The First 90 Days After Incorporating a Company in the Philippines

TL;DR: The first 90 days after Philippine incorporation are for converting a registered company into an operating one. Sequence tax registration, local and sector permits, banking, employer setup, payroll, contracts, and a compliance calendar before the business starts trading or hiring at speed.

What should a new Philippine company do after incorporation?

Incorporation creates the company. It does not complete every registration needed to invoice, hire, occupy premises, import goods, or operate in a regulated field. The first 90 days should therefore be managed as an operating-readiness project, with a named owner for each application and a record of every submission.

The exact order varies by business model and city. A software company with no local premises has a different path from a retailer, warehouse operator, restaurant, or regulated-product importer. But every founder should know which action is a corporate registration, which is tax registration, which is a local permit, and which is an employment or sector requirement.

Days 1–30: make the company administratively ready

1. Confirm the SEC record and corporate controls

After the SEC registration is issued, collect the approved corporate documents, confirm the company’s registered details, and set a controlled repository for board or shareholder approvals, contracts, and registration records. The SEC’s eSPARC portal is the reference point for the applicable registration route, but the company should also establish who may sign, hold records, instruct advisers, and access the official email address.

This is a good time to set practical controls that are easy to ignore later: a company document register, approval limits, a contract-signing process, and a list of renewal and filing owners.

2. Start BIR registration and invoicing decisions

Tax registration should be planned immediately after incorporation. The BIR’s NewBizReg guidance identifies the current application route and documentary requirements for non-individual taxpayers, including corporations and branches. The precise channel and documents can change, so follow the current BIR instruction rather than a copied checklist.

At this stage, decide how the company will issue invoices, how it will track sales and expenses, and who will own tax-calendar compliance. Do not sign a customer contract that promises a billing or tax treatment the company has not yet set up to support.

3. Map local and sector approvals

The company’s location and activity can drive barangay, city or municipal, fire, zoning, building, product, or industry approvals. Treat the local business-permit path as a workstream, not an afterthought. A virtual service business, a leased office, a warehouse, and a public-facing store will not have the same conditions.

If the activity is regulated—such as financial services, recruitment, transport, food, cosmetics, medicines, importation, or controlled goods—identify the responsible regulator and filing dependencies before promising a launch date. See business permit renewal and planning for the recurring-compliance perspective.

Days 31–60: set up money, people, and delivery

4. Establish banking and payment controls

The banking process should match the company’s signatories, capital plan, expected transaction pattern, and supporting records. Banks will perform their own onboarding and may request corporate and beneficial-owner information. Keep the setup aligned with the company’s actual documents rather than improvising a different operational story at the bank.

Our corporate bank-account guide explains the practical preparation, but no article can promise that a particular bank will approve a particular account. Build time for the bank’s due diligence into the launch plan.

5. Set up employer registrations before the first hire

If the company will employ people, employer setup should happen before the first payroll date—not after it. The SSS defines an employer broadly and says coverage takes effect at the start of operations; its employer-registration guidance also explains the Central Business Portal and employee-reporting path.

PhilHealth likewise requires government and private employers to register, with its employer-registration page setting out the process and documents. Pag-IBIG has its own employer data process. In practice, make one person accountable for verifying the employer number, employee reporting, payroll cut-offs, contribution calculations, remittance approval, and retained records.

For the broader workflow, use our payroll and statutory-contributions guide and first-employee hiring guide.

6. Put contracts and data access in place

Before the company begins operating, document the relationships that will create recurring risk: employee agreements, contractor terms, customer contracts, supplier agreements, data-access rules, and the authority to approve spending. This is particularly important where the Philippine company supports a foreign parent, handles customer data, or receives instructions from multiple group entities.

Days 61–90: turn registrations into a repeatable compliance system

7. Create a live compliance calendar

The durable outcome is not a pile of certificates. It is a calendar with each obligation, deadline, responsible person, source system, required approver, and proof of filing. Include tax periods, employer remittances, employee reporting, corporate filings, permit renewals, contractual notices, and sector-specific reports.

Start with our annual compliance calendar and SEC compliance guide, then tailor it to the company’s actual entity, location, people, and regulated activity.

8. Reconcile the operating model with the paperwork

At the 60- to 90-day point, compare what the company is doing against what it registered to do. Ask:

• Are we invoicing from the intended company?
• Are staff correctly employed, paid, and reported?
• Have we started a product, import, transport, or public-facing activity that needs a further approval?
• Do contracts, signing authority, and bank controls match the actual work?
• Is every recurring filing assigned to an owner?

This review catches the common failure mode: a company’s commercial activity grows faster than its registrations and controls.

A simple 90-day checklist

1. Confirm SEC documents, signatories, records, and corporate approvals.
2. Complete the applicable BIR registration and invoicing setup.
3. Identify local, premises, and sector approvals.
4. Prepare bank onboarding and payment controls.
5. Register as an employer and design payroll before hiring.
6. Finalise core employment, customer, vendor, and data-handling documents.
7. Build and assign the annual compliance calendar.
8. Run a 90-day operational-readiness review.

The sequence is general information, not a substitute for activity-specific tax, labour, or regulatory advice. Chamberlain can turn a completed incorporation into a practical launch plan covering BIR, local permits, payroll, compliance, and the right next approvals. Book a consultation to scope the next 90 days before operations begin.