Entity Management Software—All You Need To Know

Navigating the complexities of entity management can be time-consuming for business owners. From handling various processes and documentation to keeping track of the members involved, mistakes can easily slip through the cracks.

Entity management software exists to organize such tasks and help business owners adhere to their respective state requirements. This article will explain all you need to know about entity management and software that helps you streamline the processes. We will also introduce you to Harbor Compliance and all the benefits of its all-encompassing Software Suite.

What Is Entity Management?

Due to the complexity of the processes and the number of people involved, entity management can be divided into three parts:

1. Entity management 101

2. Entity management 201

3. Entity management 301

Entity Management 101

The first part of entity management is learning the health of your business's legal entities, including company structures (LLCs, corporations, etc.).

Entity health refers to your entity's current standing with the secretary of state, ensuring that there are no penalties or regulation violations. Every secretary of state or similar agency in the U.S. has a public database that displays every entity’s good standing.

Entity Management 201

The next step is understanding how all your entities are connected.

In some cases, multiple companies owned by the same individual may work independently, but this isn’t the case for most. Typically, your parent organization will own and control all other entities. In other words, most companies have one entity with complete control over others via ownership interest.

Since all decision-making power is consolidated into a single controlling entity—the parent organization—corporate governance becomes much easier.

Entity Management 301

The third part of entity management is about transactions. When you acquire a legal entity, you either become its new owner or use its resources to set up a completely new company.

In any case, you must keep track of all the owners in your newly bought company to complete a successful acquisition. It’s also important to stay updated on the latest state requirements for all license and tax registration purposes.

Entity Management Best Practices

Here are the three best entity management practices that all legal entity owners should follow:

1. Consolidate all legal information—From filing deadlines to required documentation, you should ensure that everything is in one place. This will help you and your team expedite various tasks, such as annual filings and tax returns.

2. Govern access—Your team should be able to access all the information they need to complete their part of the work and nothing else. Create a hierarchy to decide the level of information access every team/member has.

3. Use industry-focused technology—Using technology, especially industry-focused tools, can streamline all your entity management needs. A dedicated compliance entity management software will let you digitize all key records and automate compliance tasks.

Entity Management Software—Uses and Benefits

Entity management software allows owners to manage all their legal entities using one platform. It also helps you automate repetitive tasks like:

• Tracking deadlines

• Managing shareholder information

• Filing documentation with the secretary of state and other agencies

Additionally, it maintains all important corporate-related information for beneficial owners, acquisitions, mergers, legal structures, taxes, etc.

Factors To Consider Before Choosing an Entity Management Software

There are many entity management software solutions on the market, including open-source options. To make sure you’re opting for the best entity management tool that suits your company’s needs, consider these five factors:

1. User-friendliness

2. Automation

3. Comprehensive data storage

4. Additional resources

5. Customer support

User-Friendliness

User-friendliness should be the most important factor when choosing entity management software because it can save you time—a key consideration for every busy business owner. The easier the software is to use, the more time you’ll have to run your business.

Ideally, you want to be able to only enter your entities’ names, types, and states of formation and let the software find all related information. However, you shouldn’t have to repeat this process. A robust software program will list all your entities and let you filter through them according to their name, status, and jurisdiction.

Automation

A good compliance entity management software solution will let you automate repetitive tasks and display the compliance status of all your legal entities simultaneously. To help you meet all state requirements, the tool should also send automated notifications that remind you to take necessary action.

These can include:

• Reviewing recurring events like renewal tasks

• Checking all ownership information and ensuring it’s up-to-date

• Reminding board members of meeting dates

Comprehensive Data Storage

One of the most important features of any corporate entity management software is data storage. An ideal tool is one that stores all corporate records for any type of entity you own, is capable of recording information for key personnel in all your entities, and provides support during multiple entity life cycles and stages like mergers or acquisitions.

Additional Resources

While not strictly necessary, try looking for entity management software that hosts informational guides for compliance matters. State-specific resources ensure that your team is aware of the latest jurisdictional regulations.

Customer Support

Check how proactive your corporate entity management software vendor is in providing support. Whether it be ongoing guidance to help with state requirements or extra services, ensure they’re with you for any compliance-related task.

If you’re looking for entity management software that can do all of the above, Harbor Compliance is your best option. As a trusted professional service provider, its range of compliance modules helps you make sure all your entities are in good standing.

Manage All Your Entities Under One Roof With Harbor Compliance

Harbor Compliance hosts various modules under its Software Suite to help owners track entity health, manage licensing, store key records, and automate time-consuming tasks using a single portal.

