What Quorum does
Quorum is a governance operating system for Australian boards. It manages board meetings, agendas, minutes, resolutions and the obligations a board has to meet. If you are looking for board portal software, company-secretary software or a governance tool that understands Australian regulation, Quorum is the Cohiva product for that.
Quorum models the Corporations Act, ACNC requirements and state association acts as data, so the obligations a board sees reflect the regime it operates under. A company limited by shares, a charity registered with the ACNC, and an incorporated association under a state act carry different duties, and Quorum surfaces the ones that apply rather than a generic checklist.
Explore Quorum for the full product, or read on for how it fits a company secretary and board.
The category Quorum wins
A board portal usually does one thing well: distribute papers and hold them in one place. The harder governance work, knowing which obligations apply, when they fall due, and keeping a defensible record that they were met, tends to live in a company secretary's spreadsheets and memory.
Quorum is built for that harder part. It is company-secretary and board portal software that treats the regulatory regime as data, so the obligations, deadlines and meeting requirements a board faces are modelled rather than tracked by hand. For an Australian board, the category is governance software that speaks the Corporations Act, the ACNC and the state association acts accurately, and helps the secretary stay on top of duties rather than chase them.
Key capabilities
- Meetings and agendas. Plan and run board meetings with structured agendas, so the meeting follows the order of business and the papers are in one place.
- Minutes and resolutions. Record minutes and resolutions against each meeting, building a structured, defensible record of what the board decided.
- Obligations. Surface upcoming obligations based on the regime the board operates under, so deadlines are visible ahead of time rather than discovered late.
- Regime modelling. Model the Corporations Act, ACNC requirements and state association acts as data, so the duties a board sees match its legal form.
- Governance record. Keep the meeting, decision and obligation history in one place, which enhances governance and supports the board's obligations.
Who it is for
Quorum suits company secretaries, directors and not-for-profit committees who need a structured, defensible record of governance and a clear view of upcoming obligations. It is a strong fit for organisations whose governance spans more than a simple annual meeting: charities with ACNC duties, companies with Corporations Act obligations, and incorporated associations under state acts.
The measured, precise work of a company secretary is the work Quorum is designed around. It does not promise to remove judgement from governance; it helps the people responsible for governance see their obligations clearly and keep the record straight.
Why regime modelling matters
Governance obligations are not generic. The duties of a company limited by shares under the Corporations Act differ from those of a charity registered with the ACNC, which differ again from an incorporated association under a state act. A board portal that offers a single, flat checklist either overstates obligations that do not apply or misses ones that do, and the company secretary ends up maintaining the real list by hand anyway.
Quorum models each regime as data, so the obligations a board sees are the obligations that apply to its legal form. When a deadline approaches, it is surfaced ahead of time rather than discovered after the fact. This does not replace the judgement of the directors or the secretary; it gives them an accurate, current view of what is due and a structured record of what has been done, which is what enhances governance in practice.
For a secretary who looks after several entities of different types, this is the difference between one tool that understands each entity's regime and a stack of spreadsheets that each have to be kept current separately.
Part of one platform
Quorum sits in the Cohiva suite, sharing one identity and one control plane with the products that run the rest of the operation. It helps boards stay on top of their obligations rather than tracking deadlines in spreadsheets. For an organisation that also signs documents, Quorum and Sign pair naturally, so a resolution and its signed record stay connected on one data layer.
A defensible record
Good governance leaves a trail. When a decision is questioned later, by a member, a regulator or a future board, the record of how it was made is what stands up. Minutes that capture the resolution, the discussion and who was present, held in order and tied to the meeting they came from, are the evidence that the board did its job properly.
Quorum builds that record as the meeting runs rather than reconstructing it afterwards. Agendas structure the meeting, minutes and resolutions attach to it, and obligations link to the regime that requires them. The result is a governance history that is structured and defensible, which is what a company secretary needs both for the next meeting and for the moment a past decision is examined.
Getting started
Quorum is part of the Cohiva platform, designed to meet the governance demands of Australian boards. To see capabilities and a closer look at how Quorum models obligations, visit quorum.cohiva.app.