Learn how to incorporate a limited company in British Columbia directly from Athennian.
This article shows how to automatically form named and numbered Limited Companies in British Columbia via Athennian's integration into the BC Online (COLINS) database.
Overview
To file a formation, an entity profile must first be created with at least the basic information required by the government of British Columbia. Once the required information has been entered, navigate to Tasks in the entity profile and create a Formation Task and then file. The processing time takes between 2-5 minutes depending on the website loading times of COLINS. All documents are returned to the entity profile's Document section.
A. Finish Your Personal Profile (Completing Party info)
The first step is to make sure that your personal user profile has the basic information that COLINS requires for "Completing Parties". This includes the following information.
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Name
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Email
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Phone number
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Address
Often this information is entered when the user's account is created, but it is good to confirm first. To enter this information, navigate to the top right to access the Settings area.
Make sure that all the fields are correctly filled out under the Account > Profile Section and click on the Save Changes Button
B. Create Entity Profile
The next step is to create a new entity profile and begin entering the required information. Although more information can be added to the entity profile, the BC Registry requires at least the following for an Incorporation:
I. General Information (in Entity Details and Compliance tabs under General)
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Registered Office Address: Providing a Records Office address is Optional, but a Registered Office address is required. However, if only a Registered Office address is provided, it will be used for the Records Office as well.
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Client/matter number
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Fiscal year end: Enter the next upcoming fiscal year end and Athennian will convert into a day month format.
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Company Registry ID: This will become the company password.
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Incorporation date (only if future dated)
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Name reservation number (only if a named company)
II. Share classes - The entity to be incorporated must have at least one share class) (in Share Classes tab under Constitution)
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Share class name - Create a Share class name under the Governance > Share classes tab of the entity
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Authorized amount of shares
III. First Director - The entity to be incorporated must have at least one First Director with their status set to "Incoming" in the Principals section.
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Full name
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Address
C. Create a Formation Task
In an Entity Profile, create a New Task from the Tasks tab on the left.
In the new Task window, give the Task a name in the top entry field, set the type to Formation and click Save to create the Task.
On the left menu, open the Formation tab to begin entering the information needed to file.
If you want to incorporate the company immediately, leave the "Effective Date" field empty. If you want to incorporate the company at a future date, then enter that date in the "Effective Date" field.
If you want to form a numbered company, then select "Numbered company" checkbox. COLINS will assign a numbered name (e.x., "123456789 B.C. Ltd."). If you have a NUANS name reservation, then enter that information.
The next step is to fill out the Incorporator information. You can include more than one Incorporator by clicking the + Incorporator button. If you want to copy address details from a person, you can select a Person profile and then select their address to copy.
Once you are ready, click File Formation. That will bring up the below window where you can confirm your information. Scroll to the bottom and enter the email address where you want the filing receipts from COLINS to go to. Click Confirm when you are ready to file. This will begin the filing process.
D. Time to Complete the Filing (3 - 5 minutes)
Once you have submitted your filing, it typically takes about 2 minutes to register the company with COLINS and then another 2-4 minutes to receive the PDF documents from COLINS and upload them into your entity profile in Athennian. You can continue to work on other things while filing is in progress. You will receive a notification in the application when the filing is complete. You can then go back to the entity where you filed, navigate to the Documents tab and your incorporation package (articles, certificate, etc.) will be there. You will also receive a second document which is a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation as separate document for ease of filing.
E. Invoicing & Disbursements
Athennian automatically tracks filings and fees and adds them to your organization's invoices for the month. You do not need to do anything further for accounting.