Frequently Asked Questions

An Annual Report is a filing that many states require businesses to submit each year to the Secretary of State or Corporation Commission, along with the required state fee. This filing keeps your company in good standing and confirms that your business information is up to date.

If an Annual Report is not filed on time, the state may administratively dissolve your company—meaning you could lose your active status.

Requirements vary by state. Some states require only corporations to file, while others require LLCs and/or partnerships to submit Annual Reports as well. Be sure to verify the specific requirements for the state where your entity was formed. Annual Reports are different than Annual Minutes (see below).

If you’re operating a business in any capacity, you should be maintaining proper company minutes—especially if you fall into any of the following categories:

You are actively running a business

You are generating income through that business

You are taking business-related tax deductions

You are selling products or services to the public

You own rental properties

You are buying or selling real estate

In short, if money is moving and decisions are being made, those actions should be documented. Proper minutes help demonstrate that your company is operating as a legitimate, separate legal entity—not just a side project with a bank account.

It becomes necessary the moment you want to protect your personal assets from your business liabilities.

When you properly document your company’s actions, you reinforce the separation between you and your business—often referred to as maintaining the corporate veil. Without clear documentation, that protection can be challenged.

In the event of a lawsuit or audit, business records matter. If documentation is missing, tax deductions could be disallowed, and your company could be viewed as your “alter ego” rather than a separate legal entity. When that happens, your personal assets may be exposed right alongside your business assets.

Proper records aren’t just busywork—they’re protection.

Annual Meeting Minutes are a written record of the meeting you hold each year to document what’s taken place in your company—major decisions, updates, elections, and other important business matters.

These minutes are not filed with the state or recorded publicly. They simply need to be properly signed and kept with your company’s internal records to show that your business is operating formally and responsibly.

We offer monthly resolutions for added protection and better recordkeeping. Over the years, we’ve found that when clients wait until their Annual Meeting Minutes are due, important business actions are often forgotten. Trying to remember what happened 8–10 months ago (and the details that go with it) can be frustrating and time-consuming.

By documenting business activity monthly, everything is fresh, organized, and easy to reference. You’ll have accurate records at your fingertips—no digging through emails, bank statements, or old notes to piece together what happened and when.

For those who prefer a middle ground, you can absolutely elect to make quarterly submissions. The goal is simple: keep your company protected and properly documented without the stress.

Life happens. Businesses get busy. We get it.

With our Company Minutes Service, you can jump right back in at any time and submit multiple months of activity all at once. No panic, no guilt, no lecture.

Simply provide the details for the months you missed, and we’ll prepare the proper documentation and bring your records up to date. We handle the paperwork so you can get back to running your business.

Absolutely. We offer a Catch-Up Minutes Service designed to help you properly document past years of missing minutes. We’ll guide you through what’s needed, prepare the documentation, and help bring your company records back into good order.

For full details on how it works, visit our Services page.

Send us a quick email and we'll get you right back on the right track!

While it may not always be legally required, we strongly recommend having a Minute Book. A Minute Book keeps your company minutes and important business documents organized in one secure place. It makes it easy to track what has been documented, quickly locate key records, and demonstrate that your business is operating properly and consistently.

When everything is together and up to date, you’re not scrambling during an audit, lawsuit, or financial review—you’re prepared.

When you sign up for our Minutes Service, we will send you the links to fill out the basic business information needed in order to get you set up. This ensures we have correct information to start your minutes, and when to schedule your Annual Meetings.

Your Annual Meeting timeframe is dictated by your Bylaws or Operating Agreement. This can easily be modified or amended with an Election of Annual Meeting resolution. It can also be extended if you need it to coincide with a business trip. We help you through all of this!

Many of our clients elect to hold the Annual Meeting within 5 months after the fiscal year end, this gives a flexible timeframe of when the Annual Meeting can be held.

When you are a client of ours, rest easy! We keep a backup file of all minutes we prepare for your company that can easily be replaced.

No problem. Simply send us an email with the details of what was missed, and we’ll incorporate it into your next set of minutes.

For accuracy and proper documentation, all updates must be submitted in writing.

While we maintain a fairly inclusive list of business activity that may happen in your business, you might not see EVERYTHING that you want to document for your business. Simply send us an email with the details of what you want documented, and we’ll incorporate it into your next set of minutes.

For accuracy and proper documentation, all minutes requests must be submitted in writing.

For accuracy and proper detail, all submissions must be provided in writing—either by completing our online questionnaire or by sending additional necessary information through a supplemental email.

Each month we send out a reminder email to submit your minutes, just click the link in your email to be directed to the online questionnaire. You may also login at our website to submit minutes.

Any activity that reflects legal, business, or monetary decisions for the business should be documented. Examples are opening/closing a bank account, opening a company credit card, purchasing property, purchasing business assets, leasing a property for the business to operate, hiring an employee, obtaining a loan, hiring someone for your professional team (CPA, Attorney, Coach, Consultant, etc), setting up health benefits, taking educational courses, changing ownership of your company, etc.

Any business trips are also important to document. For a list of common business transactions that should be documented, click here for our pdf list.

If you don’t maintain company minutes, your business may lose important documentation that helps show it is operating as a separate legal entity. This can weaken the protection between your personal and business assets and may create problems if your company is audited, involved in a dispute, or reviewed for compliance. We see it happen a lot, and many times the business owner completely loses their business status (or are completely dissolved as an entity). It's absolutely preventable by taking a few simple measures, like keeping minutes and making sure your business foundation is strong.

While the exact legal risk depends on your state and business structure, keeping proper minutes is a simple way to help protect your company’s status and maintain good recordkeeping.