Why Your Clients Need Annual Minutes – And How You Can Help

BONUS CHECKLIST: 34 items for corporate or organization minutes.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: Should my corporate clients have annual minutes?

ANSWER: Yes. And not only corporations, but also partnerships, LLCs, not-for-profits and other entities.

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In many cases, these are required by state law, and certainly are a best practice for those managing a business or organization. It provides a place to record essential decisions that the manager might be called upon at a later date to explain and to show they weren’t unilateral actions.

This is an excellent way to provide additional services to a client, since it is usually the accountant who would collect the financial data to review with the manager and prepare it to send to the organization’s attorney to be put in proper form to be voted upon at the shareholders, owners or board annual meeting.

Here is a brief checklist of what can be included, each year, in the minutes.