A board portal is the system a company secretary, directors and committee members use to run meetings, distribute papers, capture minutes and record resolutions. For Australian boards the decision also touches the records that sit behind the meeting: the statutory registers, the obligations that flow from the Corporations Act, and for charities the requirements of the ACNC. Choosing well means matching the tool to the size of your board and the weight of your governance obligations.
This guide names the main vendors fairly, credits where each is strong, then explains where Cohiva Quorum fits. To be precise from the outset: no software makes a board compliant, and any vendor that implies otherwise should be read with caution. These tools help boards meet their obligations and support good practice.
What a board portal needs to do
At its core a board portal handles the meeting cycle: building and circulating agendas and board papers, recording attendance and apologies, capturing minutes, and registering the resolutions a meeting passes. Good portals also keep this material secure and version-controlled, since board papers are sensitive and the minute is the official record.
For Australian boards there is a layer beneath the meeting. Companies maintain statutory registers and must observe duties and processes set out in the Corporations Act, charities answer to the ACNC, and incorporated associations sit under the relevant state association act. Some products treat this surrounding record as out of scope and focus purely on running the meeting. Others extend toward the registers and obligations that the meeting generates. Where a board lands on that spectrum depends on how much of the company secretary's wider record it wants the software to hold.
The main options and who they serve well
The category covers a wide range of board sizes, and several products are well established.
Diligent is the enterprise standard for many large organisations, with strong security, scale and a global footprint. If you are a large entity with stringent board security and information-governance requirements, it belongs on the shortlist. BoardPro is widely used across Australia and New Zealand and is known for ease of use and value for a single board, which makes it a common pick for one association, company or charity board that wants a clean, affordable portal.
Process PA has a clear niche serving clubs and associations, with features shaped around that sector's meeting and committee patterns. Boardable suits smaller boards looking for a straightforward portal, and Our Cat Herder is another option aimed at lightweight board administration.
Each earns its place for a particular profile: enterprise depth, single-board ease, the clubs and associations niche, or simple lightweight administration. The honest read is that most of these focus on the meeting workflow itself. Where boards differ is how much of the surrounding statutory record and group structure they also want held in the same place.
Where Cohiva Quorum fits
Cohiva Quorum is a governance operating system for Australian boards. It manages meetings, agendas, minutes, resolutions and obligations, and it models the Corporations Act, ACNC requirements and state association acts as structured data rather than as static reference text.
The angle is scope. Quorum combines the board portal with statutory registers and multi-entity group governance in one product, so the meeting, the records that follow from it and the structure of a group of entities sit together. For a company secretary administering several related entities, that reduces the work of keeping registers and obligations aligned across the group. Quorum is designed to support directors and secretaries in meeting their obligations, not to remove their responsibility for them. You can explore the product at quorum.cohiva.app.
Quorum suits Australian boards that want governance, registers and group structure handled together. A small board that only needs to circulate papers and capture minutes may be well served by a simpler single-board portal, and there is no need to take on more scope than the board actually uses. The case for Quorum strengthens as the number of related entities grows and as the volume of statutory record-keeping and obligation tracking increases.
How to choose
Match the tool to your board's size and the weight of its obligations.
- If you are a large enterprise with demanding security and scale needs, Diligent is the natural candidate.
- If you are a single board wanting ease and value, BoardPro is widely chosen in Australia and New Zealand.
- If you are a club or association, Process PA is shaped for that sector, and Boardable or Our Cat Herder suit smaller, lighter boards.
- If you need a board portal together with statutory registers and multi-entity group governance modelled as data, Quorum is built for that profile.
For a structured side-by-side, use our comparisons hub. If your governance decision sits alongside back-office systems, our roundups of accounting and ERP software for multi-entity groups and HR and payroll software for Australian businesses cover the adjacent choices a board oversees.