FEBRUARY 2010

Good record keeping

All corporations must keep proper accounts and records. It helps with the day-to-day running of the business and makes it so much easier whenever you need to lodge your reports and financial statements with the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.

Records tell us what, where and when something was done and why a decision was made. They also tell us who was involved in making the decision. They can be described as ‘evidence’ for business activities.

Corporation records

A corporation usually keeps different types of records. A few important ones are:

a register of current and former members and applications for membership
a copy of all documents lodged with the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations
the rule book of the corporation
the minute book of all general meetings (including annual general meetings) and directors’ meetings
the assets register, or listing of all the assets owned by the corporation
financial records.

These records belong to the corporation and should be kept up to date. It is also important to put documents that belong together in a folder or file to help you find them again. Your corporation may have its own ways in which different records are kept.

Financial records

Keeping good financial records will mean that:

your corporation, or your accountant, will be able to prepare accurate financial statements
your corporation can work out the strong and weak areas of your business
directors can meet their legal responsibility because they know what the corporation’s financial situation is.

Good financial records will tell you:

how much income you’re getting and how much income you can expect in the future
how much you owe
how much you’ve already spent
if you have a profit or a loss
if you can afford to pay creditors.

Remember that there are experts, like accountants, that can help you maintain and manage your financial records.

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Tips for meeting records

Make sure someone makes a record of your corporation meetings. These records are usually the minutes of the meeting. It’s important that minutes clearly explain what decisions were made at a meeting, when it was, who was there and how the decision was made. The minutes should be signed by the chairperson to confirm they are correct.

Sometimes decisions about corporation business are made outside of meetings. It’s very important that the reasons for the decision, who made it and when are all recorded.

For how long and where are financial records kept?

The Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2006 (CATSI Act) says that financial records must be kept for seven years after the transactions are finished.

Large corporations must keep their financial records at their registered office. Small and medium corporations must keep their financial records at their document access address.

Other records for special circumstances

Corporations that carry on particular types of activities may need extra records. This will be the case if your corporation is involved in any of the following:

running a CDEP program
running a business enterprise
owning houses that are rented out
providing other programs or service delivery functions.

Important: Talk to your accountant or auditor about the records your corporation needs to keep and if there are any problems or records you don’t understand.

Overdue reports, what to do?

In October last year the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations deregistered 448 corporations for not lodging their annual reports for five years or longer. That means that those corporations no longer exist.

Your 2008–09 reports had to be lodged by the end of last year. If you haven’t yet sent in your corporation’s reports, you could be facing prosecution or deregistration.

To avoid being on the next list of deregistered corporations, make sure that you get those reports in now.

Remember that you can lodge your reports online at https://online.oric.gov.au. If you have any questions, please call us on our freecall number 1800 622 431 (not free from mobiles).

Failing to lodge reports may lead to prosecution or deregistration of your corporation.