The details on the register are what everyone else relies on. A bank verifying a payment, a customer running a compliance check, the CIPC sending a deregistration notice — all of them use what is on file, not what is true.
Keeping them current is administrative and dull, and the consequences of not doing it are neither.
The registered address is the one that matters
This is the address at which the company officially receives things. Official notices go there, and they are treated as delivered whether or not anybody read them.
An enormous number of small companies were registered years ago at an accountant's office, a former business address, or a parent's house. The company moves; the register does not. Then a deregistration notice arrives somewhere nobody checks, and the first anyone hears of the problem is when the bank account stops working.
If you change nothing else after reading this, check the registered address and the contact email on file, and make them somewhere you actually look.
Changing the company name
A name change is a formal process: a new name is reserved, the change is approved, and an amended registration certificate is issued. The registration number does not change, and the company remains the same legal entity throughout — contracts do not need to be re-signed because the name changed.
What does need attention is everything downstream. The bank, SARS, your insurers, your domain and email, your invoices, any licences or accreditations, and any customer who has you loaded as a supplier on their system. Budget more time for that list than for the change itself.
A trading name is a different thing. You may trade under a name that is not your registered name, and many businesses do, but your registered name and number still belong on invoices and contracts. Registering a company name is also not a trade mark — it does not stop somebody else using something similar, and if the name carries real commercial weight that is a separate exercise worth taking advice on.
Financial year end
It can be changed, within limits and not repeatedly. Most small companies never need to and should leave it alone: everything downstream — annual returns, tax filing, financial statements — is anchored to that date, and moving it creates a short or long first period that your accountant will have to deal with.
Shareholding
Changes in who owns the company are recorded in the company's own securities register, which the company is obliged to keep. This is separate from the directors on the CIPC record, and the two are often confused: a director runs the company, a shareholder owns it, and they are frequently not the same people.
If you have taken on a partner, an investor, or an employee with equity, and nothing was written down beyond a conversation, that is worth fixing now rather than at the point where it matters.
The annual check
The annual return asks you to confirm the company's details. Treat that as a real prompt rather than a box: once a year, look at the address, the email, the directors and the shareholding, and correct whatever has drifted.
It takes ten minutes and it is the only scheduled moment anybody will ever look.
General guidance, not legal advice. Name changes, shareholding and trade marks are areas where advice is usually worth the cost.