Incorporation is the easy part. ACRA confirms the company, a UEN gets issued, you have a registered entity, and the founders breathe out. Then nothing happens for a few weeks and the operating reality of running a Singapore company catches up.

This piece walks through the 90 days after incorporation in the order we tell new clients to handle them. None of it is hard. All of it gets missed when nobody is running the calendar.

Week 1: bank account application

The single biggest bottleneck in early-stage Singapore companies is opening the corporate bank account. Most banks require in-person KYC for at least one director, require certified incorporation documents (constitution, BizFile profile, board resolution), and take two to four weeks to process — sometimes longer for companies with overseas directors or unusual ownership structures.

Apply in week one, not week four. While the bank processes, you can sign contracts, raise invoices, and collect cash via founder personal accounts (with proper loan-to-company documentation) — but every day without an operating bank account is a day the accounting workflow can't run cleanly.

Week 2: accounting system setup

Set up Xero (or your chosen cloud accounting platform) before the first transaction. The chart of accounts gets designed once at this stage; retrofitting it six months later is a multi-week cleanup project.

Specifically: chart of accounts designed around how the business actually operates, tracking categories defined, GST tax codes set up (even if not yet GST-registered), bank feed wired to the corporate account once it opens. We've written about this in detail in our piece on Xero setup for Singapore SMEs.

Week 3-4: IRAS registration and tax setup

New companies are automatically registered with IRAS via the incorporation process, but several follow-up actions need attention:

  • CorpPass setup for the company — the login mechanism for myTax Portal and other government services. Required for ECI and Form C-S/C filing.
  • GIRO arrangement for corporate tax instalments if you expect ECI to be material.
  • GST registration assessment. Even if you're below the S$1M compulsory threshold, voluntary registration may make sense if you expect material input GST or sell mainly B2B. See our piece on when to register for GST.

Week 4-6: appoint company secretary, confirm registered office

A company secretary must be appointed within 6 months of incorporation. There's no reason to wait — appoint in the first month so the statutory registers start getting maintained from day one and the calendar discipline is in place ahead of the Annual Return cycle.

The registered office address must be operational from day one — ACRA correspondence starts arriving immediately and a missed letter can mean a missed deadline. If you're using your service provider's address, confirm the mail-handling process; if you're using your own premises, make sure someone is there during business hours to receive registered mail.

Month 2: payroll and CPF (if you have employees)

If you're hiring or already have employees:

  • CPF account setup with the CPF Board. Required before the first payroll run.
  • Payroll software chosen and connected to Xero — manual payroll for a few hires is doable but quickly becomes a source of errors.
  • Employment Pass / S Pass / Work Permit applications for foreign hires, with MOM. Lead time varies; build into hiring planning.
  • Insurance — Work Injury Compensation Insurance is mandatory for most categories of employees. Group medical and other benefits are optional but expected by professional hires.

Month 2-3: contracts, IP, the operating layer

  • Standard contract templatesfor customers, suppliers, employees. Don't draft each one from scratch.
  • IP registration where relevant — trademarks via IPOS, patents if applicable, registered designs.
  • Data protection compliance under PDPA — appoint a Data Protection Officer (required), draft a privacy notice, document data flows.
  • Standard operating procedures for the recurring back-office tasks — invoice raising, supplier onboarding, expense approval, payroll cycle.

Month 3: first management review

By month three, you have enough operating data to do the first proper management review. Even if revenue is small, the discipline of looking at the numbers monthly starts here. By the time you're at month-end of month six, the rhythm is established.

What we'd do differently from how most founders do it

  • Open the bank account immediately. Don't wait until you have customers; the lead time is the bottleneck.
  • Set up accounting before you take the first dollar. Catching up later costs more in time and stress than setting up properly costs in fees.
  • Engage corporate services / accountant relationships in the first month, not at year-end. The annual obligations creep up faster than expected.
  • Treat the first year's compliance calendar as the blueprint for every subsequent year. The discipline you set now compounds.

Common questions in the first 90 days

Can I trade before the bank account opens?

Yes — you can sign contracts, raise invoices, and even collect payments via founder personal accounts (with a proper director's loan documented). Once the corporate account opens, reconcile the early activity into the company books. Some banks will backdate interest-bearing accounts; ask.

Do I need to file taxes in my first year if I have no income?

Even with no income, you still have ECI obligations (potentially a nil ECI filing) and Annual Return obligations. A dormant-company status is possible if you meet IRAS's criteria, but you have to apply for it — it isn't automatic. We assess this for new clients each year.

How quickly do I need to issue my first invoice?

No regulatory deadline, but the issue isn't the paperwork — it's that the longer you wait, the longer you go without revenue cycling through the system, and the worse the operating discipline becomes. Invoice the first customer as soon as you've delivered the first deliverable.

What if I want to dispense with AGMs?

Most Singapore private companies can dispense with AGMs under the Companies Act, subject to conditions around sending financials to members and the absence of objection. The dispensation paperwork has to be done each year. We handle this for clients as part of standard secretarial work.

What we doThe 90 days after incorporation is the engagement shape we run most often for new Singapore companies. ACRA, IRAS, accounting setup, bank account guidance, company secretary appointment, first-year compliance calendar — all on a single calendar we own. See company formation & secretary.

Incorporation is the start, not the finish. The discipline that follows is what decides whether the first year compounds or chases.

— The Acuitas team