WHAT IS COMPANY SECRETARIAL SERVICE AND WHAT ARE ITS BENEFITS?
Company secretary is an important administrative position in a limited company. Prior to the amendments brought about in the companies act 2013 it was mandatory for all limited companies to appointment a full-time company secretary. However, with the changes made in the act, the mandatory clause has been removed, and only those companies with an annual turnover of Rs10 crore or more are compulsorily required to appoint a company secretary. For the rest of the companies, it is up to them whether they wish to appoint a company secretary or hire company secretarial service.
Though an in house secretary plays a vital role in a company, many small companies can’t afford to hire them. With the changes in the company's act, the roles and responsibilities of a company secretary have been redefined. They are now part of the senior management, and as such, their compensation has also increased significantly making it difficult for many companies to hire them. Such companies, therefore, prefer to engage company secretarial services to meet their statutory and regulatory compliance needs. Besides being easier on the pocket, there are other benefits of outsourcing secretarial service.
Company Secretarial Service
Just like top corporate lawyers in India that have a team of lawyers to provide legal services to their clients, there are secretarial service firms that employ qualified company secretaries and allied professionals to provide secretarial services to their clients, typically limited concerns.
Secretarial services encompass registration of new private/public limited companies to complete statutory compliance. These services can be divided into three major heads:
Registration and Incorporation Services: This includes registration and incorporation of companies- private/public limited and limited liability partnership. Registration of foreign companies, joint ventures and special purpose vehicles.
Corporate Restructuring Services: Include mergers and acquisitions, change of company name, change of registered office address, modification of memorandum and articles of association, conversion from one business structure to another, and issue of new shares and increasing authorized capital.
Secretarial Compliance Services: Includes secretarial advisory and audit, filing balance sheets and annual reports, maintaining statutory registers including board meeting minutes, filing with registrar of companies and company law board, and certification of documents that has to be submitted with the government and other regulatory and statutory bodies.
Mentioned above is only the major assistance that company secretarial services provide. They assist in other tasks as well.
Benefits of hiring Corporate Secretarial Services
Outsourcing secretarial services offers many benefits to the company, especially if it is operating in a highly competitive environment. Major benefits are listed below.
Accurate Handling of Administrative Tasks
Corporate secretarial services providers have qualified and trained professionals who assist you in performing your administrative tasks with ease and efficiency. They ensure strict adherence to all statutory and regulatory requirements. They are experts in their field, and ensure timely compliance with the laws governing the operations of the company. Accurate handling of all the administrative tasks ensures that there is no delay filings and reporting, and minimal scope for oversight that may cause inconvenience to you and the company.
Convenience
As all the administrative tasks and compliance matters are professionally handled by the outsourced personnel who are well-trained and experienced in their job, you can rest assured and focus on the business related matters. You don’t have to be regularly involved in the routine administrative and compliance issues, which makes it quite convenient for you to devote more time to business operations. A lot of time and effort is saved which means much lesser stress for you
Reliability
Another benefit of hiring secretarial services is that it brings with it reliability. They are highly trained professionals whom you can completely rely upon to perform their duties with perfection. You don’t have to worry about the regulatory and compliance issues anymore and just shut your eyes and concentrate on your company’s growth and profitability.
Besides the regular secretarial work, they also help in improving business operations by providing precious advice on the business, and give you insights and feedback. You can also expect them to go out of their way to provide customized solutions for your unique needs.
Cost Benefit
With the roles and responsibilities being redefined under the Companies Act 2013, company secretaries now command very high salaries. Many companies are reluctant to employ full-time secretaries because of their high compensation. Besides, companies will also have to incur additional expenses on their training. It is, therefore, more feasible for some companies, especially the small and medium ones, to outsource company secretarial services. Companies get the same or even better level of service at a much lower cost. The money saved can be utilized for other productive work.
Extensive Service
The secretarial services firms provide a gamut of secretarial services. Besides the routine administrative and regulatory compliance tasks, they also assist in company incorporation, drafting employee contracts and benefits, business contracts and agreements, accounting, etc. Their expertise and experience in various aspects of company law across different industries offers lot of value addition to the company.
The scope of company secretarial services and its benefits over in house company secretaries have been explicitly dealt with in this article. It is up to the companies what they want to choose.