Business search glossary
State business searches use the same handful of terms, though each state words them a little differently. These are the ones you'll meet, in plain English.
- Administrative dissolution
- When a state ends a business’s registration because it failed to meet a requirement, most often a missed report or fee.
- Annual report
- A recurring filing that keeps a business’s public details current and its registration active.
- Articles of incorporation
- The document filed with a state to create a corporation, including a nonprofit corporation.
- Articles of organization
- The document filed with a state to create an LLC.
- Certificate of good standing
- An official state document confirming that a business exists and is in good standing on the date it is issued.
- DBA (doing business as)
- A name a business operates under that is different from its legal name.
- Distinguishable name
- The test a state applies to decide whether a new business name is different enough from the names already on file.
- EIN (employer identification number)
- A nine-digit number the IRS assigns to a business for federal tax purposes.
- Entity ID number
- The unique number a state assigns to a business record when it is first filed.
- Foreign qualification
- Registering a business in a state other than the one where it was formed.
- Good standing
- A status showing a business is registered and up to date with the state’s filing and fee requirements.
- Name reservation
- A paid filing that holds a business name for a limited time before the company is formed.
- Operating agreement
- The private contract among an LLC’s owners that sets out who owns what and how the company is run.
- Registered agent
- The person or company a business names to receive lawsuits and official state mail on its behalf.