Corporate Information Management
The Greenhill Equity Solutions Ltd. (GES) platform creates and manages significant amounts of executed documents related to incorporation, director information, board resolutions, agreements, issuance of private equity and the transfers of equity ownership.
To store this information in an up-to date, accessible format, GES is continuing to develop a Corporate Information Management system (CIM). This platform will work in conjunction with our clients legal and accounting providers to keep all required records current and readily accessible. The system automates the storage and retrieval of executed corporate documentation related to the board of directors, management, legal, accounting, agreements and share management.
The CIM software makes our client companies more productive and efficient. The concept of automated, virtual storage of all corporate records is designed as a way of allowing immediate access to the execution and tracking of documentation and to enable remote access to corporate records for decision making, legal and audit purposes. The software is especially designed to assist lawyers with maintaining an accurate corporate minute book as required by law.
During a corporation's life cycle, many things can occur. Officers and directors of the corporation may come and go, accountants will prepare financial statements for various fiscal periods, a corporation may change its registered address, and the shareholders of the corporation may change over time. According to corporate legislation, each of these events ought to be recorded in the corporation's minute book in a specific way and certain events must be reported to the government.
It may not be a business owner's priority to ensure that these types of events are recorded. However, when the time comes for a shareholder to sell its shares in the corporation, or for the corporation to obtain a loan from the bank, if the corporation's minute book and records are not up to date, the transaction may be delayed until sufficient fact finding has occurred, appropriate details are discovered and the minute book is updated
In unfortunate circumstances, the minute book may become difficult to update if records do not exist, a shareholder has died or disappeared or if shareholders and directors have since parted ways. Where a relationship between shareholders has become contentious, a complete and accurate corporate record can avoid the claim that one shareholder or director was unaware that the corporation was taking certain actions, especially where such shareholder or director has signed off on such actions. Additionally, non- compliance with the corporation's governing statute could result in fines being issued to the corporation. In short, keeping the corporate records of a corporation up to date is both legally required and provides certainty in many critical situations.
A corporation's minute book is a story of its life from beginning (incorporation) to end (dissolution). A minute book’s currency and accuracy are both relied upon by third parties like purchasers, lenders and accountants and perhaps most importantly, are required by law. Accurate records must be kept and be made readily available.