Corporate Services

The services or activities that combine various business partners to deal with internal and external customers are also known as Corporate Service Providers (CSPs). You need to have professional skills, knowledge, best practices, and technology to provide corporate services.

For example, corporate services also include Business Advisory Services and many more. A business advisory service aims to guide the current and future business plans of a client. This service will help a client on how to expand this business. That’s why it also includes an examination of legal, tax, finance, and other risk factors, which play an important role to begin a business. No matter whatever the business is, every business uses the business advisory service.

Duties and Responsibilities of a Corporate Secretary

You know that the role of the company’s secretary is to handle administrative tasks. A company’s secretary has to schedule the meetings and offer general secretary support. Whereas, the duties of the corporate secretary are way complex than the company’s secretary.

According to state corporation law, every firm or corporation must hire a corporate secretary. The Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals has defined the duties of a corporate secretary. A corporate secretary has to ensure that the board of directors has the appropriate advice and resources to give their confidential duties to the shareholder. Moreover, the corporate secretary is also responsible for supervising the board’s action during a board meeting.

With time, the duties of the corporate secretary have transformed and he/she has to pay more attention to corporate governance. The corporate secretary has a prime role in governance where he/she has to guide and counsel onboard duties and logistics. There are the following duties of corporate secretary

1. Scheduling
2. Agendas
3. Presentations
4. Executive liaisons
5. Documenting the meeting

1. Scheduling

The corporate secretary is aware of all the meeting notices, so he/she has to arrange the board’s meeting. The corporate secretary can also organize the logistics of transportation, lodging, venue sites, and food. He/she is responsible for arranging adequate board’s meetings according to the schedules of the board’s members.

2. Agendas

The corporate secretary is responsible for creating a basic agenda for the whole year. The main purpose of this agenda is to follow state, federal, listing, and company’s articles of incorporation and bylaws. The recent agenda can be changed and updated according to the business needs. To organize a comprehensive agenda, the corporate secretary has to schedule a meeting with the CEO, HR, accounting, legal, board chairs, and others.

3. Materials and Presentations

The corporate secretary has to examine delivery, safety, and retention during the preparation of agenda, reports, or other materials. An efficient will be conducted only when the board members have the prepared material before the meeting. Therefore, it is easy to make corrections to the agenda when board members are prepared before the meeting. Furthermore, the corporate secretary will give material to the board members beforehand.

The corporate secretary can either distribute materials electronically through corporate secretary software or send hard copies. He/she will transfer the documents to the board members according to the firm or company’s policy. The corporate secretary will advise other board members to keep documents confidential and safe.

4. Executive Liaisons

Usually, the board gives an executive position to each committee. These positions are following

• CEO/ Board
• CFO/ Audit Committee
• Chief Human Resource Officer/ Compensation Committee
• Secretary/ Nominating and Governance Committee

The Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals assigns other responsibilities to the secretary. These responsibilities include organizing education programs, preparing director orientation materials, producing background materials for annual board and committee evaluations, serving as the liaisons for director search firms, and organizing committee charter compliance audits.

5. Documenting the Meeting

The main duty of the corporate secretary is to record the minutes of a meeting. The recording of minutes will help in the accountability of board members without imposing legal liability on the company or firm. The corporate secretary should be professional enough in the recording of minutes. Therefore, he/she can evaluate which items need to be recorded and how to detail it should be. The corporate secretary must be careful about any specific items or situations during the recording of minutes.

Benefits of Hiring corporate Secretary

There are the following benefits of hiring a corporate secretary.

• efficient and consistent handling of administrative tasks.
• As the corporate secretary is professional and well trained, so they will provide reliable services.
• When you have hired the corporate secretary, he/she will effectively deal with all the tasks. Therefore, you are sure that all the tasks will be completed under the supervision of the right people.
• Corporate Service Providers (CSPs) provide various services. These services include company incorporation, secretarial services, payroll, and accounting services.