Every company must have an auditor almost from birth — the appointment is one of the first board acts, with its own filing trail.
The sequence for a new company
- First auditor: the board appoints within the statutory window after incorporation; failing that, the shareholders do
- Tenure: the first auditor serves until the first AGM
- Regularisation: at the first AGM, shareholders appoint the auditor for the standard multi-year term
- ADT-1: the appointment intimation filed with the ROC within its deadline after the AGM appointment
Choosing sensibly
Pick an auditor for responsiveness and rigour, not fee alone — this relationship recurs annually and anchors every financing conversation. Independence rules bar certain related persons; changes mid-term follow their own procedures.
The common miss
Companies that never formally appointed anyone — accounts get signed, but the board record and ADT-1 are absent, surfacing as findings in due diligence years later.
Auditor appointment paperwork, done correctly from day one — ROC compliance · audit services.
