Business Legal Audit Checklist
Legal compliance can be extremely difficult, especially for small businesses. Depending on the type of business you have, your day-to-day activities may be affected by literally hundreds of laws at any given time. How can you ensure that you are compliant at all times? An internal legal audit may be a good starting point.
What is a Legal Audit?
A legal audit allows you to evaluate your organization’s operations to determine if it complies with the various laws and regulations that apply to it. You walk through a “checklist” of items that affect your business to ensure that you are meeting all your legal obligations.
A quick overview of the several categories of laws that may have an impact on your company are set out below, and can provide a great starting point. However, having a professional look at the various aspects of your business can be extremely valuable. Even going through a basic legal audit now can save you thousands of dollars in the future.
Corporate Governance
Your business must comply with state and local law regarding business formation and reporting requirements. A legal audit will consider whether you are meeting your filing, transparency, and other procedures regarding your corporate (or other entity) structure. It will examine how you are conducting meetings, the content of your minutes, election and establishment of committees, investment considerations, and much more.
Labor Laws
There are many compliance requirements that you must meet related to your workforce. These conditions range from having a proper employee handbook to ensuring that your staff has information regarding their rights for unemployment benefits or workers’ compensation. Safety requirements and training obligations are also factors that you should consider as well. Your legal audit will take a look at your current practices to see how they stack up to your legal requirements.
Health and Safety Requirements
Health and safety are both significant concerns for your workers, but you may also need to consider your business’s effect on the environment as well. Health requirements may also affect how you service your clients, depending on the industry in which you work. For example, restaurants have stringent requirements based on applicable health codes that they must adhere to at all times. Failing to follow these can result in fines and lost business.
Data Security
You may have employee and customer information that cannot be shared with others. You likely need to comply with laws and regulations that affect how you take payments, such as complying with security obligations associated with credit card payments for example. How you communicate with others may also be subject to safety requirements as well.
Getting Help with Your Compliance Needs
A legal audit will help you address problems areas before they cause disputes, violations, or future concerns. We can assist you with the arduous task of keeping up with legal requirements in your industry. Call MaxwellDunn today for more information.