Rules
Fictitious Business Name Search: Confirm the Filing Office Before You Sign
A fictitious business name search starts with the filing office. This guide covers county and state DBA filing, search steps, and where the check stalls.
Archive
October 2026
Rules
Beneficial ownership information report search: who still has to file
Beneficial ownership information report duty after March 2025: US-formed companies are exempt, foreign registrants still file. How to tell, what to keep.
Guides
Business License Lookup vs Entity Registration: Two Different Checks
A business license lookup and an entity registration answer different questions, held by different offices. Pick the register that matches the question.
Guides
Certificate of Good Standing Lookup: What the Paper Does Not Prove
Certificate of good standing lookup proves a filing, not a business. Track certificate age in days and know when to re-pull before a closing or signing.
Rules
What FinCEN's beneficial ownership search can and cannot show?
A beneficial ownership search cannot show FinCEN's BOI database; only authorized users see it. Here is who may access BOI and what you can find.
Reviews
State entity search compared, from Sunbiz to the California SOS
State entity search compared across Sunbiz, California SOS bizfile, New York, Texas, Wyoming and Nevada: search fields, document downloads and office fees.
Features
Why Wyoming and Nevada draw privacy-focused LLC filings
Wyoming and Nevada LLC filings keep member names off the public state search, but FinCEN beneficial ownership reporting still collects them.
Guides
How US states name a certificate of good standing or existence
A certificate of good standing and a certificate of existence both prove an entity is active, but states name and issue them differently. Here is the difference.
Guides
New York and California rules for foreign entity registration
Foreign entity registration in New York and California: filing triggers, forms, fees, statements of information, and processing timelines for out-of-state companies.
Guides
Reading Illinois and Georgia UCC filings in Chicago and Atlanta
UCC filings in Illinois and Georgia show who holds a secured interest in a business. Here is how to search both registries and read the records.
Guides
How to read a Delaware entity file and its franchise tax dates
A Delaware entity file shows the registered agent, filing history and status. Learn how to read it, plus the franchise tax due dates and late charges.
Rules
Checking an EIN and tax status without breaking IRS privacy rules
How to check an EIN and tax status within IRS privacy limits: what the IRS will and will not confirm, Tax Exempt Organization Search, and state revenue lookups.
Industry
How NAICS codes appear in entity lookups and where they mislead
NAICS codes in entity lookups come from self-reported filings, so analysts should always check them against licenses, SEC SIC codes and real work.
Rules
State entity directories facts: signal versus noise
State entity registers: the facts that hold in every jurisdiction, the eight dimensions along which the rest varies, and the question that settles each one.
Features
Nine dated lines keep a state office's directories page trustworthy over time
Keeping office notes current: what changes about a filing register, how you find out, and the nine dated lines that make such a note worth trusting.
Guides
4 checks on a Texas entity record from the Austin filings office
Four checks on a Texas entity record: the SOSDirect search, franchise tax status, assumed names, and registered agent entries, run before you sign.
Maintenance
Can a public data APIs search stay accurate after normalizing the query?
Can a public data APIs search stay accurate after normalizing the query? Yes—if you record match mode, keep the raw query, and log every outcome.
Maintenance
Which state office keeps the business entity register, with examples from 16 states
Which office keeps the business entity register in 16 US states, why one office can run several indexes, and how to reach the real search.
Guides
State entity directories: reaching the real filing office
State entity directories: reaching the real filing office through a government path, spotting the paid lookalikes, and expecting variation between states.
Rules
7 things to check before trusting public data apis data
Seven checks that separate a register's own wording from your interpretation of it, so an entity record stays answerable when a decision is challenged.
Features
Public data APIs facts: what an empty field or result means
Public data APIs facts on empties: four meanings of a blank field, why no answer is not no match, and how to test coverage before you trust a source.
Maintenance
Public data APIs pipelines deserve a four-point failure checklist
How registry data pipelines fail: errors stored as absences, caches read as current, names used as keys, and the checks that catch each one early.
Costs
Officer lookup facts: what the names can and cannot be used for
Officer lookup facts on using register names: why they cannot be joined, why fields are withheld, and why decisions about a person fall outside the record.
Rules
8 details of officer lookup search people miss
How to run an officer search properly: fix the entity first, check what the register collects, read the roster with its date, then write the query down.
Reviews
Public data APIs: questions before you build
Public data APIs for registry records raise licensing and technical questions. Learn what to check before building and how to plan for missing access.
Reviews
Officer lookup by year works differently: snapshot registers versus event-log ones
How to reconstruct officer records year by year: California's snapshot register against Companies House's event log, why filing dates are not event dates, and how to record gaps.
Features
Officer Lookup Directory: What Registers Reveal and Withhold
An officer lookup directory shows what state filings, Companies House, SEC EDGAR, and charity records reveal—and what they withhold in each.
Rules
Officer lookup: nine roles a state register records, when to pull each, and the columns that track them
The nine officer roles a state register records, when each one is worth pulling, the fields it omits, and five columns that keep the entries usable.
Maintenance
An officer lookup checks the company, not the person behind the name
Officer lookup as a check on a company: what registry entries support about signing authority, what states never collect, and what to ask for instead.
Guides
Registered agent lookup data: a schema that cannot mislead
Registered agent lookup data as columns: store dated observations, key on the entity number, keep personal names out, and label the address.
Reviews
Registered agent lookup facts: what the record shows
Registered agent lookup facts: what the public record shows, what it does not, and why delivery to the agent is not the same as the company speaking.
Costs
Registered agent lookup rankings: why the register cannot really support one
Registered agent lookup rankings cannot be built: the register holds no performance data, and the three countable metrics all measure something else.
Industry
Choosing, and keeping, the right registered agent takes its own checklist
A registered agent lookup list you build yourself: the state filings, consents, and register checks that appoint an agent and keep the appointment valid.
Costs
Registered agent record: what the address proves and what it does not
What a registered agent record establishes about service of process, vacancies, shared commercial addresses, and why the address is not a place of business.
Rules
Registration status data: triggers behind a status change
Registration status data triggers: the obligations a filing office tracks, who set each change off, how it clears, and why the warning may never arrive.
Reviews
Registration Status: What a Registry Record Shows
Registration status explained: what the field shows, its limits, when certificates help, and how to interpret a missing result.
Rules
State filing offices change procedures quietly, and a listing rarely says so
Filing office procedures drift without notice, so tie every re-check to what you are exposed to and date each finding at the register itself.
Maintenance
Secretary of state search: which index answers which question
Secretary of state search indexes explained: which register answers which question, why trading names defeat an entity search, and how to record a nil result.