Between Incorporation and First Invoice: The 90-Day Compliance Runway Founders Skip

There is no shortage of material explaining how to register a company in Australia. What is far harder to find is a clear account of what must happen in the weeks after the certificate of registration arrives. Yet this period — roughly the first ninety days — is where the foundations of a company's compliance record are laid, and where the most avoidable problems take root.

Below is the sequence we recommend to founders, in the order it should be tackled, with the consequences of neglecting each step spelled out plainly.

Week One: Get Your Tax Registrations in Order

Once ASIC issues your ACN, the next step is applying for an ABN through the Australian Business Register. Without one, the company cannot register for GST, cannot issue compliant tax invoices, and may face withholding tax at 47% on payments it receives from customers who are required to withhold.

Alongside the ABN, apply for a tax file number for the company. Note that companies cannot use the ATO's online lodgement channels until a TFN is in place, so delays here cascade into everything that follows.

GST deserves its own decision. Registration is compulsory once turnover reaches $75,000, but a company may register voluntarily from day one. Founders planning to claim input tax credits on early setup costs — software, equipment, professional fees — often benefit from registering immediately. Leaving it too late means those credits may be forfeited.

Weeks Two to Four: Open the Company Bank Account

Banks will generally require the certificate of registration, the ACN, identification for all directors and, in many cases, verification of the company's ownership structure. For companies with overseas shareholders, expect enhanced due diligence under anti-money laundering laws — this can add weeks.

Opening the account matters more than it might appear. Mixing company and personal funds is one of the most common early errors we see, and it complicates everything from GST reporting to the evidentiary position in any later dispute about the company's separate identity.

Weeks Four to Six: Fix Your Share Records — Properly

This is where most newly registered companies quietly fail their first test. Section 23A of the Corporations Act requires a company to maintain a register of its members. Beyond the register itself, good practice — and often the practical expectation of investors, banks and acquirers — calls for:

• Share certificates issued to each member
• A share register recording the names, addresses and holdings of all members
• Written consent to the company's use of the members' names
• Minutes recording the allotment of shares

Founders who defer this work frequently discover, months later, that they cannot demonstrate who owns what. That is an awkward problem in a funding round and a serious one in a dispute.

Weeks Six to Eight: Put the Early Resolutions on the Record

Several decisions should be minuted in the company's first weeks:

• Appointment of the public officer for tax purposes (required within three months of the company first deriving income, though best done immediately)
• Opening of the bank account and authorisation of signatories
• Acceptance of the constitution and issue of shares
• Any employment or contractor arrangements

Resolutions need not be elaborate, but they must exist. Where a decision is challenged later — a payment, a contract, a dismissal — the absence of contemporaneous records weakens the company's position considerably.

Weeks Eight to Twelve: Insurance and Ongoing Obligations

Before trading, review the company's insurance position. Public liability, professional indemnity and workers' compensation (mandatory in most circumstances once employees are engaged) are the usual starting points. Many commercial clients will not engage a supplier without evidence of cover.

Finally, diarise the recurring obligations: the annual ASIC review fee, due on the anniversary of registration; income tax returns; BAS lodgement if registered for GST; and any state-based requirements such as payroll tax thresholds.

Why the Sequence Matters

Each step in this runway feeds the next. A missing TFN delays the bank account; a delayed bank account forces founders to pay company expenses personally; personal payments without proper records corrupt the GST position and the share register alike. Founders who treat the first ninety days as a project — with owners, deadlines and documentation — start their corporate life with a clean, defensible record. Those who treat registration as the finish line spend the following years paying for it.