Already registered?

Make sure you select to represent your law firm before launching a transaction

• The screen shot below is an example of the landing page all portal users see when they log in.
• Your law firm will show in your list of ‘current connections’ once you have been invited to connect to the law firm account.
• Before you launch a transaction, make sure you select to represent your law firm. Do not select your own name (‘Myself’).
• This will ensure the invoice is issued to your law firm – not to you as an individual.

Not registered yet?

How to register and connect to a law firm partnership

A partner of the firm will need to perform the initial portal account registration.

• Go to the Regulatory portal registration page.
• Select ‘I want to act on behalf of a registered company or body’ tile.
• In the 'Entity type' drop-down list select ‘Other’
• In the ‘Category’ drop-down list select ‘Partnership’ and provide the relevant information to register.
• Enter your Australian Business Number (ABN) and ASIC key in relation to ABN.
• Confirm that you are a current partner of the partnership.
• Provide some personal contact details.
• Make final declaration.

The partner should log in and add in billing contact details for the law firm.

• Select your law firm from the ‘Select entity’ page once logged in. Do not select your own name.
• Provide billing contact details.

Once registered and once the billing and other contact details have been added, the partner can invite others to connect to submit transactions for its clients under the centralised law firm account.

• Select your law firm from the ‘Select entity’ page once logged in. Do not select your own name.
• Click on Administration in the top navigation bar.
• Click on the Users tab.
• Click on Invite new user to entity button.
• Enter the invitee's details – name, email address etc. You will also need to declare that you understand the access you are giving the invitee.
• Click Confirm.

This will send the invitee an email, including an invitation key that they can use to register or connect to the law firm if they have an existing portal account. The invitee can undertake administrative tasks like inviting other users to connect to the law firm account, if they are given ‘Administrator’ access.

How to register and connect to a law firm that is a company

Only a Director or Secretary of the company can perform the initial registration. They can then invite others to connect and act on their behalf. Steps to perform initial registration:

1. Go to the registration page.
2. Select ‘I want to act on behalf of a registered company or body’ tile.
3. In the ‘Entity type' drop-down list select ‘Australian Registered Company’ and provide the relevant information to register. You will need to have the following on hand:
• ASIC Identifier (Australian Company Number (ACN)),
• Corporate Key (for more information, see Corporate Key).
4. Provide some personal contact details.
5. Make final declaration.

Key points for law firms

• The law firm partnership account will contain a record of all the transactions submitted by portal users acting on behalf of the partnership. Access to transactions in the portal can be restricted.
• While the transactions may be submitted on behalf of a client, the debt for each transaction will be raised against the law firm partnership and will be shown on the invoice statement issued to the partnership.
• Each outstanding transaction will be listed on the one invoice statement as a separate line item, rather than separate invoices for each transaction.
• If the transaction is submitted on behalf a client, the name of the client will appear on the relevant transaction line item.

How else can I submit transactions on behalf of a client?

Separate to submitting as a law firm partnership, there are two other ways you can submit transactions to ASIC for a client and each of them will determine where the invoice statement is issued.

Submitting as client entity (e.g. a company)

• To connect to a client and to submit transactions on its behalf in the portal, you must first be invited by a Senior administrator or an Administrator of the client’s portal account. For companies registered on the portal, directors and sectaries are Senior administrators.
• The client’s portal account will contain the record of the transactions submitted by users who have connected to the account to act on its behalf.
• The debt for each transaction will be raised against the client entity and will be displayed on the invoice statement issued to the client entity.
• Individuals connect to a client entity using their individual portal account. A law firm partnership entity cannot connect to a client entity.

Submitting as an individual

• You can submit transactions to ASIC on behalf of a client from your own portal account.
• In this scenario, you are not connected to the portal account of your client entity, however you can still submit transactions on their behalf.
• You can invite others to draft/submit/review transactions on your behalf in the portal.
• Your portal account will contain a record of all the transactions you have submitted. It will also include a record of any transactions submitted on your behalf.
• The debt for each transaction will be raised against you as the individual and will be displayed on the invoice statement issued to you.

About the transaction

Key information is displayed on a landing page before you begin a transaction – this includes a summary of what you will need on hand to complete it. It also includes:

• Legislative references
• Documents you may need to attach to the transaction
• Applicable fees or levies
• Links to regulatory guides and related information.
• Privacy information.

Restricting access to transactions

When you launch a transaction in the portal you will first be asked if you want to restrict access to it on the transaction settings page.

To restrict access, click Yes – restrict access. This will take you to a set restrictions page, which allows you to select users who can access the transaction.

If you choose not to restrict access, all users connected to the account will have access to the transaction. If you choose to restrict access, only users you select will be able to access the transaction.

Once you have set these restrictions, you can add or remove users later.

For more information on restricting access to transaction see the Forms and transactions section on the FAQ page. For more information on how to invite someone to connect to your account and user access levels, see the Administration section on the FAQ page.

