How Workflow Automation Accelerates the LLC Application Process in California

It almost got lost in our transition into becoming SimpliGov. But when the Office of the California Secretary of State had to decide on a government automation platform to handle their huge volume of LLC applications, they turned to us.

California is now the fifth-biggest economy in the world, having overtaken the United Kingdom.  Its GDP is $2.747 trillion, and that’s even more striking when you consider the U.K. outnumbers the Golden State in population, 66 million to 40 million.

If that suggests to you there’s a huge volume of business-related documentation and regulatory processing flowing through Sacramento, you’d be right.  In this case, Limited Legal Corporation (LLC) applications are the fastest-growing type of legal entity being registered in California over the last five years. During the 2016-17 fiscal year alone, there were almost 120,000 LLC Formation filings with the Secretary of State.

Without a government automation solution, a huge number of applications like that could generate massive backlogs. To meet the challenge, LLC Formations Online was introduced by the Secretary’s office on May 8, 2018, to provide an integrated, user-friendly LLC application and processing solution for entrepreneurs, companies and government personnel alike. Powered, we’re proud to say, by our proven government automation platform.

What’s a government automation platform mean for CA LLCs?

Picture, if you will, the sheer amount of paperwork involved in meeting the needs of California businesses.  Government staffers and businesspeople alike would have to deal with a flood of documents as big as the Sacramento River.

With a digitized, automation-driven portal like LLC Formation Online, that flood of paper is reduced to a relative trickle. Some of the new functionality it gives customers?

• The online application eliminates 98% of the most common reasons for rejection that happen when filings are done via paper forms. That’s due to automated preliminary name availability checking, address lookup, and other live validation features that ensure they’re submitting accurate, properly-completed formwork.
• Applicants gain better access, as they’re able to instantly check the status of their submissions any time of the day.
• They can also order certified copies of their filing and receive them via email immediately upon approval.
• Applicants get instant email confirmation of their submission, and email notifications at every other stage of the process.
• A new online verification tool lets them guard against fraud by verifying the certification was actually issued by the Secretary’s office.
  

The benefits of a faster, smarter end-to-end process are already apparent:

• Initial users found it took just an average of two minutes to fill out and submit the online form.
• The review and approval process is shortened considerably, so entrepreneurs can launch their businesses sooner.
• Applicants get to avoid long in-office lines, and the wearying wait for snail mail processing and delivery.
  

As I put it at the time, we’re “proud to power the LLC Formations online process. The core values of our technology focus on streamlining processes for the government through automation with the ultimate goal of making it easier than ever to do business in California.”

To hear California’s Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, explain the new LLC filing features, take a look at the video below.