All of the current Directors are Users and are able to view all of the information on the platform but are not able to make changes. You can also create as many “non-Director” Users (such as staff, bookkeeper, accountant, lawyer, etc) as you like. At least 2 of the Users need to have Admin authority and these people can upload and delete documents and make other changes.
For required annual activities like filings, GovernWell tracks the due dates and 30 days prior begins to remind. For contract and agreements (like D&O insurance) GovernWell tracks the expiry dates. Reminders are both visual (a change in the status icon for an item on the dashboard from green checkmark to yellow caution and then to red warning) and by escalating email (initially to the Admins and as due dates approach to all the Directors).
Congratulations for having taken the first step to empowering your Directors by providing them access to shared documents! GovernWell takes this even further by organizing the critical corporate records into an intuitive Dashboard that is easy to navigate. In addition, it collects both corporate and personal information about your Directors in purpose built templates that allow that information to be used to automate your Corporate Registry Annual Information return filing and production of your CRA Annual filing form T1235. GovernWell also adds value by tracking all of your required corporate activities and proactively reminding you when actions need to be taken.
All of the payments for GovernWell are handled by Stripe and all transactions are secure and encrypted. If your organization has a corporate credit card, you can use it as your preferred method of payment. Otherwise, you can set up a Pre-Authorized debit to your corporate chequing account. This is possible even if your organization is 2-to-sign on cheques and not able to initial e-transfers or other electronic payments. The Pre-Authorized payment s is setup by Stripe like a utility bill payment.
Data for GovernWell clients in Canada is stored exclusively on Amazon Web Servers in Montreal Canada to ensure it remains covered by all applicable Canadian information privacy protection regulations.
No. The GovernWell annual subscription fee is paid in full once per year. This is to minimize the amount of bookkeeping work required both by clients and GovernWell by processing only one payment per year vs twelve.
The individual who creates the account for an organization becomes the initial admin and starts in an initial setup mode to get all the basic information populated before the platform is available to the entire Board. If electronic copies of corporate documents (articles of incorp, ByLaws, Financial Statements, etc) are available, the initial setup can be completed in about 1 hour.
Almost. GovernWell can store a significant portion of the books and records required by the Ontario Not for profit Corporations Act and the CRA but it does not store detailed financial information, bank statements or donation receipts.
No. Once the initial setup is complete, the GovernWell platform sends each Director a welcome email with a link to set their password. Once they login, the GovernWell dashboard is clearly structured and simple to use and does not require any special training.
No. GovernWell is focused on ensuring that your essential corporate governance matters and filings are completed in a timely manner but does not cover compliance requirements from many other areas (e.g. payroll remittances, occupational health and safety, privacy legislation, etc).
Yes. Entering your personal information into GovernWell is much more secure than exchanging it by email with another volunteer Board member or staff who would store it in a word processing or spreadsheet file on their computer.
Yes. GovernWell is designed to enable a single sign-in for individuals involved with multiple corporations. Your personal information is maintained separately from each individual corporation so if you update/change your address/email/phone it will update all of your corporations automatically.
Almost. GovernWell provides a platform for Directors to access critical corporate information and can be used to store Board Meeting documents, however the focus of GovernWell is on the foundational administration of the corporate entity not on the operation of the Board of Directors. There are many full-featured Board Portal software products that serve the needs of large and complex Boards but they are much more expensive and complex to implement and use.
Expanded support for Board Committees is one of our highest priorities for new features to add to the GovernWell platform. To do this right requires us to add a more granular level of User permissions (i.e. not just User or Administrator) and we’re working on it. Until we get there, we encourage clients to follow a hybrid model whereby they use Governwell for all the corporate administration and Board materials and continue to use other file sharing tools (Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Sharepoint) for Committee materials.
Not yet. We plan to develop additional versions of GovernWell for not-for-profit and charitable corporations incorporated Federally or in other provinces. Please let us know of your interest and stay tuned for more news.