Sections

Transactions in the portal have sections. The total number of sections you need to complete will depend on each transaction and your specific circumstances. You will need to complete the sections of the transaction sequentially. The example shown below is of the lodge fundraising disclosure documents or statements transaction.

Save a draft, come back later

If you do not have the required information at hand, you can save the transaction as a draft and return later to complete it.

Multiple people can contribute to the draft, provided they have been given access to edit the transaction.

You can access your drafts from the ‘View all transactions’ page in the portal – where you can then click on an individual transaction. This will take you to a detailed view for that transaction. From here you can continue with the transaction by selecting the ‘Continue transaction’ button.

For more information on providing access to a transaction see the Forms and transactions section on the FAQ page. For more information on how to invite someone to connect to your account, see the Administration section on the FAQ page.

Reviewing a transaction

Once you have entered draft information and navigated through the form, a ‘review’ page will appear (also indicated in the left-hand navigation), towards the end of the transaction.

This page will summarise all the information you have entered so far in the transaction for review.

Download a PDF version

Transactions that have been submitted via the portal can also be viewed or downloaded in PDF format at any time. Note that if you choose to print out a transaction from the portal, all possible questions will be printed.

Attaching supporting documentation

You can attach document as required as part of the transaction.

Messaging ASIC about transactions

You can correspond with ASIC about transactions via the portal’s Message feature. This will keep a history of the correspondence regarding a specific transaction. You can attach files as part of this feature. The Messages, notifications and Official notices section on the portal FAQ page has more detail on how to use this feature.

Invitation process

If you would like someone to act on your behalf in the portal, you first need to invite them to connect to your account. Only a user with Senior administrator or Administrator Access level can invite other users to connect.

For more information on how to invite someone to connect to your account, see the Administration section on the Regulatory Portal FAQ page.

Setting access levels

When inviting someone to connect you can define their Access level to control what they can and can’t do on your behalf. For example, you can authorise a trusted representative such an associate or agent to launch and edit a transaction, but not submit it

There are four Access levels – Senior administrator, Administrator, Approver and Editor.

Only the Senior administrator or an Administrator of the account can invite other users to connect. If you registered the account, you will be the Senior administrator by default.

The person you invite will receive an email with an invitation key. The invitee will need to register an account of their own if they don’t have one already.

For more information, including on how to invite someone to connect to your account, see the Administration section on the  Regulatory Portal FAQ page.

Lodge fundraising disclosure documents or statements

This transaction allows you to lodge the following documents with ASIC:

• fundraising document under Chapter 6D (original, supplementary or replacement)
• product disclosure statement for listed managed investment schemes under chapter 7 (original, supplementary or replacement), or
• New Zealand offers made under mutual recognition scheme under chapter 8 (original, supplementary or change).

This transaction will ask you specific questions about the fundraising offer and information contained in the fundraising document or statement. Details of fundraising offers will be the exposed to the public on the Offer Notice Board (formerly OFFERlist), as part of portal lodgement process.

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

Early in the transaction you will be asked if there are any managed investment schemes related to the lodgement. Is the offeror of the securities the same as the issuer?

There are various questions related to the lodgement including whether the securities you are offering are listed on an exchange.

What sort of document are you lodging? Do you need any relief to facilitate your transaction? If so, you will need to make an application for relief through the portal after you complete the lodgement.

The transaction captures the amount you wish to raise and whether there is a minimum subscription, maximum subscription or capacity to accept oversubscriptions.

When you answer a question in a transaction, you may be requested to provide information specific to your response. This conditional logic ensures that appropriate questions are tailored to your responses.

Is the offer fully or partially underwritten?

The transaction allows you to easily attach supporting documents.

We recommend you save a copy or print the Review page for your records as a summary of your responses on the transaction.

Lodge takeover documents – bidder’s statements and notices

This transaction allows you to lodge bidder’s statements or supplementary bidder’s statement or notice during a bid period. You will be able to lodge bidder’s statements for multiple bid classes in the one transaction relating to the same target.

You are not able to apply for relief from ASIC on this transaction, and you will need to submit a separate application through the portal.

In this transaction you will be able to upload and submit:

• bidder’s statement (market or off market bids)
• supplementary bidder’s statement (market or off market)
• replacement bidder’s statement and replacement bidder’s statement (marked up) – only if you have not yet sent the bidder’s statement to the target shareholders
• notice of date set for determination of holders of securities – off market bid (s633(4))
• notice of service of bidder’s statement – off market (s633 step 4)
• notice that takeover offers have been sent – off market (s633 step 9)
• notice varying offers (extension and/or increase) – s649C and s650B-s650D Notice freeing offers from defeating condition – s650F
• notice of postponement of date for giving notice of status of conditions – s630(2)(b)
• notice of status of defeating conditions – s630(3)
• notice of fulfilment of defeating conditions – s630(4).

