The First 90 Days After Incorporation: A No-Fluff Checklist

By 30 November 2024, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had registered 1,12,962 new companies in FY2024-25 alone, and December 2025 went on to set a single-month record for incorporations. Add the 1,97,692 startups recognised by DPIIT as of 31 October 2025, and one thing is clear: a lot of founders are holding a fresh Certificate of Incorporation right now and wondering, “Okay. Now what?”

The certificate feels like the finish line. It is actually the starting gun. The first 90 days after incorporation are when your company becomes real: a bank account, clean books, the right registrations, and a compliance rhythm that does not fall apart the moment you get busy building. Skip these steps and you will meet them again later, at the worst possible time, usually in the middle of an investor’s due diligence.

Here is the checklist, in the order that saves you the most pain. No fluff.

Days 1-30: Build the legal spine

1. Collect your documents. You should already have the Certificate of Incorporation, your company’s PAN and TAN (these come with the SPICe+ incorporation form now), the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and the digital signatures of the directors. Put them all in one shared folder. You will reach for them constantly.

2. Appoint your first auditor within 30 days. This one surprises people. The Companies Act requires the board to appoint the company’s first auditor within 30 days of incorporation. Most founders do not know this until a CA tells them in month four. Find a chartered accountant now, not later. They pay for themselves by keeping you out of trouble.

3. Hold your first board meeting within 30 days. Yes, even if the board is just you and your co-founder at a chai shop. Minute it: appointment of the auditor, opening the bank account, issuing shares. Ten minutes of paperwork now saves a week of reconstruction during due diligence.

4. Open the current account. Pick a bank that understands startups (most large private banks and several new-age ones have startup desks with zero-balance or low-balance accounts). You will need the incorporation certificate, PAN, board resolution, and KYC of the directors. Every rupee of the business flows through this account from day one. Never run company money through a personal account.

5. Deposit the subscription money and file INC-20A. The subscribers to the Memorandum (usually the founders) must deposit their share capital into the company account, and the company must file the declaration of commencement of business (Form INC-20A) within 180 days of incorporation. Miss this and the Registrar can refuse to let the company borrow, and can even start strike-off proceedings.

6. Issue share certificates within 60 days. After the money lands, the company must issue stamped share certificates to the subscribers within two months. Remember to pay the stamp duty your state charges on the certificates; founders forget this constantly, and it surfaces embarrassingly in diligence.

Days 31-60: Registrations that protect you

7. Decide on GST. Registration is mandatory once your turnover crosses Rs 40 lakh for goods or Rs 20 lakh for services (lower in some special-category states). But do not wait for the threshold if you sell to businesses: your B2B customers want GST invoices so they can claim input credit, and some marketplaces and payment gateways ask for a GSTIN upfront. If you are pre-revenue and selling to consumers, you can usually wait.

8. Get Udyam (MSME) registration. It is free, takes ten minutes online, and unlocks small but real benefits: easier loans, protection against delayed payments from buyers, and eligibility for several state schemes.

9. Apply for DPIIT Startup Recognition. Also free, at the Startup India portal. Recognition is what unlocks the good stuff: self-certification under labour and environment laws, an 80% income-tax holiday under Section 80-IAC for three of your first ten years (on approval), easier patent filing with an 80% fee rebate, and access to government tenders without prior experience requirements. We covered the funding-side schemes, including the RDI fund and SIDBI routes, in Free Government Money: RDI, SIDBI and Schemes Founders Ignore.

10. Register under Shops and Establishments. Most states require this within 30 days of starting work, even for a home office. It is cheap, quick, and banks and payment gateways sometimes ask for it. Depending on your state, professional tax registration may come along with it.

Days 61-90: Set the operating rhythm

11. Put bookkeeping on autopilot. Choose your accounting software (Tally, Zoho Books, or QuickBooks all work in India), connect the bank feed, and reconcile every month. The founders who dread diligence are the ones who treated bookkeeping as a year-end activity.

12. Write your compliance calendar. TDS returns if you deduct tax, GST returns if registered, advance tax if profitable, and the two big annual filings every company must make: AOC-4 (financial statements) and MGT-7 (annual return). Late fees on MCA filings run per day and add up fast.

13. Fix how founders get paid. Decide whether founders take a salary, and document it. Mixing personal and company spending is the single most common hygiene problem in young companies, and the hardest to untangle later.

14. Keep the cap table clean. One spreadsheet, every share accounted for, every SAFE or convertible noted. If you have already promised equity to a friend or an advisor, write it down properly. And while you think about money, understand your runway; we broke the math down in How Much Should You Raise? The 18-Month Runway Math.

The first auditor of a company shall be appointed by the Board of Directors within thirty days from the date of registration of the company.

Section 139(6), Companies Act, 2013

The point of all this

None of this work builds your product or wins you a customer. But it buys you something just as valuable: the freedom to focus. A company with clean books and current filings can say yes to an investor, a big client, or a government scheme the day the opportunity appears. A company without them spends three months doing archaeology on its own paperwork. As we wrote in Why Startups Fail and How to Avoid It, the boring operational stuff is rarely what kills a startup, but it reliably slows the ones already fighting for their lives.

Ninety days. Fourteen items. Do them in order, and you will never think about most of them again.

Sources

• Press Information Bureau – DPIIT startup recognitions (1,97,692 as of 31 October 2025)
• Press Information Bureau – MCA company registration data, FY2024-25
• Financial Express – Record companies incorporated in December 2025
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs
• Startup India – DPIIT recognition and benefits
• GST Portal – registration thresholds