In light of Vision 2030 for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you can now issue an electronic commercial register without having to move from your home after the launch of the Saudi Business Center, which is concerned with achieving leadership in the quality of government services provided in the Kingdom. In addition to making economic procedures easier and simpler by providing all the digital services that merchants and company owners need in their businesses, businesses, The vision included a digital national transformation program that made the well-being and prosperity of the Saudi citizen a sustainable goal, so that he would not spend his money, effort, and time trying to extract the government documents he needed but rather would be able to issue them within a short time and without significant effort while paying their costs electronically without obstacles. In our article, we learn in detail about the method of issuing the electronic commercial register, the conditions for issuing it, and the fees that must be paid when requesting the issuance of the register from the Saudi Ministry of Commerce.
What is a commercial register?
The commercial register is the official government base that keeps all the data of companies and institutions that provide commercial services or goods. When you open your commercial or service activity, you need to issue an official document stating that its information has been added to this base. The Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry has allocated this type of document to control commercial exchange in the Kingdom and make it more reliable and secure by collecting the necessary information about the description of the business, its purpose, identifying its owner, location, capital, partners, and other information and details.
Despite the many branches of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the Kingdom, extracting the electronic record has made many procedures easier for the citizen, as he no longer has to do anything except photocopy the documents required to extract the record with a scanner, then fill in the data for himself and his company, attach the files, and then pay the fees. This ends the journey of moving from one place to another in the midst of crowding, hot weather, and wasting time on useless things.
Why is a trade register important?
Considering the data and information collected in the commercial register, we understand why it is important, as the merchant and the state benefit from issuing the commercial register for many reasons, including:
- Enhancing transparency in companies’ work systems and dealings with their customers and ensuring dealings based on ethics and honesty.
- Strengthening trust between the company and its customers or investors by referring to its record and knowing the details of its legal status and the volume of business in it.
- Issuing a commercial register for commercial establishments enables the state to monitor them so that they remain under the care of the authorities responsible for this and their compliance with regulations and laws is periodically verified. The register is also a tool for investigating any violations that may occur.
- The commercial register of any institution is extracted according to special conditions, with the aim of preventing fraudulent activities and protecting rights.
- When an investor or creditor needs reliable information about the company, he will find it complete in its commercial register, thus being able to make sound financial decisions.
Conditions for obtaining the commercial register
Any person needs to fulfill a number of conditions before starting to issue an electronic or paper commercial register for his company, and these conditions include the following:
- The applicant for opening a commercial register must prove that the capital of the company for which the register is requested exceeds 5,000 riyals.
- Submitting supporting documents to verify that the applicant is over 18 years old.
- Government employees are not allowed to obtain a commercial register for an institution belonging to others or open a commercial company.
- If the record to be issued is a subsidiary, there must be a main registered record that is valid and has not expired.
- The applicant must have an account on Absher because the request to issue the electronic commercial register is made through Absher and Nafath government accounts.
How to issue an electronic commercial register
How do I extract an electronic commercial record? This question does not only concern you, but many people are trying to get the answer in simple and clear ways, so we will explain to you the steps for issuing an electronic commercial record as follows:
- Start by going to the official website of the Saudi Business Center from the link here.
- Choose from the available services for “issuing a commercial register.”.
- Then click on the arrow for the “Issuing an institution’s commercial register” option.
- Click on Start the Service after reading the terms and conditions for providing the service.
- After passing the previous steps, you will find in front of you a new page containing three stages, according to which you must fill in the data to complete the process successfully. By determining whether you are the owner of the institution or authorized by the owner, you begin filling in the data for the first stage.
- In the second step of the organization data, select the name of the desired record. Choosing the reserved record name requires that you have reserved the name previously, while the existing name requires that you already have record names available to you. Therefore, if you are trying to obtain a commercial register for the first time, you must choose a personal trade name, with the word “institution” or “company” written before the name and the type of activity after the trade name.
