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Guide

Board materials: one current board book, read by the right directors.

Before each meeting, someone assembles the board book: the agenda, financials, management's report, committee papers and draft resolutions. Then it goes out by email, gets revised twice, and directors arrive holding different versions. Former directors and observers often keep access to old materials long after their seat changes.

This guide is for founders, CEOs, CFOs and corporate secretaries at private companies who want board materials handled with more care. It describes common practice, not legal advice. Your company counsel can tell you what your bylaws and investor agreements require.

What usually goes into a board book

  • The agenda and the minutes of the previous meeting for approval.
  • The CEO's report and a dashboard of key operating metrics.
  • Monthly or quarterly financial statements, a budget comparison and the cash position.
  • Committee materials, for example audit, compensation or nominating committee papers.
  • Draft resolutions or written consents, including option grants and financing approvals.
  • Supporting documents such as material contracts, a 409A valuation report or a financing term sheet.

Many private companies also act between meetings by written consent of the directors, which means circulating a document and collecting approvals. Those consents and their supporting papers belong in the same place as the meeting materials, so the company's record is complete.

Who should see what

A venture-backed board often includes founders, investor directors, an independent director and one or more board observers. Observers usually have narrower rights than directors, set out in the investment documents, and some material may be withheld from them, for instance discussions where an investor has a conflict. Committees see their own papers.

In ShareAndGo, each of these is a group. Directors see the full board folders; observers see the folders you choose; the compensation committee sees its own papers. A folder a group cannot see does not appear for it at all. When a director leaves, revoke their invitation and their access ends that moment.

A board room that runs itself

  1. 1

    One folder per meeting

    Create a folder for each meeting date, with subfolders for financials, committee papers and resolutions.

  2. 2

    Publish, then revise

    When management revises the financials, upload the revision as a new version. Directors always see the latest; the history shows what changed.

  3. 3

    Collect questions in advance

    Directors can raise questions in the room before the meeting, so management can prepare answers instead of improvising.

  4. 4

    Archive by year

    Keep past meetings in the room as the company's record, and export a year as a ZIP with an index when counsel or auditors ask.

Protecting board information

Board materials are among the most sensitive documents a company has. They often contain a financing strategy, an acquisition approach or a personnel decision that has not been announced. Make the most sensitive folders view-only: directors read watermarked pages carrying their name, email address and the date, and the original file is never sent to their browser.

Many directors read papers on personal devices and forward things without thinking. A watermark discourages that, and the audit log records every view and download, chained so alterations are detectable. Insights show which directors have opened the book before the meeting, which is useful for a chair who wants a prepared board.

Your team signs in through MyAndGo with Google, Microsoft or email and two-step verification. Directors who are outside the company simply confirm their email with a six-digit code.

Questions

Can directors download the papers?
If you allow it. Download, print and copy are set per room and per group, so you might allow downloads of the agenda and keep financials view-only.
Can we keep minutes here permanently?
Yes. Many companies keep the full history of meetings in one room. Ask counsel how long your company should retain board records.
Can AI summarize a long board book?
ShareAndGo summarizes and tags documents and its search finds words inside them. Owners can also connect Claude or ChatGPT to the workspace, with each room deciding separately whether an assistant may read it.

Related guides

Quarterly investor reporting

Keeping shareholders informed between board meetings.

Business succession

Board materials matter most at a change of leadership.

Setting up a joint venture

Governance papers shared between two companies.

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