How to Quickly Create a Numbered Company in BC Canada

Important Information – Purpose of Entity:

The purpose of this incorporation process (for me) is to:

1. Create a legal corporation in BC, with a system-generated corporation numbered company
2. Do it as cheap as possible
3. Make sure it’s at least legal

The purpose of this corporation is to do nothing other than hold shares. It will not be an actual operating company with staff, tax numbers, etc (yet, at least).

If you plan to do a normal operating company with more complex structures and shareholders, you’ll want to either use some more sophisticated software or a good old fashioned lawyer who specializes in incorporating. They will ultimately save you money long term and I do recommend this path. But, if you have this super basic need like me, this will work.

Also, apparently you are ‘legally required to have minutes’ for the company so look into this, and plan to do it at some point.

I was also told that I was ‘legally required to have a business bank account for this corporation’. This was a sales rep for some software so do your own research. To receive payments, I would expect this is true.

Before you begin incorporating a numbered company in BC, have the following ready:

1. A basic Incorporation Agreement (document 1)
2. Articles of Incorporation (document 2)
3. Credit card (for government fees)

Make sure these two documents above are completed and signed (if you wish to be 100% truthful – recommended). Because you will be forced to check a box that you’ve done this during the process. The online incorporation system will not hinder you from doing this later, though, but I always do things legal that are required right away.

Note: On the Incorporation Agreement document, you’re supposed to specify the name of the company, which of course you don’t have yet, so it’s a bit goofy in that way that you are supposed to have a signed document when you can’t have it fully completed yet. Anyways, they are probably just making sure that you are aware that you are supposed to legally have these. Enough blabber…

Full AI disclosure: I asked AI to generate both basic documents above for BC, Canada, and then saved them to a simple editable LibreOffice doc. Here are those two documents for you to save you a step if you want, but you may wish to consult a lawyer and do your own if you are doing something more complicated.

Link to Incorporation Agreement:

Link to Articles of the Company

With that done, here goes the practical steps of creating it, and paying for it.

• GO HERE (to this old 1997-style website): https://www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca/

SUPER TIP! Do not ever use your browser’s navigation buttons. If you do, everything will get borked and you’ll have to restart a fresh session (and it’s bloody long) in a new browser screen by clicking the link above again. Again – just use THEIR navigation buttons, and, frankly, don’t do that either if you can avoid it. We’re stepping into some 1998 web-tech here so yeah…go slow and avoid any forward or backwards in your browser other than what their ‘wizard’ does as you move forward.

Here we go! What you should consider doing is opening this blog into a screen that is comfortably visible while the government page is available side by side. This will save you MUCH clicking back and forth as we go:

• Click the ‘File an Incorporation Application’ seemingly un-clickable object…
• As per comments above, check the CHECK BOX: “I certify that I have both a signed Incorporation Agreement and a set of articles for the company that I am about to incorporate.”
• Click the yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Select option ‘b’ radio dial: “The company is to be incorporated with a name created by adding “B.C. Ltd.” after the incorporation number. (Eg. 873524 B.C. Ltd.) “

in the “Please indicate whether the company will be incorporated [a] immediately or [b] in the future:” section,

• Select option ‘a’ radio dial: “Immediately”
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Read the heads-up message, check out the filing fee they are about to get from you, and grab your credit card
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Select the appropriate option for the Name section (for me, it’s ‘Individual Name’)
• Mailing Address: self explanatory
• Click yellow ‘Save’ button
• Make sure your name is listed in the “Incorporator Name” section and the address and all that is correct
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Enter your information (again) for the ‘Completing Party’ section.

At the bottom of this page, also, I select to ‘ I would also like a copy of the filed Incorporation Application emailed to: option to make sure I have a copy in my inbox for reference.

• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• click the checkbox that forces you to agree that you have done the documents above.
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• For this question: ” Does this company use a translation of its name outside of Canada? ” since it is a numbered company I select radio dial option ‘b’ ‘No, this company does not use a translation of its name. ‘
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Now complete all the Director information (this is you again, likely)
• For Delivery Address, I clicked the check box ‘same as mailing address’
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Notice of articles page: Make sure your name and addresses are correct
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Registered Office: I’m using the same address again (my house). This is technically where someone should be able to come during 9am-5pm to open the books about the corporation. I’ve never heard of it actually happening for small corps like this but be aware.
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Option A shows the address you entered to the right. If you want it to be something different you can adjust, otherwise, select option ‘a’ radio dial and agree to it.
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Same thing for the Records Office. I selected radio dial option ‘a’
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Delivery address for the Records office: same as above – I chose option ‘a’ to agree to the same address
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Review all the addresses for all of the purposes and make sure they are correct
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.

Notice of Articles Page:

• I chose option ‘b’ radio dial -” There is no maximum”
• For the ‘Identifying name of class”: I entered ‘Common’ (since my articles document shows that)
• For Value of Shares, I selected “Without Par Value”
• For Special Rights or Restrictions I selected radio dial ‘b’ ” NO”
• Click the yellow ‘Save’ button
• Review your share information and names are correct and if good,
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Notification screen:
  This is where your new corporation’s documents will be sent. I selected radio dial ‘a’ for ’email’ and entered my email
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• Prepare your password for this corporation using a good password manager if possible. You’ll need this to log in and change things related to it in the future. Prepare a password hint for password too. I don’t use this since I have password manager, but I entered something just in case it is required. NOTE: It must be between 8 and 15 characters and ONLY have letters and numbers and seems like special characters don’t work. This is bad for security but this “is what it is” at the time of this writing.
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.
• If everything works you should be on ‘confirm company information’ page which hilariously shows your company password in plain text on the screen… make sure you have all this then:
• Click yellow ‘Next’ button, bottom right.

At last! … payment!

• Feel free to review everything with the blue ‘View Draft Filing’ button, or, if you are so bored of this like me and don’t care anymore, just enter your info in the contact section at the bottom where the payment receipt will go.
• Click the ‘Ready to Pay’ button! You’re almost done this game of endurance…
• Enter your credit card info (surprisingly smooth and easy!) and pay
• Boom! Congrats! You got your company name on the next screen. I took a screenshot of this just in case something went bad with the email.
  

Hope this helped you grab a quick numbered corporation in BC, Canada!