After Registering a Company in Singapore: Checklist

Key Takeaways

• Two legal deadlines start the day ACRA approves incorporation: set up your register of registrable controllers within 30 days, and appoint a company secretary within six months.
• Week 1 is about access and governance: Corppass, a corporate bank account, the first directors’ meeting and share certificates.
• Choose your financial year end deliberately in the first month, because it drives your ECI, AGM, annual return and tax deadlines for years.
• Set up accounting software and payroll before transactions and hires pile up, and keep company and personal money strictly separate.
• Qualifying new companies receive the start-up tax exemption for their first three Years of Assessment, but only if their records support the claim.

Incorporating a company in Singapore takes a day or two. Running it properly starts the moment the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) sends your business profile. From that day, your company is a separate legal person with obligations to ACRA, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and, once you hire, the CPF Board and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The first 90 days decide whether those obligations run on a calm schedule or a last-minute scramble. This guide sets out the legal deadlines, then a week-by-week plan for access, registers, key decisions, accounting, payroll and tax.

What Must You Do After Registering a Company in Singapore?

ACRA issues your Unique Entity Number (UEN) and business profile when it approves incorporation. If you want a refresher on the UEN itself, see UEN Singapore: Essential Details You Need To Know. These are the obligations that start immediately or soon after.

Obligation	Deadline	Regulator
Set up register of registrable controllers	Within 30 days of incorporation	ACRA
Lodge controller information with ACRA’s central register	Within 2 business days of updating the company register	ACRA
Appoint a company secretary	Within 6 months of incorporation	ACRA
Register for GST, if compulsory	Within 30 days of becoming liable	IRAS
File Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI)	Within 3 months of financial year end	IRAS
Hold first AGM	Within 6 months of financial year end	ACRA

Week 1: Access, Banking and Governance

The first week sets up the access you need for everything else.

1. Set up Corppass. Appoint a Corppass administrator and assign e-services for ACRA, IRAS and CPF. Every government filing runs through it; our Corppass Singapore guide walks through registration.

2. Open a corporate bank account. Banks need your business profile, constitution and director identification. Keep company and personal money strictly separate from day one. We cover bank requirements in Comprehensive Guide To Open A Corporate Bank Account in Singapore.

3. Hold the first directors’ meeting. Record resolutions for the bank account, share certificates, registered office and financial year end. Our explainer What is a Board Resolution? shows how to document them.

4. Issue share certificates. Give each shareholder a certificate showing their shareholding.

5. Confirm your registered office. It must be a physical Singapore address, not a PO box, and the company must keep statutory records available for inspection there. If you work from home or remotely, see Registered Address Service Singapore.

Weeks 2 to 4: Registers and Key Decisions

The next three weeks lock in your statutory registers and the decisions that drive your filing calendar.

1. Set up the register of registrable controllers. Complete it within 30 days and lodge the information with ACRA. Lodge any nominee director or nominee shareholder arrangements too.

2. Choose your financial year end. Your first financial statements can cover up to 18 months. Pick a year end that avoids your busiest season and works with the start-up tax exemption timing.

3. Check business licences. Food, education, employment agency and other regulated activities need licences through GoBusiness before you trade.

4. Check your GST position. Registration becomes compulsory when taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million over the past 12 months, or you expect it to in the next 12 months. Voluntary registration is possible, but it brings InvoiceNow obligations for new voluntary registrants; read Voluntary GST Registration Singapore: 2026 Guide before deciding.

Weeks 5 to 12: Accounting, Payroll and Tax Set-Up

By month three, your systems should run without daily founder effort.

1. Choose accounting software. Set up the chart of accounts and GST codes properly, and keep the subscription in the company’s name. Our Cloud Accounting Software Singapore guide compares options.

2. Record every transaction from day one. Include pre-incorporation expenses, with receipts. IRAS expects five years of records.

3. Set up payroll before your first hire. Register for CPF contributions, issue key employment terms within 14 days of each start date, and pay the Skills Development Levy and CPF by the 14th of the following month.

4. Plan for the start-up tax exemption. Qualifying new companies receive a 75% exemption on the first S$100,000 of chargeable income and 50% on the next S$100,000 for their first three Years of Assessment. Investment holding and property development companies do not qualify.

5. Appoint your company secretary. Do it before the six-month deadline, ideally now, so annual compliance starts on the right footing. Our guide Corporate Secretary Singapore: Roles & Appointments 2026 explains the role.

6. Explore grants. The Productivity Solutions Grant supports pre-approved digital solutions, including accounting software; see SME Funding Singapore: Business Grants Every SME Should Know.

Your First-Year Compliance Calendar

Once the first 90 days are done, a predictable annual cycle begins, all anchored to your financial year end.

Event	Timing
Estimated Chargeable Income	Within 3 months of FYE
AGM (or written resolutions)	Within 6 months of FYE
Annual return to ACRA	Within 7 months of FYE
Form C-S, C-S (Lite) or Form C	By 30 November of the following year
AIS employee income (if you have employees)	By 1 March each year

Our Complete AGM Guide for Singapore Companies in 2026 explains the meeting and filing steps in detail.

What Businesses Get Wrong in Their First 90 Days

Mixing personal and company money. Paying personal bills from the company account, or company bills personally, creates messy records and tax questions.

Choosing a financial year end by default. Accepting the incorporation anniversary without thinking can put your year-end in your busiest month.

Leaving bookkeeping until the first tax deadline. Reconstructing a year of transactions costs far more than recording them monthly.

Missing the register of registrable controllers. Many founders do not know it exists until ACRA asks.

Delaying the company secretary appointment. The six-month deadline arrives quickly, and an empty role leaves nobody tracking ACRA obligations.

In practice, what we see with most new start-ups and solopreneurs is that each of these errors is cheap to avoid and expensive to unwind. The wider foundations are covered in How To Start Your SME in Singapore (2026 Guide).

How Grof helps you set up your new company without the hassle

The first 90 days are a sequencing question before they are a compliance question. Founders rarely miss obligations because they are difficult; they miss them because nobody told them the order. Grof turns incorporation into a guided launch, so your registers, systems and deadlines are in place before your first busy quarter.

In practice, that looks like:

• Incorporating and setting up governance. We handle incorporation, first board resolutions, share certificates and statutory registers.
• Acting as your company secretary from day one. No six-month gap, no missed register of registrable controllers.
• Advising on your financial year end. We help you choose a year end that suits your business and tax position.
• Setting up accounting and payroll. Your software, chart of accounts, CPF and payslips are ready before you need them.
• Building your compliance calendar. ECI, AGM, annual return and Form C-S dates are tracked from your first year.

If you have just incorporated or are about to, start with Grof’s incorporation service and get your first 90 days right.

Frequently Asked Questions