New Business Checklist - South Africa

The tools for getting from zero, to a legal business entity able to transact online, is easier in South Africa right now than it’s ever been. This document serves as a brief guide to each of the components: Registration, banking, payments, and a web presence.

0. Before you start

Registering a new (Pty) Ltd company is easy, and comes with a handful of benefits, but also obligates you to Annual Return filings and additional overhead. If you’re just starting out - and aiming for your first few thousand Rand in sales - then it’s better to skip company formation entirely.

This guide assumes you’re a natural South African citizen with an ID number, and are registering a single-director Pty Ltd (you). Some of these processes are possible for foreign residents, but those can get complicated depending on your individual situation.

This guide covers:

  1. Personal banking setup with BankZero
  2. Virtual office address setup (optional)
  3. Company formation using BizPortal
  4. Business banking with BankZero
  5. Set up a payment gateway
  6. Domain name and web presence setup
  7. Your tax responsibilities
  8. Useful extras

1. Personal banking setup with BankZero

BankZero is (as of 2021) the lowest cost banking option that’s entirely app-driven, and does not require you to visit a bank branch, or even an in-store kiosk. Signing up only requires a smartphone! See bankzero.co.za for more.

Once you’re enrolled and downloaded the app, the onboarding process will require you to do a liveness test, then submit basic FICA documentation in order to open up a personal check account. This process takes about a day. If you have scanned copies of your ID and proof of residence, it's best to get those on your phone somehow, so you can attach them directly from the app.

Why set this up if you already have a personal account? Because getting a business account via BankZero is very straightforward compared to other banks, and you’re going to want a zero-fee option there.

Once you’re set up, ensure you’ve got at least R1000 available in the account before proceeding:

  • R175 for BizPortal registration
  • R500 opening balance for a BankZero business account
  • R325 remaining for a professional web/email presence (first few months)

2. Virtual office address setup (optional)

Your business needs a physical address. You’re able to use your home address here, but these addresses become part of the public record. It’s not very difficult to identify the registered business address of a company, so unless you’re comfortable with that information being out there, you’ll need the use of another address.

If you’re renting an office, that makes it easy - you’ll have a registered office address. If not, you’ll want to register and pay for the rights to use a virtual office address. Some SA-based service providers include:

Each one of them will have their own packages, pricing, and rules. Ultimately you’re just looking for an address you can legally use to form a company, so you don’t have to fall back to your residential address (unless you’re comfortable with that!).

3. Company formation using BizPortal

The CIPC made this process much simpler with the launch of BizPortal

If you don’t already have a CIPC eServices account, BizPortal will walk you through the registration process, starting with your SA ID number. After logging in, you’ll be able to register a new company just by following the prompts on the website.

BizPortal publishes a detailed PDF guide here. - the short version is:

  • Pick a company name - you can register without one, but honestly, it’s faster to do this upfront + it’ll double as your domain name for later
  • Complete the online process for a Private Company (Pty Ltd)
    • Includes adding and verifying directors with SA ID number and answering some basic Department of Home Affairs questions
    • You might need the ID number of parents or spouses as part of this process
  • Set up the company with some defaults:
    • Company financial year end month: February
    • Authorised shares: 1000
    • Physical address - your residence, or a virtual location, or a premises you rent/own
  • Apply for a company name - have 2-3 options ready to submit in order of preference
  • Apply for Compensation Fund and UIF
    • Only if you already have employees - if it’s just you, and this is a brand new business, you can apply for this later
  • Apply for a B-BBEE certificate - since you’re brand new and don’t have turnover of R10 million yet, you can apply for a free one by filling out a short form
  • Skip the option to open a bank account (if you’re using BankZero)
  • Pay the R175 fee (R125 for formation, R50 for name processing) using your personal BankZero card.

That should get you to the point where BizPortal will process everything, then email you within one business day with your formation documents. The important one is COR14.3 - it contains the summary of your business and directors, and is the most common document requested when trying to prove you own a business.

