Maintenance
Part of State entity directories: reaching the real filing office
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.
Secretary of state is the usual answer, and it is wrong often enough to matter. Connecticut files with the Secretary of the State. Michigan files with the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Same record, different door, and the name on the door is the least reliable clue.
This page names the offices for 16 states, shows how one office can split its records across several indexes, and explains how to reach the official search. It is not a complete list of all 50 states.
What to take away
- The entity register sits with the secretary of state in most of the states covered here. Michigan and Arizona file it with other agencies.
- One office can run several separate indexes. A blank result in one says nothing about the rest. Minnesota, for example, handles business filings and liens in one portal on two searches.
- Trade names usually sit in a county index, not the state entity register. California works that way, and so does New York for sole proprietors and general partnerships; Florida keeps its fictitious name registrations at the state level.
- The domain is the only check that holds. Titles, seals and page layouts are copied in an afternoon.
- Log the office, the search address and the date you confirmed them, or the next reader re-derives everything.
The offices, by name
Secretary of State. The register for most of the states covered here. California's Business Search runs at bizfileOnline.sos.ca.gov. New York's Division of Corporations publishes an entity search keyed by DOS ID. Ohio's Business Search is at businesssearch.ohiosos.gov. Washington's Secretary of State runs the Corporations and Charities Filing System.
Florida's Division of Corporations is at Sunbiz.org. The corporations division sits inside the Department of State, often with its own search page and its own vocabulary.
Filing office names by state
Office name
- Secretary of State
- Most states
- Licensing & Regulatory Affairs
- Michigan
- Business Services Division
- Minnesota
- Corporation Commission
- Arizona, Oklahoma
- Division of Corporations
- Delaware
- County clerk or recorder
- Many states
Where it applies
- Secretary of State
- CA, NY, TX, FL, OH
- Licensing & Regulatory Affairs
- Not a secretary of state
- Business Services Division
- Named division
- Corporation Commission
- Also utilities, securities
- Division of Corporations
- Separate tax portal
- County clerk or recorder
- Assumed names only
Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Michigan's home for entity filings. It is a licensing department rather than a secretary of state, which is why the phrase fails there. The records sit with the Corporations, Securities and Commercial Licensing Bureau.
Minnesota Secretary of State, Business Services Division. The Minnesota Business and Lien System holds business filings and financing statements, on two separate searches.
Corporation Commission. Arizona files corporations and LLCs with the Corporation Commission, which also regulates utilities and securities, so the register is one function among several. Oklahoma has a Corporation Commission too, but its business register sits with the Oklahoma Secretary of State.
Division of Corporations. Delaware's, inside the Department of State. The entity search at icis.corp.delaware.gov returns entity status and file numbers. Franchise tax runs through a separate portal with its own login.
County clerk or recorder. Where fictitious business names are registered in California, and where sole proprietor and general partnership assumed names are registered in New York. New York LLCs and corporations file assumed names with the Department of State. A state entity search will not return county records. Florida differs: its fictitious name registrations go to the state Division of Corporations.
Other offices in the covered states. Texas, Illinois and Georgia file business entities with the secretary of state. Pennsylvania's register sits in the Department of State's Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations. New Jersey routes business filings to its Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services. Connecticut uses its Secretary of the State.
Records kept outside the US follow their own pattern, and filing history by country compares them. Which index answers which name question is the subject of business name search.
The indexes, which are not one index
Minnesota's portal shows the split: entity filings and financing statements sit behind different searches on the same website.
Six separate indexes, one website
Index
- Entity
- Corporations, LLCs, partnerships
- Assumed or trade name
- Names an entity operates under
- Name reservation
- Strings held before filing
- Financing statement
- Secured transactions, keyed by debtor
- Document images
- Scans of filed documents
- Certificate ordering
- Office's own paid products
Holds
- Entity
- Excludes trade names
- Assumed or trade name
- Often county-level
- Name reservation
- Rarely searched by default
- Financing statement
- Never on entity page
- Document images
- Digitization depth varies
- Certificate ordering
- Mistaken for free record
Common surprise
- Entity
- Assumed or trade name
- Name reservation
- Financing statement
- Document images
- Certificate ordering
| Index | Holds | Common surprise |
|---|---|---|
| Entity | Corporations, LLCs, partnerships | California and New York exclude trade names |
| Assumed or trade name | Names an entity operates under | County-level in California, state-level in Florida and for New York corporations and LLCs |
| Financing statement | Secured transactions, keyed by debtor | Minnesota's Business and Lien System holds these on a separate search from entity filings |
| Certificate ordering | The office's own paid products | Frequently mistaken for the free record |
A blank entity search in California tells you nothing about the county assumed-name index. Those are two registers with two keepers. Whether document images are free or sold depends on the office, so check the office's own page before you assume either way.
Routes that reach the real office
In order of reliability.
Is this the real filing office?
Does the address bar match the state domain?
Use it, then check the office name
Go back to the state's top-level portal
- The state's top-level portal, such as texas.gov or ny.gov, navigated inward. It takes about a minute longer, and it removes the whole problem.
- A link from another government page.Tax authorities and licensing boards link to the filing office routinely, and a government-to-government link is strong evidence.
- USA.gov's federal agency index.For national bodies, the index lists the agency that holds the record. It does not cover state filing offices.
- A search engine, read carefully.Scroll past the ads and check the address bar against the state domain before clicking, and before typing anything into a page.
The address is the check that works. Everything else is decoration.
What to record once you find it
Log the office's real name, the exact search address, how matching behaves, and which indexes are separate. Add whether images are viewable or sold, and the date you last confirmed all of it.
Offices re-platform. A dated note tells the next reader whether to trust the link or re-derive it.
Record the office beside every finding, not just the finding. A registration status string without its office cannot be interpreted, because the vocabulary belongs to the office. The same holds for the identifier. A file number without its jurisdiction is a string of characters, which is the point entity number lookup keeps making.
What this page leaves out
It does not list all 50 states, and it gives no fees, turnaround times or filing requirements. All three are set by each office and change without notice, so the office's own page is the authority.
Common questions
Why would one state split business records across several offices?
Because the indexes were created at different times under different laws for different purposes. They were never one database, even where a single modern website now fronts several of them.
The office site looks twenty years old. Is it the real one?
Very possibly. The age of the design says nothing, and government registers are often unglamorous. Check the domain. The polished lookalike is more often the commercial one.
I found the entity but not the trade name it uses. Where next?
Look for the assumed-name index, which may sit with the same office or at a county clerk. In Florida the state Division of Corporations holds it. Ask the office which index holds trade names in that state rather than assuming the entity search covers them.
Should I bookmark the search page or the office home page?
Both, and date them. Search pages move when an office re-platforms, and the home page is the stable route back to whatever the search page is now called.
