Stockrecord

For a company, the stock record answers a basic legal question: who are the owners. It lists each shareholder's name and address, the class and number of shares held, the dates shares were issued or transferred and the certificate numbers if any were printed.

The information is used to pay dividends, send notices and count votes. Accuracy matters because the company is entitled to treat the person named in the record as the owner.

A wrong entry can lead to dividends being paid to the wrong person or to a dispute over who is entitled to vote. For listed companies, the record is usually maintained by a transfer agent or registrar, and for private companies, it is often kept by the company secretary or its lawyers.

Investors, lenders and buyers examine the record during fundraising, mergers and audits. They check that the number of shares issued agrees with the accounts and with the company's constitutional documents.

Any gap, such as shares promised to an employee but never recorded, must be fixed before a deal can complete. A closely linked document is the capitalisation table, usually called the cap table.

It shows ownership by percentage, including options and convertible instruments, and is often built from the stock record. The record is the legal source, while the cap table is a planning tool.

The other meaning of stock record is the inventory kind. A warehouse or shop keeps a running record of each product held, with receipts, issues and the balance on hand.

The principle is the same: opening balance, plus movements, equals closing balance, and the record must be checked against a physical count. Good practice is to give one named person responsibility for the record, to require signed paperwork for every change and to keep a dated history of past versions.

An annual reconciliation with the accounts and the tax filings catches most slips. When the business grows, moving the record to specialist software usually pays for itself.