State business records change often. A fee goes up, a report moves online, a search tool moves to a new portal. This page explains how we keep up and what you can rely on.
Where the facts come from
We use official sources only:
- the state filing office's own pages, usually the Secretary of State or a Division of Corporations,
- its fee schedules, forms and filing instructions,
- the state's statutes and administrative rules on the legislature's own site,
- the state's open data portal, for questions about bulk data.
We do not use other guide sites, formation companies or encyclopedias as a source for any fact.
How we check a fact
- We read the official page and record the value, the page address and the date.
- A second pass reads the same page again and confirms the exact words that state the fact. Where a state blocks visitors from outside the US, we read the Internet Archive copy of that same official page and note it.
- A fee or deadline we cannot confirm on its official page is left off the site. The state guide then links to the official fee schedule instead.
Next to each fact you see the source and a check date, for example "sos.state.tx.us, checked Oct 31". Press the source to open the page yourself.
What we leave out
- Any number we could not tie to an official page.
- Prices of private services such as registered agents or filing companies. They vary and change, so we do not quote them.
- Personal data from state registers. We link to the state's search instead of copying records.
When states disagree with themselves
Sometimes two official pages give different numbers, for example an old help page and a newer fee schedule. We use the newer, dated document and keep a note of the conflict.
Corrections
If you see a fact that is out of date, send us the page and the official source. We check it against the state's page and update the guide.