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Kansas business records sit with the Business Services Division of the Kansas Secretary of State in Topeka. The tool is called Business Search, it costs nothing to use, and it finds a business by its name or by its business ID number. Corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships are all on it, along with foreign businesses registered to work in Kansas. Sole proprietors are not, because they do not register with the state.
Kansas LLC and corporation search, step by step
Open Business Search on the Secretary of State site. You can search by the business name or by the business ID number. If you know the ID, use it. It is the number the office gives every entity for its filings and letters, and it points to one record only. Note that it is not a tax number.
For a name search, start with the distinctive words and leave off the ending such as LLC or Inc. If a business acts as a resident agent for others, its legal name must match the record exactly, so the search is also the place to check how an agent company spells its name.
Kansas has a separate Business Name Availability page. Use it when you are choosing a name for a new company, and our guide on how to check LLC name availability explains what a match means.
What a Kansas record tells you
A record shows the business name, the entity type, its status, the formation date, and the resident agent with the registered office. Kansas uses the term resident agent where most states say registered agent. The agent must be an individual, a Kansas registered business, or the business itself, and the registered office must be a Kansas street address, not a PO box. Our registered agent lookup guide covers how to use these details.
Every document a business has filed can be viewed and printed free from the record. Each file stamped copy shows the filing date at the top.
The status words to know:
- Active and in good standing: the business is current with its filings.
- Delinquent: the information report was not filed by the due date. For three months after that it can still be filed, but the business is limited in what else it can file.
- Forfeited: the delinquency period passed without a report, or the business lost its Kansas resident agent and registered office. A certificate of reinstatement, filed with the missing reports, brings it back to active.
- Dissolved: the business has been formally closed.
Kansas name rules and name reservations
Under K.S.A. 17-7920, an LLC name must contain L.L.C., L.C., LLC, LC, Limited Liability Company or Limited Company. Corporation names follow K.S.A. 17-7919 and must contain a word such as company, corporation, incorporated or limited, or an abbreviation like Co., Corp., Inc. or Ltd.
If your name is already in use by a registered business, Kansas lets you file anyway with a Consent to Use of Similar Business Name (Form CN) signed by that business, under K.S.A. 17-7918. The consent goes in with your formation document.
To hold a name before you file, use Form NR, the temporary reservation of a business entity name. The form lists a $35 fee. The reservation lasts 120 days and cannot be renewed, though the applicant can transfer it to someone else by written notice. Read more in our name reservation guide.
Keeping a Kansas business in good standing
Kansas calls its periodic filing an information report, and it is due every two years. The year depends on when the business formed: even years for those formed in an even year, odd years for the rest. For-profit businesses must file by April 15 of their year, and nonprofits by June 15. The LLC report costs $90 online or $110 on paper, according to the ILC form. The for-profit corporation report on form IFP lists the same amounts.
Miss the date and the business turns delinquent. After three months it forfeits. To come back, it files a reinstatement form with a report for each reporting year it missed, up to the last 10 years for most businesses. The information reports page sets out the timing.
Proof of status comes as a Certificate of Good Standing, or CGS. You buy it online through a user account, and it shows the business name, its good standing, and the date it filed its formation document. Each certificate carries a verification code that anyone can check on the Secretary of State site. See the copies and certifications page for the purchase steps, and our certificate of good standing guide for how these are used.
Buying Kansas business data in bulk
There is no free download. The Secretary of State sells database files through its Database Records Access Request form. A file of all active for-profit entities costs $200, and a single entity type costs $150. Files include the entity ID, type, status, name, mailing address, formation date, home state and resident agent. Custom data is $50 an hour plus a $100 service fee, paid in advance. Buyers must sign that they will not use the names and addresses to sell goods or services, as K.S.A. 45-230 forbids that use.
Starting a company here? Read our guide on how to start an LLC in Kansas and the Kansas registered agent rules.
Also see our guides to the Kansas business license.