Company Registration FAQs

If your application has no errors and doesn’t get flagged for manual approval, your company will usually be registered within 5 minutes of submission. Your certificate of registration, ACN, documentation and invoice is then immediately emailed to you.

Orders flagged for manual approval at ASIC typically take an extra 10 – 50 minutes to be registered if submitted during ASIC business hours. If the order is submitted outside of ASIC business hours, it will be processed the next business day. Common reasons for a manual approval include, non dictionary words in the company name and your chosen name being identical to an existing registered state business name.

Please note this section only applies to companies that have been registered. If your application was rejected you may edit your order through eCompanies and resubmit it.

Once registered all dealings are done directly with ASIC. ASIC provides a number of forms for the ongoing compliance of registered companies.
Forms can be lodged over the counter at your nearest ASIC office, by posting the completed form to ASIC, or by lodging online.

To lodge online you will need your corporate key. This is sent to your registered office by ASIC upon registration. When you have this key you can register for online access with ASIC to lodge forms.

Types of mistake include:

• Incorrect Company Name
  Even if its just a typing mistake you will need to lodge a form 205a which ASIC currently charges to lodge.
• Incorrect personal details
  For example, you entered someone’s birthday incorrectly. In this case you can most likely lodge a form 492.
• Missing director/shareholder etc
  For example, you incorrectly added or missed a director or incorrectly allocated shares.

Once you have confirmation from ASIC that a form 492 has been lodged you can let us know and we can reissue your documentation if needed.

Once registered all dealings are done directly with ASIC. ASIC provides a number of forms for the ongoing compliance of registered companies which are listed here. Forms can be lodged over the counter at your nearest ASIC office, by posting the completed form to ASIC, or by lodging online.

To lodge online you will need your corporate key. This is sent to your registered office by ASIC upon registration. When you have this key you can register for online access with ASIC to lodge forms.

Anyone can, however you must have at least one director that resides in Australia and a physical Australian address for the registered office of the company. If none of the directors are eligible to work in Australia you will be able to register a company but you may not be able to trade. If in doubt we recommend that you discuss your needs with an accountant or solicitor for professional advice.

eCompanies cannot provide a registered office service or resident director service to international applicants. To find some providers do a search for ‘resident director service Australia’.

Changing from a sole trader to a company is a fairly straightforward process. You are basically shutting down one business and starting up another.

For a complete guide, we have a step by step blog article on changing from a sole trader to a company here.

If you have placed an order with us or made a support query and haven’t received any emails from us, then it is possible that your email program has marked the email as spam, and sent it to your junk folder.  Please check your junk/spam folder and mark any emails from us as not junk, this will move them to your inbox and ensure that future emails from us are received.

If you cannot find emails from us in your junk/spam folder then it is possible that the email address was mistyped. Please check the supplied email to confirm it has been entered correctly. If you need to correct an error in the email address, please contact us. If you are aware of a mistake please contact us with an email that works and the detail of the order, including the company name and order ID.

We are an ASIC registered agent, agent no.: 26944. ASIC registered agents can lodge documents including company registrations on behalf of third parties.

We are also an ASIC accredited software provider software rego. no.:2053. This means we have our own direct electronic link to ASIC, allowing us to lodge your registration at any time of day, any day of the week.

For some more information on the registration process read our how it works page.

eCompanies allows you to register proprietary companies limited by shares. This is by far the most common form of company and is almost always used for the conduct of small and medium sized businesses which choose to operate as a company.

You may also specify that your new company will have the sole purpose of being a SMSF corporate trustee.

Other special purpose companies, for exmample, non profit and home unit, are not supported as we cannot provide the special constitution required to govern them. If you wish to register a Pty Ltd non profit company and can provide your own constitution, you may use our service to register the company and then notify ASIC of the special purpose by lodging a form 484.

eCompanies does not support the registration of public or limited by guarantee companies.

Yes, within limits. The name must not be taken by someone else or be too similar to a registered company name or state trading name. There are also restrictions on certain words and language and other pitfalls if your chosen name is too similar to a trademark.

Yes, a proprietary company limited by shares can have one director and one share member who may be the same person.

Information you will need to gather includes:

• Full name, full residential address and date and place of birth for each director or secretary of the company.
• Full name, address and number of shares for each member of the company.
• The address of the registered office and principal place of business.

eCompanies allows you to save your application at any point, so the easiest way to find out would be to click register a company and start the process. If you find out you don’t have all the required information save the application and come back later.

Firstly, have a read of this article on company shares for an overview of what shares represent.

Upon notice of registration from ASIC we immediately email you:

• Official certificate of registration and ACN issued by ASIC.
• Comprehensive, fully compliant, tailored Corporate Register, including Constitution with Div 7A loan clauses.
• Your invoice.

All documentation is also available for download, 24/7, from our client area. We also provide optional printing and delivery of documents for an additional $99.