Part of our Suite is the Entity Manager module, which organizes all your legal entities, their registered states, and current statuses. It also calculates when your annual reports are due and sends automated reminders to help you submit them on time and be in good standing with all registered states.

Since our module is integrated with the secretary of state databases, you can look up information like:

• Entity type

• Registration number

• Mailing address

• Current status

While you can obtain such information directly from the secretary of state databases, navigating through them, especially if you own multiple entities, can be time-consuming. There’s also the chance of mistaking your company with another if they share similar names.

The Importance of a Records Manager in Entity Management

If you own an entity that has an ownership share in another company, using Harbor Compliance’s Records Manager will let you visualize the ownership stake of all beneficial owners.

Its shareholder ledger shows how many shares an entity holds in another company, giving you a complete idea of who owns what. Coupled with the ability to digitally store meeting minutes, this helps your entity stay on top of all legal requirements for future audits.

This module also displays all key personnel of any company you purchase, including the roles of different people in an organization, such as:

• Directors

• Senior officers

• Managers

• Other members

Centralizing all such information allows owners to expedite the annual beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting process and store any corporate-related documents, such as amendments and operating agreements.

Utilize Other Modules in Harbor Compliance’s Software Suite

Other than Entity Manager and Records Manager, you can benefit from using the following modules that come with our Software Suite:

1. Tax Manager—The module shows all your federal, state, and local tax registrations and reduces time spent retrieving key tax account information, such as tax ID numbers. It also enables you to view all upcoming events like tax returns, their assignees, and due dates in one dashboard.

2. License Manager—Using the license manager lets you view and manage licenses for any entity across the U.S. With our proprietary Compliance Core™ algorithm, you can also compare your existing licenses against 22,000+ licensing requirements. This module also helps you delegate key tasks like renewals and set up custom notifications to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

3. Requirements Research Engine—Powered by the Compliance Core™ algorithm, this module allows you to research detailed licensing requirements like filing fees, entity and ownership requirements, and guides covering the filing process for specific licenses to help you stay on top of all jurisdictional updates.

Getting Started With Harbor Compliance’s Software Suite

To take full advantage of our Software Suite, follow the steps below to request a demo:

1. Visit the Software Overview page.

2. Click on the Schedule a Demo tab.

3. Choose the time that works best for you and fill out the form.

4. Hit Request.

Additional Services by Harbor Compliance

Apart from helping organizations with their entity management needs, our services expand to other important tasks like BOI reporting and appointing/changing a registered agent. Explore the table below to learn more:

Service Category	Services
Document filing and retrieval	With our Drop-off Filing service, you can deliver key legal documents on time to your secretary of state’s office. We also help you retrieve important papers such as articles of reinstatement, certificates of authority, certified copies, and certificates of good standing.
BOI reporting	Rely on our BOI reporting service to centralize all your entity’s ownership information in one user-friendly platform, and let us submit the initial BOI report on your behalf and up to four updates and corrections annually.
Nonprofit formation	Expedite your nonprofit formation process using our incorporation service. We’re also experts at handling paperwork for 501(c) tax-exempt nonprofits and can help manage your registration process.
Entity lifecycle management	Whether it be initial requirements like DBA management and name reservation or dissolution tasks like withdrawal, we’ll be with you at every stage of your entity. Delegate repetitive work like filing initial and annual reports and obtaining amendments to us, and save precious hours.
Business licensing support	Use our licensing service to obtain general business licenses, as well as industry-specific ones, such as construction, engineering, etc.
Tax registration	We help entities get their Employer Identification Number (EIN) and manage their sales and use tax registration. Organizations can also benefit from our payroll tax registration service to enable multi-state payrolling immediately.
Registered agent	With local offices across the U.S., we can act as your entity’s registered agent regardless of your location. If you’re not satisfied with your current agent, you can use our Change of Agent Service to easily make the switch.

Choose Harbor Compliance for Seamless Entity Management

With a dedicated entity management system, you can easily consolidate all corporate information in one place and keep track of your legal entities’ standing with the state.

Partner with Harbor Compliance and use our Software Suite to get access to multiple modules that track your entity’s health, ownership data, tax information, and much more.

From automating your annual reports to compliance tracking, our platform hosts various solutions that help you save time and focus on your primary work. Start exploring our services today and schedule a free demonstration to see if we’re a good fit.

Wondering if your legal entity meets all current state requirements? Get a free Harbor Compliance Score™ to find out.