The First 10 Things to Do After Registering Your Startup
The certificate of incorporation is not the finish line. Two filings have hard deadlines of 30 and 180 days, and missing them costs ₹50,000 plus ₹1,000 a day per director.
The certificate arrives, everyone screenshots it for LinkedIn, and then nothing happens for four months. That gap is where the penalties live. Here is the order to work through, with the deadlines that actually bite.
1. Open the current account and pay in the share capital
Do this in week one, because two other deadlines depend on it. Each shareholder transfers the money for their own shares from their own account. Not one founder paying for everyone. See our guide to opening a current account for the document list.
2. Appoint the first auditor within 30 days
The board must appoint a statutory auditor within 30 days of incorporation and file ADT-1. Every private limited company needs an audit from year one, whatever the turnover, and there is no exemption for a company with no revenue.
3. File INC-20A within 180 days
This is the declaration of commencement of business, and it needs bank proof that the subscription money is in. Miss it and the company is liable for ₹50,000 with ₹1,000 a day on each director. Until it is filed the company cannot legally begin operations or borrow.
4. Issue share certificates within 60 days
Physical certificates to each shareholder, with stamp duty paid at your state's rate. Nobody thinks about this until an investor's lawyer asks for the set two years later, and reconstructing it then is expensive.
5. Sign a founders' agreement, with vesting
The single most valuable document in the first year, and the one most often skipped because everyone is friends. Cover equity split, vesting over four years with a one year cliff, roles, decision rights and what happens if someone leaves.
Along with it, assign intellectual property to the company. Code and designs written before incorporation belong to the person who wrote them unless assigned in writing, and that includes you.
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6. Apply for DPIIT recognition
Free, about two weeks, and the gate to the three year profit deduction, the 80% patent fee rebate and relaxed government tender rules. Full detail in our guide to DPIIT startup recognition.
7. Decide on GST deliberately
Do not register reflexively. Thresholds are ₹40 lakh for goods and ₹20 lakh for services, but interstate sale of goods, selling on marketplaces and exporting make it compulsory from the first invoice. Our guide to GST for startups walks through which case you are in.
8. Set up accounting from the first invoice
Pick one tool and enter everything from day one. The alternative is a shoebox of bills handed to an accountant in March, and a year of input credit you never claimed. Zoho Books is free below ₹25 lakh turnover, which covers most first years.
9. Trademark the name
Company registration is not trademark protection. Someone else can register your brand name as a trademark and force you to rename. About ₹4,500 in government fees per class for a recognised startup or small entity, plus a professional fee. Search first at IP India.
10. Put the recurring calendar in place
The filings that come around every year, and the dates people forget:
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Board meetings, with minutes | At least four a year for most companies |
| DIR-3 KYC for every director | By 30 September each year |
| AOC-4 and MGT-7 | After the annual general meeting |
| Income tax return | Annually, even with no revenue |
| TDS deposit | By the 7th of the following month |
| GST returns, if registered | Monthly or quarterly |
Put every one of these in a shared calendar with a reminder a week ahead. Most penalties in a company's first three years are not for doing something wrong, they are for doing something late.
What can wait
An ESOP pool before you have anyone to give options to. A logo refresh. A CRM. A ₹2 lakh website. Elaborate insurance. None of these will matter if the first ten things are not done.
Deadlines and fees change with amendments. This reflects the position in August 2026, so confirm with your CA or company secretary before you rely on any date here.
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