ASIC does not provide a certificate printed on their letterhead. It has not done so for electronically registered companies since 2001. The PDF that is supplied as part of the documentation is the ‘Original’ certificate of registration. If you are queried about the authenticity of a print out of the certificate you can verify it by calling ASIC on 1300 300 630.

All documentation is initially supplied in PDF format. Upon successful registration all documentation will be emailed to the provided applicant address. All documentation will also be available for download from the eCompanies website under the client area. In addition to PDF you can also download your company register and constitution in Microsoft Word DOCX format.

PDF documents require Adobe Reader to view.

No identification is required to register an Australian company with ASIC. However eCompanies may require you to provide evidence of your identity before processing your order if your order is deemed potentially fraudulent. This evidence may include a scan/photo of valid ID for a director and the credit card used to place the order.

At the completion of the questionnaire you will be required to download declaration forms for each company officer and share holder. These forms will need to be printed and signed by the relevant people. They do not however, need to be posted, they are to be kept safe with the other company documentation.

Yes, we provide a constitution sourced from specialists in corporate law and Australia’s leading and award-winning legal service provider. Our constitution contains a dozen share classes and Div7a loan clauses as standard. If you would prefer to use the replaceable rules we provide a collated PDF for download.Simply download it and use it in place of the provided constitution in your company documentation.

Yes! You can specify that the new company has the sole purpose of being a superannuation trustee. This entitles your company to much lower ASIC annual fees. We also provide the tailored constitution, requisite minutes and superannuation declaration.

ABN Registration is an optional extra, it is not included in our standard fee . eCompanies allows you to complete and submit your ABN, TFN, PAYG and GST registration applications with the ATO for just $65, inclusive of GST. The option of registering your ABN etc through eCompanies is selected during the company registration process. You can also opt to register an ABN later if you want. If you use eCompanies you get:

• Convenience – No need to go and fill out another long form with the ATO
• Accuracy – Minimise mistakes by entering and checking your information once.
• Managed Application – If the ATO cannot verify the information you provide during registration, your application may be held for up to 28 days before resolution. Using eCompanies means we liaise with the ATO to minimise any potential delays.

If you do not want to use eCompanies to register your ABN you can apply directly with the ATO at the ABR website. You can also register for GST and obtain a TFN for your new company at the same time. The ABR service is online and free but you lose the advantages above.

You will need to register a company here to get your ACN (Australian Company Number) first before you can apply.

Your corporate key is issued by ASIC and sent to your registered office in the post. The key is issued within two business days of the company being registered and may take a few more days to arrive in the post.

If you still haven’t received it after 5 business days you may need to request a new one be sent, this can be done online by visiting the ASIC corporate key request form.

For more information please visit ASIC’s corporate key page.

If you have no further use for your company and it is not in financial difficulty or insolvent you can voluntarily deregister your company by lodging a form 6010 with ASIC.

For more information please visit ASIC’s deregistering a company page.

Yes you can. eCompanies can provide you with your discretionary (family) trust deed. If you have already decided that you want to have a corporate trustee for your trust then a brief over view of your steps are:

1. Register a company as your corporate trustee
2. Form your discretionary trust deed
3. Obtain an ABN for your trust at www.abr.gov.au
4. Perform any necessary stamping of your deed.

For more information please see our what is a discretionary trust and setup a trust guide and our explanation of roles in a discretionary trust pages.

No, eCompanies does not offer a service to use our address for your registered office.

A common seal is a rubber stamp used to execute company documents. Since 1st July, 1998 the use of a common seal is optional, with a document considered correctly executed by a company if it is signed by two directors or a director and secretary or by a single director if they are the sole director and secretary.

eCompanies can provide a common seal when printed documents are also ordered.

Very. We pride ourself on being the most cost-effective company formation service you’ll find that has a Fully Compliant company register that is automatically tailored from your answers with a constitution from a leading law firm. We’re one of the few services that talk directly to ASIC and lodge your company 24/7.

We accept VISA, Mastercard, and Amex credit cards at time of submission via our secure payment system. Amex cards incur a 1.5% surcharge.

We do not accept payment via bank transfer, bpay, or offer invoice terms.

Our payment system is unique to the company registration world. When you submit your application we do a preauthorisation for $546 on your card. A preauthorisation checks that the amount is available on your card and reserves the amount without taking the money. When your company registration is accepted we then complete the transaction and take the money from your card.

If the company is rejected and you do not wish to proceed with the registration, the preauthorisation will expire in 3 – 6 days, depending on your financial institution making the money available to you again. You can be confident you get what you pay for. Other companies take your money upfront before your company is registered and then make you jump through hoops to obtain a refund if you no longer want the company.

If the company is registered it will only be possible to refund the service fee.

Refunds are given at our discretion and must be applied for via email stating the full reasons for the refund.