Online providers such as Osome and Sleek have made it quick to incorporate a Singapore company and inexpensive to keep it compliant. For many companies that is all they need. Others reach a point where they want a named team that knows the company: a funding round is coming, an option pool needs setting up, or a parent group wants someone to call. If that sounds familiar, see five signs your company has outgrown its company secretary app.
If you decide to move, five things have to move with you, and each moves differently. Here is what to plan for.
1. The company secretary appointment
Your directors appoint the company secretary, so you don’t need your current provider’s agreement to change. The board passes a written resolution appointing the new secretary, and the change is filed with ACRA within 14 days. Appoint the new secretary before the old one steps down, so the company is never without one. Our guide to switching your company secretary in Singapore covers the paperwork.
2. Your registered office
If your registered office is your provider’s address, it has to change too, and that change is also filed with ACRA within 14 days. Official mail is sent to the registered office, so ask your old provider to forward anything that arrives during the changeover, and give your bank the updated Business Profile.
3. Your company records
The registers and minute book are the company’s own records. Ask for all of them at once:
- statutory registers, including registrable controllers and nominee directors;
- board and shareholder resolutions and AGM records;
- share certificates, and the papers for every share issue and transfer;
- your constitution, and any shareholder agreement or ESOP documents they hold; and
- a note of any filings in progress or due soon.
Many online providers keep these on a dashboard. Download everything while your login still works, before you cancel the plan. If records are missing or never arrive, most can be rebuilt: see what to do when your old company secretary won’t hand over your records.
4. Your books
If the same provider keeps your accounts, decide whether the books move now or at year-end. Either way, you need the general ledger and trial balance up to the cut-off date, bank reconciliations, payroll and CPF records, the GST returns filed so far with their workings, and last year’s financial statements and tax filings.
If the books sit in Xero or another ledger under the provider’s subscription, ask for the subscription to be transferred to you. If they sit in the provider’s own software, ask for full exports. More in changing accountants mid-year.
5. Your local director and your logins
If your provider supplies your locally resident nominee director, line up the replacement first. Every Singapore company must have at least one director who is ordinarily resident in Singapore, so the outgoing nominee can’t step down until another is in place.
Check who holds your Corppass administrator role as well. If it is someone at your provider, move it to one of your own directors before you leave.
And your prepaid plan
Most plans are paid a year in advance. Read your contract for the notice period and for what happens to unused months, and don’t assume they are refunded. If you move to Futurebooks, we credit the unused portion of what you’ve prepaid for your named company secretary against your first year with us.
A sensible order
- Download your records and exports.
- Appoint the new company secretary.
- Change the registered office and, if you need to, the nominee director.
- Move the books at a clean cut-off.
- Cancel the old plan last.
Thinking of switching?
Book a free 15-minute switch call. We’ll go through your current setup and tell you what moves, and in what order. We can take over your accounting, registered office and nominee director at the same time.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Osome and Sleek are named only as examples of online providers; nothing here describes either firm’s terms or service. Based on the Companies Act 1967 and ACRA guidance as at November 2026.