Florida Business Entity Search gives you an easy way to look up businesses in the state. The entity search can come in handy for several purposes. These include finding a name for your Florida LLC.
Since the state requires that the name of an entity be unique and distinguishable on record, a business entity search can give you a good idea for name availability. While I specifically mention LLCs here, the same idea applies to other business entities as well.
Florida Secretary of State (Department of State) provides an excellent entity search tool through the Division of Corporations. Florida Sunbiz search is quite extensive and useful. However, it can also be slightly confusing for the same reason. Here are the details on how to go about business entity search in Florida.
Accessing Florida Business Entity Search (Sunbiz Search)
Sunbiz search is the official state of Florida website for online business management. This includes online filings as well as other functions like entity search. Sunbiz is managed by the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations.
Florida Sunbiz website presents quite an extensive number of parameters to process a business entity search. These apply to several business structures, including Florida LLC search and Florida corporation search.
You could use the Florida Corporation Search page using these parameters. It’s worth noting that while it’s called the “corporations search”, it is applicable to Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, and Limited Partnerships. The parameters are:
- Entity Name: The results list entities that match the entered search query. Results include document number and status of each record.
- Officer/Registered Agent: This result shows the Florida Registered Agent or officers of the company like the officers, directors, and managers. The search query is the name entered.
- Registered Agent Name: The result lists registered agents. Entities represented by the agents listed are also displayed.
- Trademark Name: Results show document number and status depending on the trademark searched.
- Trademark Owner Name: Results present the owner of a trademark.
- FEI/EIN: Results show the business entity associated with the federal tax ID used as a query. FEI/EIN (employer identification number) must be entered by search.
- Detail by Document Number: Enter a document number to view related filings.
- Zip Code: Results show entities associated with the zip code entered.
- Street Address: Results show business entities related to the principal office or the registered office entered, given the street address.
Given the extensive options, Florida maintains a Search Guide to help with understanding the results and the search options.
Florida LLC Search
As we know, Florida Sunbiz search has an extensive number of options. For Florida LLC Search, we can make things easier by going straight to the Corporations Search section for search by name.
Searching by entity name is a very useful option. After all, for the average person, it’s much easier to know the name of an entity rather than other associated details like the Registered Agent Name or EIN.
This option is also useful for doing a name search for your Floria LLC. Searching by entity name will give you access to names that are similar to the search term entered. This will make it easy to find a name that’s truly unique and distinguishable from other businesses on record with the FL SOS entity search.
Florida presents the search results in alphabetical order. Results that are more relevant to the query are listed first. This way, your search and results can be easily refined.
A useful feature here is that Florida Entity Search doesn’t need a full or exact entity name for search. The entity search will return results most relevant to your search, rather than insisting on an exact name.
Florida Corporation Search
Florida Corporations Search works the same way as the LLC search. You’ll see all the necessary details, as well as access to all the different search parameters mentioned above.
How To Conduct A Florida Business Entity Search
Even though there are a large number of options, the process of searching on the Florida Sunbiz system is fairly simple.
Here are the basic steps to follow.
- Reach the Florida Sunbiz Search records page. You can do so by clicking or tapping this link.
- Choose the desired search parameter. This link will take you to the page for search by entity name. If you want to search via other options like zip code, registered agent name, etc. you can change the parameter once you reach the page. For now, we’ll go with “search by entity name”.
- Enter entity name in the search box on the page.
- Press the “search now” button or hit enter.
The results will be displayed. If you want to see details on a specific result, click on its name listed under the “Corporate Name” section on the results page.
How To Reserve A Business Name In Florida
Florida doesn’t allow name reservations. You will have to register the name by forming your business. For LLCs, this is accomplished by submitting the Articles of Organization and thus forming your company.
This makes it even more important to get the name for your Florida business right, since a problem in the name can result in the state refusing to accept the Articles of Organization. Apart from doing the Florida business entity search, also perform due diligence by checking the state’s naming guidelines. It might also be useful to hire a professional to register the company for you.
