A board resolution to open bank account is the document a bank asks for before it will let a company hold money. It is refused often, and almost always for the same missing specifics.
A board resolution to open bank account is a certified extract from the directors’ decisions authorising the company to open an account at a named bank and naming the people who may operate it. Banks require it because the company is a separate legal person: somebody has to prove, in the company’s own words, that the individual walking in with the forms was actually given the authority to bind it. Most banks will supply their own template, and using theirs is faster than arguing for yours.
Where applications stall is the detail. The resolution arrives saying the board authorised opening an account, and the bank returns it because it does not name the bank, does not identify the signatories by full legal name, and does not say whether they act alone or jointly.
RESOLVED THAT an account be opened in the name of the company with [bank], and THAT [full name], [office], and [full name], [office], be and are hereby authorised to operate the said account, any one of them signing alone for amounts up to [figure] and any two of them signing jointly for amounts exceeding it, and THAT the secretary be instructed to supply the bank with certified specimen signatures and such documents as the bank may require. Then the certification: certified a true extract from the minutes of the meeting of the board of directors held on [date], signed, chair.
Send the bank a certified copy, not the original, and keep the original in the company records. Banks retain what they are given, and the certified extract is the document you will need to produce again the next time a signatory changes.
The resolution is rarely enough on its own. Expect the bank to want the certificate of incorporation, the articles, proof of registered address, identification and address verification for every signatory and for anyone holding a significant shareholding, and evidence of the business activity — contracts, invoices or a business plan. Sole-director companies still need the resolution; it is simply a written resolution of the single director. New companies with no trading history are asked for more, not less, and a general board resolution passed earlier will not substitute for one naming this bank.
Banks want a clean signed copy in a fixed format, which in practice means a PDF. Ettex Docs holds the draft and the version history, Ettex Signature collects the chair’s signature and, for a written resolution, every director’s, and Ettex PDF flattens the signed file into the single certified copy the bank will keep — with the original and the record of which signatories it authorised filed in Ettex Records for the next time somebody asks.
Being clear about scope: no software makes a bank accept a document. The account opening, the identity checks and the mandate itself belong to the bank, and where its own template exists, it wins.
Yes. It takes the form of a written resolution of the sole director, and banks ask for it in the same way. The requirement follows from the company being a separate legal person, not from the number of directors.
Most banks accept an electronically signed certified copy, but not all, and some require a wet signature or a certified hard copy. Ask before sending, because a rejection restarts the application.
It does not expire, but banks commonly ask for one dated within three to six months of the application, and a new one whenever the signatories or the mandate change.
A general resolution rarely satisfies a new bank. Banks want the institution named and the signatories and mandate stated specifically for the account being opened.
Flattening merges form fields and annotations into the page itself. It is the step between a document being filled and a document being final — and skipping it is why people receive PDFs they can still edit.
Work instructions are read standing up, mid-task, often by someone new. That single fact should decide the format, the length and where the paper lives.
Paper still wins in workshops, on sites and anywhere a phone is a nuisance. Free printable time sheets work fine — as long as the page is designed to be totalled and the sheets do not stay on paper for long.