10 Common COSEC Pain Points and How to Address Them

Board papers in one folder. Compliance trackers in another. Action items buried in emails.

For governance professionals and company secretaries, keeping everything connected can become a substantial part of the job.

These professionals support effective decision-making, accountability and organisational resilience. Yet the information they need is often spread across spreadsheets, documents, inboxes and individual knowledge.

The result? More time spent chasing updates, checking versions and compiling reports—and less time available for proactive governance.

At UnifyToday, we have developed an intelligent Governance and Company Secretarial solution within our governance, risk and compliance platform to help bring this work together.

This article introduces ten common COSEC pain points. Over the series, we will explore each challenge and how a more connected approach can help.

1. An unclear view of company structures and ownership

When entity records, shareholding information and directorships sit in separate documents, maintaining a reliable picture of the organisation becomes difficult.

How we help: Centralised entity management brings company structures, ownership and directorship information together to support visibility and beneficial ownership filing.

2. Shareholder insights that fall behind

For listed companies, periodic register reports can leave company secretarial and investor relations teams working with an incomplete picture of their shareholder base.

How we help: AI-supported shareholder analytics combine register insights with external sentiment and reputational analysis to support more informed engagement.

3. Compliance tracked across disconnected spreadsheets

Separate checklists make it difficult to see who owns an obligation, what has been completed and where follow-up is needed.

How we help: Pre-populated checklists and shared dashboards help teams assign responsibility, track progress and report on compliance activities.

4. Policies that are difficult to track through their lifecycle

Drafting a policy is only one step. Reviews, approvals, implementation and employee acknowledgements also need attention.

How we help: Policy workflows connect these stages, with visibility of progress and reminders for reviews and approvals.

5. Board and committee meetings that require constant chasing

Preparing meeting packs often means coordinating contributors, checking versions and following up on outstanding papers. After the meeting, actions still need to be tracked.

How we help: Meeting workflows support the preparation and approval of papers, coordination of tasks and follow-up on meeting actions.

6. Conflicts of interest managed reactively

A register can record a declaration, but identifying potential conflicts also requires information to be reviewed and connected.

How we help: Structured questionnaires and screening capabilities help teams identify potential conflicts for review and follow-up.

7. Limited visibility of securities dealing approvals

For listed companies, disconnected requests and records can make it difficult to track clearance to deal and communicate relevant restrictions.

How we help: A guided dealing process helps individuals navigate requests and approvals, with clearer visibility of clearance status.

8. Integrated reporting slowed by email and version control

When contributions move between inboxes as separate documents, consolidating an integrated report becomes a significant coordination task.

How we help: Shared reporting workflows bring contributors, responsibilities, reminders and progress tracking into one process.

9. Tasks and actions scattered across multiple tools

Compliance obligations and meeting decisions generate actions. When these are spread across documents and personal reminders, follow-up becomes harder.

How we help: A central task dashboard helps teams track planned and outstanding actions arising from compliance obligations and governance processes.

10. No consolidated view of governance status

Even when individual records are up to date, answering “Where do we stand?” can require another round of manual reporting.

How we help: Consolidated dashboards bring compliance status, overdue actions, control information and regulatory filings into a shared view.

A single source of truth for governance

These challenges share a common thread: disconnected information makes coordination and oversight harder.

Bringing records, responsibilities and workflows together can help governance professionals spend less time assembling the picture and more time acting on it.

In the next article, we will explore the first pain point: maintaining a clear view of company structures, ownership and directorships.

Which of these challenges takes up the most time in your organisation?

To see how UnifyToday can support your governance and company secretarial work, get in touch to arrange a demonstration.