Run your shareholder votes in Sharesies Private. You share your notice of meeting and materials, shareholders vote online in their portal, and you lodge any paper, proxy or in-person votes on their behalf. Every vote is counted in one place, through to certified results.
What's in this article
Follow the steps in order. Each one builds on the last.
Getting ready
Before you start: what to have ready
How proxies work: read this before you upload materials
Setting up your meeting
While voting is open
Step 8: Lodge votes on behalf of shareholders
Meeting day and results
With meetings and voting you can:
Set up a meeting and its resolutions, including pass thresholds and translations of your resolutions and materials (if multilingual is turned on for your company).
Share the notice of meeting, proxy form and supporting materials with shareholders.
Email shareholders when voting opens, and send reminders to those who haven't voted.
Lodge direct, proxy, paper and in-person votes on a shareholder's behalf, including split votes.
See live results for each resolution, then certify the final outcome
Download results, voting register and attendance reports.
Before you start
Meetings and voting needs to be turned on for your company. If you can't see Shareholder voting in your admin menu, email business.support@sharesies.com and we'll switch it on.
Have these ready:
Meeting details: name, type, date, time, venue and any online meeting link.
Your resolutions: the final wording of each one, whether it's ordinary or special, and any translations (if multilingual is turned on for your company).
A voting close time: when online voting closes before the meeting.
A record date: the date used to work out who can vote and how many votes they have. By default this is the voting close date.
Your notice of meeting: the finished document, plus any other papers like financial statements or proposed constitution changes.
A proxy form (if you allow proxy votes): see How proxies work.
An up-to-date share register: any transfers, issues or corrections up to the record date need to be entered so votes are counted correctly.
Do some of your shares sit in a nominee, custodian or trust? If you want to collect votes from the underlying shareholders in these entities, you’ll need to set up the meeting and vote in each of their Sharesies Private profiles. See Voting for a nominee, custodian or trust holding.
How proxies work in Sharesies Private
Currently, shareholders can only vote directly and online in Sharesies Private. They can't appoint a proxy online.
If you want to allow proxy votes, shareholders appoint a proxy on a paper proxy form. The process is:
If you don't upload a proxy form, shareholders have no way to appoint a proxy, so upload one if you allow proxy votes.
Step 1: Create the meeting
You create the meeting as a draft, add its resolutions, then open voting when you're ready. Nothing is visible to shareholders while the meeting is in draft. You can select Save draft and come back to it at any time.
Go to Shareholder voting in your admin menu and create a new meeting.
Enter the meeting details: title, the company name as shown to shareholders, meeting type, venue, meeting link (if any), start date and time, and time zone.
Choose which share classes can vote. Leave this empty to allow every share class to vote.
Set when online voting closes. The time zone you chose applies to both the meeting start time and the voting close time.
Optionally, tick Set a record date separately from the voting close date if your record date is different.
Upload your meeting materials in the Meeting documents panel (see Step 3).
Select Continue to resolutions.
What's highlighted:
Meeting details: title, company name, type, venue, link, start date and time, and time zone.
Eligible share classes: which classes can vote.
Voting: when online voting closes, and the optional separate record date.
Meeting documents panel: where you upload your notice of meeting, proxy form and other materials.
How the record date works
The record date decides who can vote and how many votes each shareholder has. Sharesies uses your share register as at the end of that day, in your company's time zone.
Shareholders who hold shares in the voting share classes on the record date can vote.
Someone who buys shares after the record date can't vote at this meeting.
Someone who sells after the record date can still vote. If they've lost access to your portal, you can lodge their vote for them on paper.
Until the meeting is certified, voting entitlements are read from your live register. If you correct a register error before certifying, the correction flows through to the result.
Step 2: Add resolutions
Add your resolutions in the order they'll be voted on. For each one, enter:
The resolution name and wording (the Description).
The resolution Type, which sets the pass threshold. For example, an ordinary resolution passes with more than 50% of votes cast in favour, and Special 75% passes with at least 75%.
Any translations of the wording (see Translations).
Select Save on each resolution, then Add resolution for the next one. Use Edit or Remove on a saved resolution to change it. When you're done, select Continue to review.
What's highlighted:
The resolution form: name, description and type. Select Save when you're happy with it.
Add resolution: adds another resolution.
Continue to review: moves you to the Review and publish step.