- Click Next and then a new page will appear in front of you containing fields to fill with information. Write your name as the owner of the establishment, the type of tradename, and name, and then specify the type of activity you carry out in terms of its public and private fields and type, with the ability to use the search box to quickly access the classification of your desired activity.
- When you choose the general field of activity, you will find that the special activity field appears, in which different options appear that define the type of business you provide more precisely. If you choose catering services, you will find that the service has branched out into different forms of catering, and based on your choice, your project will be further customized, so select what you provide. Then click next.
- After that, you must add the previous name of your organization and the subsequent name, provided that the activity name is medium, such as “Al-Farid Food Products Establishment,” and after selecting, click Next.
- This concludes the first stage of filling out the data, and all the organization’s data that you filled out will be displayed before you. Make sure it is correct. If there is any data that needs to be modified, click Edit and modify it, then click Next to begin the second stage.
- As you begin the second stage, you will find that what is required is commercial register data. First, determine the chronological extent of your commercial register, noting that the validity period of the commercial register ranges from 3 to 5 years.
- In the City field, specify the city in which you provide your services, and then register the capital with which you intend to start work. Do not forget that you cannot request a commercial register with a capital of less than 5,000 riyals.
- After that, you must select the calendar that you use to determine the beginning and end of the financial year in your organization, noting that the first year is counted one day after registration in the commercial registry and ends with the end of the year in the calendar of your choice.
- Click on the address and contact information to open new fields in which you add the region in which you provide your services and the city that you chose in the previous step. Since the address field will not show any saved addresses, choose “Add a new address.”
- A new window will open, containing several fields. Select the main area, neighborhood, and address of the store from which you provide your services, then click Verify.
- After completing the verification, you will find other fields have been displayed to you related to the location from which you provide your services, such as the residential unit number, floor, and unit type, so enter the information and click Save.
- Thus, you will find the contact information page in front of you, with the e-mail and phone number designated for communicating with customers, investors, and other parties that need to verify the status of the organization. Be careful not to click on the “I work in e-commerce” option unless there are e-commerce activities that you are already carrying out.
- If you have already selected the option related to having your own website, put the website link, while if there are no activities related to you, do not click on the option but rather click Next.
- Specify the name of the person who has been appointed director of the organization, register your name if you are the one managing it, verify the data, and then click Next.
- Thus, you reach the final stage, which is the summary of the application, in which you must verify the data completely, mark the acknowledgment that the data is correct, and then click on submit the application.
- An electronic invoice will be generated with a designated payment number. You must pay it within 30 days to be able to issue and print the electronic commercial register.
How much does it cost to extract a commercial register?
The fee for opening an electronic commercial registry is imposed on everyone who submits a request to issue a Saudi commercial registry. It is 200 riyals and can be paid through the electronic payment systems provided through the Saudi Business Center, such as:
- Payment Systems.
- Mada cards.
- Cards and credit cards.
How to print the commercial register
To be able to print the record after paying for it and obtain it electronically, follow these steps:
- Click the direct link to the Saudi Business Center from here.
- From the main interface, click on Electronic Services.
- Scroll down between the options, and from the “Commercial Register Extract” option, click on Start Service.
- You will be directed to the national unified access page to log in through your government account on the platform. Register your data and mobile number, then wait for the verification code that will be sent to your phone, insert it in the designated box, and press Continue.
- After that, you will be transferred back to the Saudi Business Center, which will display the details of the records issued through the center. Review the required record, then click on the option to print the record, specifying the required language.
- This will download a copy of the record to your device, and you can choose to print the file to obtain a paper copy.
conclusion
Issuing an electronic commercial record is no longer a difficult matter after the digital transformation that the state implemented to improve the lives of Saudi citizens and facilitate their access to government services, and after you learned the details of obtaining the electronic commercial record. Try Qoyod now for free for 14 days, without the need to enter your credit card information. Enjoy saving your time and effort, as it is the best accounting program that was designed specifically to serve you.
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