Remember to keep these documents in a safe place! A dedicated cloud storage folder (off your Gmail or Outlook.com address) is best.

4. Business bank account at BankZero

Since you’re already in the app as a personal user (and have FICA’d) you can just tap the + icon on the home screen to register a new Business account. The app will take you through the requirements, which will include:

  • Beneficial Owner Declaration and a signed Resolution / Minutes - both of which are document templates they’ll email to you, you just need to fill them in and upload them via the app (easiest way is to save them to a Dropbox, Drive or similar folder you can get to from your phone). SignRequest.com is a great tool for this.
  • Proof of business existence - that’ll be the COR14.3 you received earlier.
  • Proof of address - If you're using your residential address they'll likely ask for an additional affidavit. If you're renting an office (virtual or otherwise), the cover sheet of your contract + a signed affidavit from the owners of the space will tick this box. Again, they’ll email you a template for the latter, you just need to fill it in and get it signed

You’ll also be asked to fund the business account with a starting balance of R500. Once you’ve submitted everything it could take up to a business day to get the account registered and FICA’d. If successful, you’ll get an email welcoming you to the business account, which will include an Account Confirmation Letter.

5. Set up a payment gateway

Your business now needs to be able to accept online payments. As of March 2024, the leading provider in this space is Paystack.com - they’ve got the best API, most stable platform, lowest fee structure, and the ability to accept payments from around the world (denominated in ZAR).

Here, the setup is very straightforward: Apply for a new account at Paystack . You’ll be walked through the process and asked to provide some documents - among them:

  • Business FICA (proof of address, COR14.3 from the previous step)
  • A scanned/photo copy of your own ID
  • An account confirmation letter (from the previous step)
  • The bank details to pay out to - which are BankZero’s

Processing can take 1-2 business days, but once you’re activated, you’ll be able to create payment links directly, or integrate Paystack into whatever online store platform you’re working with.

There are lots more options - I've published a comprehensive rundown here!

6. Domain Name and web presence setup

Now that you’ve got your business, banking and payment rails set up, the next step should be some sort of professional web presence.

The simplest way to get this done would be a cheap hosting package at Afrihost that includes a domain name - ideally one that matches the business name. These setups usually include email accounts at the domain, which will let you send and receive email from a domain that doesn’t look like a free email account (gmail, hotmail, etc) - which will make you look a bit more established.

Personally, I like gandi.net for this. They’re based in France, but offer three killer services in one go:

  • Cheap domain registration in an easy-to-use interface
  • One-click mailbox setups on the domain
  • One-click Wordpress site setups at big first-time discounts

I’ve used them for most of my new ventures in the last year and would recommend the service to anyone. But if I were starting absolutely from scratch, and I knew I was going to use the new mailbox for at least a year, I’d use Google Workspace Business Starter (~R100/month) - Gmail + Docs + related apps, very good value for money.

Other options for a dedicated company mailbox include:

  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic (R128/month) - puts you in the Office365 ecosystem and gets you a ton of included apps
  • Zoho Workplace (R45/month) - Solid competitor to Google Workspace, offers many of the same features at a lower cost.
  • Fastmail.com Basic - (R45/month) - just a reliable mailbox and calendar solution.

Remember that all the documents issued as part of this process should be kept in a safe place. Cloud storage is best, especially if they’re filed under a folder name you can easily find later.

7. Your tax responsibilities

As a business, you're going to responsible for quite a few taxes! I've published a handy breakdown here which covers the common ones:

  • CIPC Annual Return
  • Corporate Income Tax
  • Value Added Tax
  • Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
  • Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)
  • Skills Development Levy (SDL)
  • Compensation Fund (CF)

8. Useful extras

If you need a phone number that can be dialled by SA landlines and mobiles - but don’t want to use your main cellphone number - you can get a cheap VOIP number from FreshPhone - the pricing is fantastic, the accounts can be connected from desktop and mobile VOIP apps.

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