Every Canadian jurisdiction
Federal, all ten provinces, all three territories. Switch at the top and the list rewrites itself for the statute you're actually filing under — an item that exists in only some jurisdictions appears only in those.
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Incorporate without discovering a step too late.
Articles of incorporation are one step in a much longer sequence. This checklist lays out all seven stages, for whichever Canadian jurisdiction you're filing in, and tells you for every single item whether it's the statute talking, the registry, the CRA, or just hard-won practice.
The filing is the easy part.
Most people who incorporate get the articles filed without much trouble. What goes wrong is everything arranged around them — a name that was never properly cleared, a share structure that can't accommodate the second shareholder who arrives a year later, a minute book that was never actually organized, a payroll account opened three months after the first paycheque.
None of those are hard on their own. They're expensive because they're found late — usually by the accountant, at year end, when unwinding them costs more than doing them would have.
What the tool does
Every step, and where it comes from.
A checklist that only tells you what to do leaves you no way to judge what you can safely defer. Each item here is tagged with its basis, so the difference between a statutory obligation and a good habit is visible at a glance.
Tagged by basis
Statute, registry filing, CRA / tax, or best practice. You can see immediately which items are obligations and which are judgment calls.
Why this matters
Every item opens to a plain-English explanation of what goes wrong if you skip it, with a link to the official source the requirement came from.
Progress that persists
Tick items off across several sittings. Progress is stored in your own browser on that device — it is never sent to us, and no account is involved.
Print or save as PDF
Produce a clean printed copy of the checklist with your progress on it — for the file, the client, or the lawyer you're briefing.
Downloadable record
Export a structured record of exactly what you completed and under which jurisdiction, so the work is documented rather than remembered.
Start to finish
Seven stages, in the order they happen.
The checklist runs past the certificate deliberately. Incorporating is not the finish line — the stages after it are where most of the avoidable cost sits.
Decide & prepare
Confirm a corporation is the right vehicle at all, and choose the jurisdiction you'll file in.
Name
Named or numbered, and what clearing a name actually involves before you can file it.
Articles of incorporation
What the articles themselves have to set out — share classes, director numbers, restrictions.
People & records to gather
Who is involved, in what role, and the information you need on hand for each of them.
File & pay
Submitting the articles and getting back the Certificate of Incorporation.
Organize the corporation
The first steps after the certificate — the ones most often skipped and later regretted.
Registrations & ongoing
Tax accounts to open and the filings that recur every year from here on.
General information — not legal or tax advice. Incorporation requirements, fees, and thresholds change. Confirm the current rules using the official sources linked inside the tool, and take anything specific to your situation to your own lawyer and CPA.
Also in the Toolbox
What tends to come next.
CRA accounts & first-year tax
Picks up where this checklist leaves off — once you hold the Certificate of Incorporation, which CRA accounts you need, when, and the thresholds that decide it.
Real estate registrants (PREC)
If you're a licensed real estate salesperson or broker, your articles have extra conditions to satisfy. Start with the PREC overview and the free Articles Health Check.
Questions people ask first.
Work the list before you file.
Free, runs in your browser, and nothing you tick leaves your device. No account, no email address.