What it files
Which state forms the service prepares and submits for you, and which ones it only tells you about.
Read for: the words "we file" against "we remind".Notices on keeping a small business in good standing
Compliance service reviews, written out in words
Compliance services offer to file a company's recurring state paperwork and keep watch over its deadlines. What matters is what each one actually files, what it only reminds you about, and what its plans leave to the owner.
The subject
What a compliance service is for
Forming a company is one filing. Keeping it in good standing is a stream of smaller ones that arrive every year, or every other year, for as long as the business exists. Most states want a periodic report confirming who runs the company and where it can be reached, and some add other recurring paperwork on top.
A compliance service takes over some or all of that stream. At the light end it keeps a calendar and sends reminders. Further along it prepares the forms, files them with the state and keeps a copy. Many bundle a registered agent, the named contact who receives legal papers on the company's behalf.
The trouble is that the same few words cover very different jobs. "Annual report service" can mean a reminder email or a completed filing. "Compliance monitoring" can mean a person watching your state record or an automated check of a public database. Reading a plan closely is the only way to tell which you are buying.
It also helps to know which parts of the bill belong to the state and which to the service. The state's own fee is usually passed through on top of the plan, and a renewal can be priced differently from the first year.
And it matters what happens at the edges: a deadline the service misses, a form your state changes, a company you close or move. Those are the moments a plan is tested, and the ones a sales page tends to pass over.
None of this needs a service. Plenty of owners keep their own calendar and file directly with the state. The useful question is which of these jobs you would rather hand over, and to whom.
"Annual report service" can mean a reminder, or a filing done for you.
Pinned for comparison
What to pin down before you sign up
What to read for in any compliance plan, whichever company sells it.
What it watches
Whether anyone checks your company's standing with the state, how often, and what happens if it changes.
Read for: who is told, and how quickly.The registered agent
Whether an agent comes with the plan, is sold beside it, or is assumed to be someone you already have.
Read for: which states the agent covers.The state's own fee
Whether the price shown includes what the state charges to accept a filing, or adds it at checkout.
Read for: the line that separates the two.The renewal
How the plan renews after its first term, whether the price moves, and how much notice you are given.
Read for: the renewal terms, not the banner.Leaving the service
How to cancel, what happens to your stored documents, and who becomes your agent on file afterwards.
Read for: what the state still lists after you go.The bulletin
Questions on the board, and who answers them
Most compliance questions have an owner, and it is often not the company selling the plan.
- Which recurring filings does my state require?Your secretary of state's business filing pages
- Will the service file the report, or remind me to?The plan description and the service's terms
- Is the state's fee in the price I see?The checkout page, read beside the state's own fee list
- Who receives legal papers for my company?The registered agent named on your state record
- What if a filing is late?The state's rules first, then any guarantee in the service's terms
- How do I change services without a gap?The state's change of agent form and both services' cancellation terms
Coming up on the board