State Compliance & Entity Management Services

A: Entity management, also known as legal entity management, most commonly refers to maintaining an organization’s good standing with corporate authorities such as secretaries of state. Responsibilities include properly registering the legal entity, appointing a registered agent, and filing annual reports to prevent the registration from lapsing. It often involves managing corporate records, tracking shareholder details, key personnel, and organizational meetings and minutes. More broadly, it may involve securing business licenses and opening tax accounts. Effective entity management has become increasingly complex for organizations operating in multiple states. Keeping a growing business in good standing often requires state compliance and entity management services. Ideally, businesses have purpose-built software that can consolidate requirements, reporting statuses, and documentation to effectively prioritize activities.

A: State Compliance & Entity Management Services powered by Harbor Compliance provide both businesses and their owners a multitude of benefits. Aprio clients that take advantage of the offering receive:

Enterprise Software – To run your business at full speed, your entities, tax registrations, organizational records, and business licenses must be organized and properly managed. Rather than “siloing” this data and slowing you down, the Harbor Compliance Software Suite integrates them in one easy-to-use portal.

Concierge Services – Your Aprio team has full access and visibility to your compliance information, enhancing your sales tax and cloud services. Having technical, compliance, and tax specialists who know your business in charge of entity management is one of the best ways to empower your tax strategy.

Streamlined Business Processes – Track just one vendor and one subscription to meet your vital obligations in:

• Registered agent, annual reports, and foreign qualification
• Tax registrations
• Business and professional licensing
• Records management and governance

Maximize Tax Savings – Utilizing the Harbor Compliance platform provides visibility to your Aprio team. Stakeholders know exactly where your entities are registered, their statuses, and upcoming filing deadlines. This allows you to maximize the value of your tax advisor’s insight and recommendations while taking full advantage of federal, state, and local tax incentives and credits that can offset tax liabilities.

A: Entity management plays a crucial role in protecting a company from risk and preparing it for growth. Every state imposes its own requirements for organizations doing business within its borders. Online sales, new locations, hiring, and M&A activities often trigger the need to register in additional states. And, registering an entity in new jurisdictions commonly triggers new business license filings and tax registrations.

Businesses that proactively manage their legal obligations are better positioned for growth. By knowing where their entities are registered and their status, they avoid false starts when pursuing opportunities. They al so save money and staff frustration by avoiding expensive expedite services and last-minute fire drills. All this translates to more time spent on strategic activities that drive revenue and profitability.