After incorporating, move the domain registration, hosting account and payment accounts into the company's name, put the legal name in the footer, privacy policy and invoices, and keep the trading name customers know.

A new company, the same old paperwork

A business that started as a sole proprietorship incorporates when it grows: a second van, a first employee, a bigger contract, a word from the accountant.

The accountant and the lawyer set up the company and its tax numbers, and the bank opens a new account. Nobody mentions the website.

So the domain stays registered to the owner personally, the hosting renews on the owner's own credit card, and the footer, the privacy policy and the invoices still name the old sole proprietorship.

None of it stops the site working. But the company does not own its own web address, and its paperwork names someone else.

What should carry the company's name

The first is the one forgotten most often. It was registered years ago with a personal email address, and nothing reminds anyone it exists until a renewal notice goes to an inbox nobody reads.

What can stay as it is

Customers do not need to notice that you incorporated. The trading name on the sign, the logo, the domain name itself, the phone number and the email addresses can all stay exactly as they are.

The Google listing keeps the name on your sign and van. Listings are meant to show the name customers know, not the legal one.

If the company is a numbered one, as many are, its legal name means nothing to customers. Put it in the footer, the legal pages and the invoices, followed by "operating as" and the trading name.

The domain

A domain registered to the owner belongs to the owner, not the company. That matters little day to day, and a great deal when the business is sold or passed on.

Your registrar can change the registrant to the company. For a .ca domain the company must meet the same Canadian presence rules as you did, which a Canadian corporation does.

One difference: a .ca domain held by an individual keeps the owner's details out of public lookups, and one held by a company does not. Use the business address and an office email address.

Check the renewal date while you are in the account, and set the domain to renew automatically on the company's card.

Hosting, logins and the card on file

Ask the host to put the account in the company's name, and move billing to the company's card. Some hosts update the name on request; others ask for a new account and a transfer.

A hosting plan that renews on a personal card fails quietly the day that card is replaced. The site then disappears until someone notices.

While you are at it, move every login, for the domain, the host, the website and the Google listing, to email addresses the business owns. A company should not depend on one person's personal inbox.

A worked example

A pool table mover started as one man with a van, dollies and the tools to take a slate table apart, move the slate in pieces and level it again in the new room.

Last year, with a second van and a helper, he incorporated. The accountant set up the company and its GST number; nobody mentioned the website.

The domain was registered in his name with an address from an internet provider he had left. Hosting renewed on his own card, and the footer, privacy policy and invoices all named the old sole proprietorship.

The gap showed when a commercial customer paid an invoice to the old name, and a renewal notice for the domain went to the dead email address.

One afternoon dealt with it. The registrant became the company, with the office address; hosting moved to the company card; the footer, the privacy policy and the invoice template now give the legal name and the new number.

The van lettering, the phone number and the Google listing stayed exactly as they were.

Privacy policy and terms

A privacy policy should say which organisation collects personal information and who answers questions about it. After incorporation that is the company, and the policy should name it.

Terms of service, booking conditions and warranty pages say who the customer is dealing with. They should name the company too, with the date they were updated.

This is a change of names, not a rewrite. If the policy needs more than that, it needed it before.

Invoices, quotes and payments

A corporation is a separate legal person, so it needs its own business number and, where it must register, its own GST account. Invoice and quote templates often keep the owner's old GST number for months.

Update the templates in the accounting software, the quote document and any online payment page. Check that the bank details on the invoice belong to the company's account.

Search the website for the old number too. Some sites show it on the contact page, in the footer or on a printable order form.

The card processing account should be in the company's name too. Check what name appears on customers' card statements; a numbered company there produces calls from customers who do not recognise the charge.

The counter-case

Some things genuinely stay. A basic certificate, which only proves control of the domain, names no business, though one that does name it needs reissuing. Listings and social profiles use the trading name.

Timing is flexible for most of the list. The footer can wait a week; a domain renewing next month, or a GST number on this week's invoices, cannot.

But the list itself does not get shorter with time. Everything that names the business or takes its money should name the company, and it is easiest done once.

The afternoon list

  1. Change the domain registrant to the company.
  2. Move hosting billing to the company card.
  3. Update the privacy policy and terms of service.
  4. Put the legal name in the footer.
  5. Fix invoice and quote templates, GST number included.
  6. Check the card processing account and statement name.
  7. Move every login to a business email address.

Step one is the one that matters most later. A domain held in the owner's own name is the owner's property, which becomes awkward on the day the business is sold, financed or handed on.

Telling a real registrar's notice from the official-sounding emails that a public domain record attracts is covered in the urgent email about your name in foreign domains.

Frequently asked questions

What should change after incorporating?

The domain registration, the hosting account and its billing, the privacy policy and terms, the footer, invoice and quote templates with the new GST number, and payment accounts.

Do customers need to see the change?

No. The trading name, logo, domain name, phone number, email addresses and Google listing can all stay. The legal name belongs in the footer, legal pages and invoices.

Why move the domain to the company?

A domain registered to the owner is the owner's property, not the company's. That becomes awkward when the business is sold, financed or passed on to someone else.

Does a new company need a new GST number?

Where it must register, yes. A corporation is a separate legal person with its own business number, so its invoices carry its own GST number, not the owner's old one.

What changes for a .ca domain?

The company must meet the same Canadian presence rules, which a Canadian corporation does. Unlike an individual's, a company's details show in public lookups, so use business contacts.

What can safely stay as it is?

A basic certificate that only proves control of the domain, listings and social profiles under the trading name, the phone number and the email addresses all stay.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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