- Typical total
- Three to ten business days with an SSN
- Without an SSN
- Company in days, tax number in weeks
- Canada
- Federal incorporation often same day
- Handover
- Complete file plus a compliance calendar
How it works
Six stages. Each one with a person attached to it, a realistic time attached to it, and a written output you keep.
The six stages.
This is the actual sequence, including the parts where you are waiting on a government office rather than on us.
Stage one, intake
Twenty minutes, and a written recommendation.
We ask where you live, where your customers are, whether anyone works for you and where they sit, what you expect to earn, and whether outside investment is a realistic possibility. Then we tell you the entity, the jurisdiction and the total cost including the government fee, in writing, before you pay anything.
You do one call or one form. We do the recommendation and the quote.
Stage two, name
Clearing the name properly, with a reserve.
A register search in the target jurisdiction, a check for the obvious trademark conflicts, and a second choice held ready. A rejected name costs the fee and the queue position in some states, so this is worth doing carefully rather than optimistically.
Typical time same day.
Stage three, filing
The formation document, and the internal documents with it.
Articles of Organization or Certificate of Incorporation, registered agent appointed in the same step, and the operating agreement or bylaws drafted at the same time so that the internal documents and the public filing describe the same company. We sign as organizer or incorporator where the jurisdiction permits it, which keeps your address out of the public record in the states where that is possible.
Turnaround from same day to about two weeks depending on the jurisdiction. You are told which before you commit.
Stage four, tax numbers
The EIN, and any state or provincial accounts.
Same day if a responsible party holds an SSN or ITIN. If not, a prepared Form SS-4 goes to the IRS by fax or mail and we follow it up until the number arrives. In Canada, the CRA business number, GST/HST registration where the threshold applies, and a payroll account if anyone will be paid.
Realistic timing one day with an SSN, four to eight weeks without one.
Stage five, handover
A complete file, and a calendar with dates on it.
Stamped filing evidence, EIN confirmation, the signed internal documents, registered agent details, and a written compliance calendar listing every filing the entity now owes with the date it falls due. Plus a twenty minute call with the person who did the work, not a support queue.
Included whether or not you buy anything else.
Stage six, afterwards
Only what you actually ask for.
Some clients take monthly bookkeeping from the first quarter. Some take nothing until the first tax return. Some come back two years later needing a reinstatement. Nothing is bundled, nothing renews without a notice, and we will tell you when a service you are paying for has stopped earning its cost.
No lock in. Monthly services end at the end of any month.
- What we control
- Preparation and submission
- What we do not
- How fast a registry processes
Why we publish the slow parts.
Every provider in this market advertises speed, and most of the numbers quoted describe the fastest possible case in the fastest possible jurisdiction for the least complicated applicant. That is not dishonest exactly, but it sets an expectation that the process then fails to meet, and the disappointment lands in week three when nothing can be done about it.
We would rather tell you at the start that a Delaware filing can be same day and a New York LLC involves six weeks of newspaper publication, that an EIN is instant with an SSN and takes over a month without one, and that the bank account is downstream of all of it. Those facts do not change because they were inconvenient to mention.
The practical effect is that clients plan around the real timeline. Contracts get dated correctly, launches get scheduled after the account exists, and nobody promises a customer an invoice from an entity that cannot yet receive money.
Common questions
Your name and address, the proposed company name, what the business does, who the owners are and in what proportion, and where everyone is resident. For a corporation we also need the share structure. That is usually enough to file.
The internal documents, yes, electronically. The state filing is signed by us as organizer or incorporator in most jurisdictions, which is normal and is what keeps your address off the public record where the state allows it.
You get an update at each stage from a person, by email, including when something is waiting on the jurisdiction rather than on us. We would rather tell you a queue is slow than leave a status bar moving.
Rejections happen, usually over a name or a technicality. We correct and refile at our cost when the error is ours. If the jurisdiction rejects for a reason outside our control we tell you immediately, explain it, and refile.
Ready to start?
The intake form takes about four minutes and commits you to nothing.