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

Early in the transaction you will provide details of each bidder. This section of the transaction allows an entity with an ASIC identifier to be included or a foreign entity or an individual. The first bidder listed will be referenced on the invoice.

A listed status question will ask that you select the exchange. The market/ticker code needs to be included too.

Does your lodgement relate to simultaneous bids for securities issued by different entities that are ‘stapled’ or are otherwise can only be transferred together? If the answer is “no” only 1 target entity can be entered.

Provide details of each class of securities in the target to which the bid or bids relate.

Other questions relate to the number of classes of securities on issue and what form of consideration you are offering.

The transaction allows you to easily upload multiple documents.

A fee summary is provided based on the details provided in the transaction.

Lodge takeover documents – target's statements and notices

This transaction allows you to lodge target’s statements or supplementary target’s statement or notice of disclosure of substantial holding during a bid period.

You will be able to lodge target’s statements for multiple bid classes in the one transaction responding to bidder’s statement from the same bidder. You will be able to upload and submit:

• target’s statement
• supplementary target’s statement
• notice of disclosure of substantial holding during a bid period under s654C(3) of the Corporations Act.

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

Early in the transaction you will provide details of legal advisers for the target in relation to the bid.

You will enter the bidder’s details.

You will be presented with various questions related to target securities.

Do any of the director(s) of the target have an interest in the bidder?

The transaction allows you to easily upload target’s statement.

A fee summary is provided based on the details provided in the transaction.

Lodge Scheme of Arrangement documents – explanatory statements and court orders

This transaction allows you to lodge the notice of court hearing, explanatory statements and court orders for a scheme of arrangement. You will be able to make lodgements for multiple schemes of arrangement (for each class of members or creditors for that body), and for multiple bodies within the same group.

You will be able to submit:

• notice of court hearing
• draft explanatory statement relating to a proposed compromise or arrangement
• court order convening the meeting for compromise or arrangement (s411(1) or (1A))
• copy of the explanatory statement for ASIC registration (only for member schemes, this is not required for creditor schemes)
• court order sanctioning a compromise or arrangement (s411(10))
• court order facilitating a reconstruction or amalgamation (s413(3)), or
• other court order relating to a scheme of arrangement (not including an order under s411).
• notice of court hearing with a draft explanatory statement.

You cannot apply for a statement of no objection (s411(17)(b)) from ASIC using this transaction. You will need to do a separate application using the ASIC approval, consent, statement, nomination, or other portal transaction.

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

You will select the type of document(s) you are seeking to provide to or lodge with ASIC?

You should add each organisation or individual to which this lodgement applies.

Enter details for each compromise or arrangement between members or creditors to which the lodgement relates.

Are the securities quoted/traded on a financial market?

The transaction allows you to easily attach documents related to the scheme.

A fee summary is provided based on the details provided in the transaction (screen below is for example only).

Lodge compulsory acquisition and buy out notices

This transaction allows you to generate, complete and lodge with ASIC a notice of compulsory acquisition or buy out rights whether or not it is made following a takeover bid.

It also allows you to upload and lodge a notice of objection in relation to the compulsory acquisition and the list of members objecting to the compulsory acquisition. You will only be able to lodge one notice in a single transaction.

Only a company director or company secretary of the entity proposing to acquire the securities can lodge these notices with ASIC and complete this transaction.

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

What type of notice are you seeking to lodge with ASIC? The subsequent questions in the transaction will change depending on your selection. In this example, ‘Notice of compulsory acquisition following a takeover bid’ is selected.

Several questions relating to the class of securities holders.

Which of the following securities do you hold at the date of this notice?

A fee summary will be provided based on the details provided in the transaction.

After reviewing the transaction and making the declaration, you can download and send your notice to shareholders.

You must pay the fee on this transaction before ASIC will process it.

Submit shareholder meeting materials – related party transactions or acquisition approvals

This transaction allows you to submit shareholder meeting materials seeking member approval of related party transactions and/or acquisitions to be approved by members.

You will be able to upload:

• draft notice of meeting materials
• proposed explanatory statement satisfying s219
• documents accompanying the notice of meeting
• other material documents about the proposal, and
  cover letter and other supporting documentation.

If needed, ensure that you apply for an abridgment of time (s218) using the Apply for an ASIC approval, consent, statement, nomination, or other portal transaction.

Shown below are some of the questions and some of the functionality you can expect from this transaction in the portal. This overview does not show every aspect of the transaction.

You will be asked to select what type of entity the notice of meeting relates to. Are the securities that are subject to the acquisition or related party transaction traded on an exchange?

After adding in details of the acquirer/s (if applicable) – you will be asked to briefly describe the transaction followed by other questions.

The transaction allows you to easily submit meeting material documents.

A fee summary will be provided based on the details provided in the transaction (screen below is for example only).