Post Compliance

Who Needs This Service

Every newly incorporated private limited company, OPC or public company needs this service. Startups that have just received their Certificate of Incorporation and want to raise funds, hire employees or start trading benefit most from a structured checklist.

Founders who are new to company law often overlook items such as depositing subscription money from matching accounts, holding the first Board meeting on time or filing ADT-1. These are easy to fix when caught early but costly when penalties and late fees accumulate.

Companies that want to approach investors soon after incorporation should note that investors will look at the compliance record. A clean post-incorporation record improves confidence.

If your company was incorporated some time ago and you are not sure which items have been done, we can run a compliance health check and fix gaps.

Key Benefits

• Clear checklist with deadlines for the first 180 days
• Avoids penalties such as Rs 50,000 for missing INC-20A
• Proper first Board meeting, auditor appointment and share certificates
• Clean compliance record for investors and banks
• Smooth transition into annual compliance

Next Steps & Related Services

After post-incorporation compliance, move to annual compliance and register for licences such as GST.

Related services: ADT-1, INC-20A, DSC, Annual Compliance, GST Registration and ROC Compliance.

Common Mistakes

• Treating incorporation as the finish line.
• Not depositing subscription money in the company account.
• Skipping the first Board meeting or ADT-1 deadline.
• Forgetting share certificates and statutory registers.
• Starting business before INC-20A.

Timeline, Costs & Practical Tips

The key deadlines are 30 days (first Board meeting, first auditor), 60 days (share certificates) and 180 days (INC-20A). Costs are mainly MCA filing fees for ADT-1 and INC-20A and professional fees.

Practical tip: set calendar reminders on the day you receive the Certificate of Incorporation.

Additional Information

The Companies Act, 2013 sets several time-bound obligations after incorporation. Section 173 requires the first Board meeting within 30 days of incorporation, Section 139(6) requires the Board to appoint the first auditor within 30 days, Section 46 requires share certificates to be issued within 60 days, and Section 10A requires a declaration of commencement of business within 180 days. These provisions together ensure that a new company is properly capitalised, governed and audited from the start.

Practical Scenarios

Scenario 1:

A startup receives its Certificate of Incorporation and uses a checklist to hold the first Board meeting, appoint the auditor and issue share certificates.

Scenario 2:

A founder realises the subscription money was never deposited and fixes it before filing INC-20A.

Scenario 3:

A company approaching investors wants a compliance health check so that the early record is clean.

Practical Guidance

A useful way to think about post-incorporation compliance is as a sequence of three clocks that start the day the Certificate of Incorporation is issued: 30 days for the first board meeting and first auditor, 60 days for share certificates and 180 days for INC-20A. Missing the early clocks rarely causes immediate penalties, but it creates a trail of defaults that investors and banks notice later.