Step 3: Upload meeting materials
Use the Meeting documents panel to upload everything shareholders need to read or watch before they vote. Shareholders can view and download these materials from the meeting page in their portal. You can add more than one item, for example:
The notice of meeting.
The proxy form (important if you allow proxy votes)
Financial statements or the annual report.
Proposed constitution changes.
Allowing proxy votes? Upload your proxy form. Shareholders will need to download the form, fill it out and return it to you. Without it, they can't appoint a proxy, because proxies can't be appointed online.
Translations
You can add translations of your meeting materials and resolutions, so shareholders can read them in their preferred language. This is available when multilingual is turned on in your company's platform profile.
Materials: upload a translated version alongside the original, for example the notice of meeting and proxy form.
Resolutions: add the translated title and wording when you create each resolution (see Step 2).
If you can't see the option to add translations, multilingual isn't turned on for your company yet. Contact Sharesies Private support (business@sharesies.com) to request it.
Step 4: Check corporate shareholder entities
Some shareholders vote through a nominated representative rather than as an individual. In Sharesies Private these are called Corporate Shareholder Entities. They include:
Companies (with directors).
Entities that have corporate trustees such as Trusts and SMSFs.
A corporate shareholder entity must have its nominated representative recorded against it before it can vote. If this hasn't been supplied and recorded against the shareholder entity in the share register, the entity is blocked from voting by default.
What this looks like depends on your company's country:
New Zealand: Representative appointment. A company votes at a meeting through a representative it appoints in writing under section 124 of the Companies Act 1993. Without a signed written appointment on file, this entity cannot vote.
Australia: section 250D authorisation. A company votes through a representative authorised under section 250D of the Corporations Act 2001. Until the authorisation is on file, this entity cannot vote.
To lift the block, record the nominated representative against the shareholder entity in your share register. You can either upload the signed document or mark it as sighted. The block lifts straight away, even if voting is already open.
Step 5: Review and open voting
When your meeting and resolutions are ready, you'll be on the Review and publish step. You can review the draft meeting, come back to it and edit it, and when you're ready, Open voting.
What's highlighted:
Meeting summary: meeting details, eligible share classes, voting close time, record date and meeting materials. Select Edit to change any section.
Resolutions: check the wording, type and pass threshold of each resolution. Select Edit to change them.
Notify shareholders: leave Email shareholders to let them know voting is open ticked to send a system notification email when you publish. Select Preview email to see exactly what shareholders will receive.
Open voting: makes the meeting live.
Select Save draft at any time to leave and come back later. The meeting stays invisible to shareholders until you open voting.
When you open voting, the meeting becomes visible to the shareholders on the roll. They can view the notice of meeting and meeting materials, and cast their vote through Sharesies Private.
Step 6: What shareholders see and how they vote
Once voting is open, shareholders can vote straight from their Sharesies Private portal. Here's what they'll see.
The voting banner
Eligible shareholders see a banner at the top of their portal until they've voted. It shows the meeting name and when voting closes, with a Vote now button that takes them directly to the voting screen. If a shareholder can vote for more than one entity, they'll see a Vote button for each one.
You don't need to do anything to show the banner. If you ticked Email shareholders to let them know voting is open, they'll also get an email with the same link.
The voting screen
When a shareholder selects Vote now, they see the meeting and every resolution on one page.
What shareholders see:
Cast your vote: shows how many votes their holding carries.
Each resolution: the full wording, whether it's ordinary or special and what's needed to pass, with For, Against and Abstain options.
Meeting details: the meeting name, type, date and time, venue, meeting link, and when voting closes.
Meeting documents: the notice of meeting, proxy form and any other materials you've uploaded, which they can download. A short note explains that proxies can't be appointed online.
Submit: shareholders answer every resolution (a counter shows how many they've answered), then select Submit. They can select Cancel to leave without voting.
Shareholders can come back and change their vote until voting closes. Only their latest vote counts.
Step 7: Monitor live results and send reminders
As soon as voting is open, you get a real-time dashboard of voting outcomes for each resolution on the meeting page.
What's highlighted:
Summary: how many resolutions are currently carrying.
Each resolution: the shares voted For, Against and Abstain, the pass threshold, and whether it's currently passing (Carrying). The marker on the bar shows the threshold.
Record a proxy form: lodges a proxy form on a shareholder's behalf (see Step 8).
