Compliance Calendar & Date Tracking for Legal Entities | MinuteBox Cloud Entity Management

Tracking Corporate Governance Dates

How to track compliance dates for corporate governance

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Tracking compliance dates is one of the most important functions in entity management, subsidiary management and corporate governance. For corporate lawyers, law clerks and paralegals, date tracking is something legal professionals spend an inordinate amount of time on.

One of the best practices maintained by lawyers, law clerks and corporate paralegals is the use of a date tracking system, often called a "tickler system." A proper tickler system, in combination with date reminders, notifications and reports, is essential for proper maintenance of corporate legal entities.

In the real world, if a deadline is missed, it is typically not a big deal. But in law, if a deadline or compliance date is missed, it can mean extreme prejudice and damage to a client. Missing deadlines or corporate governance compliance dates can lead to lapsed registrations, lapsed filings and monetary fines. In the worst cases, missed deadlines can spoil a major transaction and even lead to the dissolution of a corporation. Although these remedies are rare, when they do occur they can result in massive capital losses.

For these reasons, it is necessary to ensure you have a strong tickler system in place to remind you of important compliance dates. Here's an example of just some of the types of dates a corporate law clerk, paralegal or lawyer will want to keep track of:

A lawyer, corporate law clerk and paralegal will want to:

What to look for in a good legal tickler system?

A good legal tickler system will have a number of essential features and characteristics. Here's what to look for:

The basics of a good legal tickler system for corporate compliance tracking

This might seem obvious, but a good legal tickler system needs to be able to track dates!

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I know, I know, it seems so obvious, but tracking dates is not as easy as it may seem, especially in law. Here are a few things to consider. Is the date that you are tracking one point in time or a recurring date?

One point in time means a specific date will never repeat, i.e. setting a specific day, month and year (October 20, 2017, for example).

A recurring date means a date that repeatedly occurs over an interval. For example, April 1st each year is a recurring date. In a tickler system, you will need to be reminded of this date every year whether it is 2020, 2021, 2022 and beyond! Recurring dates need not be yearly. For example, you might have a tickler date that you need to be reminded of on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. "Remind me on the 15th of each month to file my corporate filings" is an example of a recurring date.

Okay, now we've got the basics of the different types of dates used in a compliance date tracker or tickler. What's next? Well, sometimes you will want to track not only the specific expiry date or compliance date but also a date relative to whatever date that may be for the purposes of getting a reminder with enough notice in advance of the actual deadline to begin or complete the necessary work. For example, if the annual filings for a corporation are due on June 1, you might want to be alerted 90 days prior as a reminder to begin the work. So, a good tickler and compliance tracker will track not only the actual deadline, but a date in advance relative to that deadline that gives you enough lead time to do the actual work that is necessary.

Receiving a reminder of a date in advance of the actual deadline is often referred to as a "bring forward date." Think about it, it's the date you want to "bring forward" a reminder of a particular deadline.

A truly sophisticated tickler system will give you the flexibility to build in enough lead time for compliance dates that may differ based on the type of date you are tracking.

Take for example a corporate law clerk doing compliance work in a corporation's minute book. The clerk might be tracking any of the following different types of dates in his or her legal tickler:

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