Top Key Legal Documents

The Top Key Legal Documents That Any Australian Business Needs To Have

Posted on December 12, 2023

Owning and running your own business can be a bit of a legal minefield if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. If you already own your own business then you have worked hard up until this point to build up what you have and it would be a complete shame to risk all of it because you didn’t have the right legal documents in place to protect your interests. You would be surprised at the number of Australian businesses that don’t check documents that they sign with wholesalers, other retailers and customers as well.

Before you commit yourself to anything and before you sign on any dotted line, you should always take advantage of third-party business entity document review to make sure that everything contained within it is advantageous to your business interests and not to someone else’s. It’s important that you protect what is yours and just don’t leave everything up to luck and chance. The following are just some of the more common legal documents that every Australian business needs to put in place.

  • A non-disclosure agreement – It doesn’t matter what sector you are operating in here in Australia because you’re always going to have important information in your possession that needs to be kept private. You may have a list of customers with their personal home addresses, you might have business financial records or any other confidential information from contractors, your employees or any other businesses. Having a non-disclosure agreement in place protects your business.
  • The employee contracts – This is a legal document that you will want to have and the employee will want to have a copy of as well. It puts in place the agreement for employment so that there are no future issues further down the line if there is a disagreement. The contract might contain details about employees not that divulging important business information should they decide to leave your company.
  • Memorandums of understanding – It’s likely that you will be negotiating and dealing with various suppliers from all across Australia and anyone else who might be involved directly or indirectly in your business. The purpose of a memorandum of understanding is to set out the terms of any of your relationships in writing and while it may not be legally binding, it does let everyone know where they stand.

It might also be a good idea to set up an online privacy policy if you have an online store so that any information that you gather from your customers or potential customers who visit your website is explained to everyone including what this information will be used for. While it may not be a legal document, it’s important to have a business plan in place so that if you ever need to reach out to lenders, you have a proper business plan in place which give them an idea of what your business is all about and how you hope to achieve your business ambitions.