Percentages are worked out from For and Against votes only. These results are provisional until you certify the meeting.
Send a reminder. Select Send reminder on the meeting to notify shareholders who haven't voted yet. Shareholders who have already voted don't receive it.
Step 8: Lodge votes on behalf of shareholders
You can lodge votes for shareholders yourself, so every vote is counted in one place. Use this when a shareholder returns a proxy form or paper voting form, hands in a ballot at the meeting, or can't vote online. You don't need to log in as the shareholder.
You can lodge:
Direct votes on a shareholder's behalf.
Proxy votes, including nominating the proxy.
Split votes, where a shareholder wants to vote different ways.
Where to start
Open the meeting page. You can start from any of these:
Where | What to select | Use it for |
Live results | Record a proxy form | Lodging a proxy form for any shareholder |
Votes and attendance > Shareholders with appointed proxies | Record proxy vote | Updating the vote for a shareholder who has already appointed a proxy |
Votes and attendance > Attendance register | Record votes | Lodging votes for a shareholder you've registered as attending |
Fill in the form
Each option opens Lodge votes on behalf of a shareholder. Search the register, then record the directions from the form you received.
What's highlighted:
Shareholder: search the register and select the shareholder. You'll see how many votes their holding carries.
Date received and Time received: enter when the form reached you, not today's date.
Proxy form type and Proxy holder: choose the type of form (for example, Appoint a proxy holder) and nominate the proxy, such as Chair of the meeting.
Split votes across directions: tick this if the shareholder wants to split their votes (see below).
Resolution directions: choose For, Against, Abstain or Open for every resolution, as written on the form. Open leaves the resolution to the proxy holder's discretion.
Lodge votes: saves the votes.
Lodge a proxy vote
When a shareholder returns a completed proxy form (see How proxies work), lodge it so it's counted.
Select Record a proxy form and choose the shareholder who appointed the proxy.
Enter the date and time you received the form.
Select the proxy form type and nominate the proxy holder.
Choose the shareholder's direction for every resolution, exactly as written on the form.
Select Lodge votes.
Once lodged, the shareholder appears in the Shareholders with appointed proxies tab under Votes and attendance, which helps you follow up on the day (see Step 9).
Allocating one proxy across several shareholders
The same person can be nominated as proxy on more than one shareholder's form. Lodge each form separately against its shareholder, nominating the same proxy holder each time. Each shareholder's votes are kept and counted separately.
Lodge a direct vote
When a shareholder sends in a paper voting form or hands in a ballot at the meeting, find them in the attendance register or through Record a proxy form, select Record votes, and enter their direction (For, Against or Abstain) for every resolution.
Lodge a split vote
Some shareholders want to vote different ways on different resolutions, or divide their shares on a single resolution.
Different directions by resolution: choose For, Against or Abstain separately for each resolution, as the shareholder has marked them. You don't need to tick the split votes option for this.
Divided holding on a resolution: tick Split votes across directions where a shareholder wants to vote part of their shares one way and part another, then enter the number of shares for each direction on that resolution.
Check the totals match the shareholder's holding before you select Lodge votes.
Voting for a nominee, custodian or trust holding
Some holders on your share register, such as nominee companies, custodians and trustees of employee share scheme or other trusts, hold shares on behalf of others who decide how the votes are cast. In Sharesies Private, you’ll likely need to run the vote in each underlying entity and then bring the combined result across to the top-level record.
Create the meeting in each underlying entity. Use identical resolutions and materials, then open voting from each entity so its own shareholders can vote.
Review the results in each entity. Each entity’s meeting page shows its own live results.
Lodge the combined vote on the top-level record. Open the top-level meeting, select Record votes for the nominee or trust, tick Split votes across directions, and enter the combined For, Against and Abstain shares for each resolution to match the underlying totals.
Update it as needed. Whenever you want the top-level result to show the current position, lodge the vote again. Only the most recent vote counts.
Keep in mind: the top-level result only shows what you’ve lodged. It doesn’t update automatically from the underlying entities.
Dates and corrections
Use the date you received the form, not today's date. A form that reached you before voting closed still counts, even if you lodge it afterwards.
Only a shareholder's most recent vote counts, based on when it was received. Earlier votes are kept in the record but aren't counted. For example, if a shareholder voted online and then hands in a paper ballot at the meeting, the paper ballot replaces their online vote.
