Every Singapore company needs a company secretary | The appointment must be made within six months of incorporation, and the secretary must live in Singapore. |
| Corporate secretarial services are a bundle of statutory duties | Registers, minutes, resolutions, AGMs, annual returns and ACRA lodgements, most of them on fixed deadlines. |
| The calendar runs from the financial year end | Change a company's year end and every date that follows it moves too. |
| Providers must now register with ACRA | The Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 brought registration and anti-money laundering duties for anyone offering these services by way of business. |
| Each duty maps to a software feature | Judge a secretarial system by whether it carries each duty, not by how many screens it has. |
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Corporate secretarial services cover the administration the Companies Act 1967 requires of every company, carried out by or for its company secretary. Think of the secretary as the company's memory and its conscience on procedure: they keep the records straight, make sure decisions are taken and minuted properly, and tell ACRA what has changed.
In practice the services usually include:
Most small companies buy this from a corporate service provider or their accountant, while larger groups often keep a company secretary on staff and buy in the rest. Since June 2025, anyone providing these services by way of business must be registered with ACRA under the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024, which brings anti-money laundering duties with it.
The Companies Act sets out who may act and what has to be done. This is the core of it, with the deadlines most firms plan their year around.
A company must appoint at least one secretary within six months of incorporation. The secretary must be a natural person whose principal or only place of residence is in Singapore, and a sole director cannot also be the sole secretary. The directors have to be satisfied the person they appoint can actually do the job.
Keep the registers the company must hold, including the register of registrable controllers and the register of nominee directors, and make sure ACRA's records of officers and members agree with them. Controller details go to ACRA's central register within two business days of an update.
Minutes of every general meeting and directors' meeting, plus written resolutions where the constitution allows them. They are the evidence of who decided what, which is why good corporate governance starts with them too.
A private company holds its AGM within six months of its financial year end, unless it sent its financial statements to members within five months, or the members have resolved to dispense with AGMs. Either way, someone has to record which route the company took.
Filed with ACRA within seven months of the financial year end for a non-listed company, or five months for a listed one, with financial statements attached where the company has to file them.
A new director, a departing secretary, a changed address, an allotment of shares: most changes must be lodged with ACRA within 14 days. Miss one and the public record stays wrong until somebody notices, usually a bank.
The company secretary is an officer of the company, so a missed filing is not only the directors' problem. ACRA can impose late lodgement penalties and, for persistent defaults, prosecute the officers responsible. "I thought the accountant was doing it" has never been a defence.
Every company runs the same loop, keyed to its financial year end. Get the year end right in your system and every date below can be calculated rather than remembered.
The anchor date. The ECI, the AGM, the annual return and the tax filing all count forward from it.
The accountant closes the books, and the estimated chargeable income goes to IRAS within three months unless the company is exempt.
The board approves the financial statements and calls the AGM, or the members agree to do without one.
Held within six months of the year end, with notice to members, the financial statements laid before them and the minutes written up.
Lodged with ACRA through BizFile within seven months of the year end.
Controllers, nominees and officers checked against what the client has told you, before the next year end comes round.
This is the useful part when you are comparing systems. Each statutory duty needs a feature that carries it, and each feature has a question that shows in a demo whether it really does.
Company secretary duties, the feature each one needs, and a question to ask in a demo.
| Duty | What the software needs to do | What to ask in a demo |
|---|---|---|
| Appointing officers | Hold officers against the company with appointment and cessation dates, and flag a sole director who is also the secretary. | "Show me what happens when the only director resigns." |
| Keeping statutory registers | Generate the registers from one company record, keep the history of every entry, and track RORC and nominee lodgements. | "Where does this register come from, and can I see it as it stood last March?" |
| Minutes and resolutions | Draft resolutions and minutes from company data using your own templates, then file the signed copy against the company. | "Can it use our precedent wording rather than yours?" |
| AGM and annual return | Calculate each deadline from the financial year end, send reminders ahead of it and show filing status across every client. | "Change a year end and show me every date that moves." |
| Lodging changes | Treat each change as a tracked job with its 14 day deadline, its documents and an owner. | "Which changes are waiting on a client signature today?" |
| Proving it later | Log every edit with the user and the time, and export the trail for an inspection. | "Who changed this shareholding, and when?" |
| CSP obligations | Keep customer due diligence records, risk ratings and review dates beside the company file. | "Where do our CDD records live, and what is due for review?" |
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A system that answers all seven on one of your own client companies is doing the duties, not just storing the paperwork. The Corporate Secretarial Software page shows how each one is handled.
Plenty of firms already have software. Often it is a shared drive, a deadline spreadsheet and a folder of Word templates, which is a filing cabinet with a search box. It holds the records. It does not do any of the duties.
A real secretarial system earns its keep in four places. Miss any of them and you will still be keeping a spreadsheet on the side, and the spreadsheet will win.
The test: could someone new pick up a client company tomorrow and know what is due, without asking anyone?
Officers, shareholders, share capital and controllers held once, so the register, the resolution and the annual return all read from the same place.
Deadlines worked out from the financial year end and the incorporation date, and moved automatically when either changes.
Resolutions and notices merged from the company record, so nobody edits last year's file and misses a name.
Every change logged with who made it and when, which turns an inspector's question into a search rather than an afternoon.
Start with your own year. List the duties above, mark where each one lives today, and circle the ones that depend on one person's memory. Those are the features to see working first, on one of your own client companies rather than a vendor's tidy demo file.
If you would rather the system fitted your templates and checklists than the other way round, Episcript builds corporate secretarial software for Singapore firms, and our solutions are eligible for government grants.
Corporate secretarial services usually include acting as or supporting the company secretary, keeping the statutory registers and minute book, drafting resolutions, preparing for the AGM, filing the annual return and lodging changes with ACRA. Many providers also handle incorporations, share transfers, registered office addresses and strike-offs as part of an annual package.
Yes. Every Singapore company must appoint a company secretary within six months of incorporation. The secretary must be a natural person whose principal or only place of residence is in Singapore, and a sole director cannot also act as the sole secretary. Public companies face additional qualification requirements for the role.
A director can also be the company secretary, provided the company has more than one director. The Companies Act stops a sole director from also being the company's only secretary, so a one-director company needs a second person in the role. That is one reason many small companies appoint a corporate service provider.
The company secretary is an officer of one company, named on ACRA's records. A corporate service provider is a firm that supplies company secretaries and related services to many companies. Since June 2025 it must be registered with ACRA under the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024, with anti-money laundering duties attached.
Not always. A private company is exempt if it sends its financial statements to members within five months of the financial year end, and members can also resolve to dispense with AGMs altogether. A member can still ask for a meeting, so the company secretary needs to record which route was taken and when.
It should hold one record per company, generate the statutory registers from it, draft resolutions from your templates, calculate deadlines from the financial year end and log every change. A client portal and accounting integration help too. Episcript builds corporate secretarial software around each firm's own workflow, and it is eligible for government grants.
Manage everything from incorporation to annual filings with a fully customised secretarial system built for Singapore firms. Handle ACRA compliance, document generation, shareholder records, and statutory deadlines, all in one place.