Step 9: On the day: attendance and in-person voting
On the day, use the Votes and attendance section of the meeting page.
Lodge the attendance register
During the meeting, register shareholders as they arrive using the Attendance register tab. Search for a shareholder to register them. The tab shows how many holders have registered and the share of votes they represent, and each registered shareholder has Record votes and Remove options.
What's highlighted:
Registered holders summary: for example, "2 of 513 holders registered, 0.5% of shares represented".
Search shareholders: find a shareholder to register.
Record votes: lodge a registered shareholder's votes (see Step 8).
Find shareholders with appointed proxies
The Shareholders with appointed proxies tab lists the shareholders who have sent in a proxy form that you've recorded in the platform, along with their proxy holder and number of votes. Use it to quickly see which shareholders will need their proxy vote updated or entered during the meeting, and select Record proxy vote to do it.
What's highlighted:
The tab: only lists shareholders whose proxy forms you've recorded.
Proxy holder and votes: for example, "Proxy holder: Chair of the meeting, 4,391 votes".
Record proxy vote: update or enter the proxy vote for that shareholder.
Vote in person
Shareholders who attend can vote on a paper ballot, and you lodge those votes the same way as other paper votes (see Step 8). In-person votes can be lodged until you close the poll.
To run voting on the day:
Before the meeting, download the voting register (see Step 11) so you know who has already voted.
At the meeting, register shareholders as they arrive and hand out ballots to those who want to vote in person.
Collect the ballots and lodge each one as an in-person vote.
When all votes are in, select Close poll (see Close the poll).
A ballot handed in at the meeting replaces any earlier online or proxy vote from that shareholder.
Open online voting during the meeting
Select Open online voting to let shareholders vote online in their Sharesies Private portal again during the meeting. Eligible shareholders who haven't voted see the voting banner on their dashboard again. You can use this on its own, or to supplement paper poll votes.
When you can use it: any time after the meeting has started.
When you can't: between the voting close time and the meeting start time. The Open online voting button is unavailable during this window, and it becomes available once the meeting starts.
Close the poll
When all online, paper, proxy and in-person votes are in, select Close poll.
When you can use it: any time after the record date. It isn't tied to the meeting start time.
When it's unavailable: the Close poll button may be hidden or disabled in some situations, for example before the record date.
Step 10: Certify the result
When voting has finished and all paper, proxy and in-person votes are lodged, certify the meeting. Certifying:
Locks the voting entitlements from your register as at the record date.
Counts every shareholder's latest vote against those entitlements.
Records the final outcome for each resolution.
Certifying can't be undone. Once certified, the meeting and its votes can't be changed, so check everything is entered first.
Step 11: Download reports
Select Reports on the meeting page and choose a report.
Report | What it shows |
Voting results | Each resolution's type, threshold, shares For, Against and Abstain, percentages, number of holders who voted, and whether it was carried |
Voting register | Every shareholder entitled to vote, their votes, how they voted on each resolution, how the vote arrived, any proxy, and when it was received |
Attendance | Attendance at the meeting and whether attendees voted in person. |
You can download these before the meeting to track progress, and again after certifying for your final records. The voting register shows how each shareholder voted, so treat it as confidential.
FAQs
Can shareholders change their vote? Yes. Shareholders can withdraw and re-cast their online vote until voting closes. Only their latest vote counts.
Can shareholders appoint a proxy online? Not currently. They complete the paper proxy form you upload to the meeting materials and return it to you, and you lodge it as a proxy vote.
What if two people from the same shareholder entity vote differently? Anyone with owner access to a shareholder entity can vote for it. The latest vote counts, and they'll see a prompt telling them a vote already exists before they replace it.
Sharesies Private doesn't decide which person within the entity should prevail.
A shareholder missed the online voting deadline. Can they still vote? Yes. They can return a voting or proxy form to you, or vote in person at the meeting. Once the meeting has started, you can also open online voting so they can vote in their portal.
Can I exclude certain shareholders from voting on a resolution? Not currently. If someone shouldn't vote on a resolution, for example a director on their own remuneration, let them know directly.
Do you host the meeting? No. You organise the venue or online meeting yourself and include the link or address in your meeting details.
Can I run a vote where my shareholder is a nominee or trust holding shares for others? Yes. Run the vote in each underlying entity, then lodge the combined result on the top-level holder. See Voting for a nominee, custodian or trust holding.