The route
Filing is a sequence. Most of the trouble is doing it out of order.
The steps themselves are not hard. What catches people is reaching one before the thing it depends on exists — applying for an EIN before the entity is approved, or opening an account before either.
Waypoints
The order a state expects
Nothing is published yet. These are the waypoints every state page will follow. The order is the part that generalises; the detail at each one is what changes between states.
Settle the name
Check availability against the state register and the designator rules before anything is filed. A rejected name resets the whole sequence.
Before filingFix the registered agent
A physical in-state address that accepts service during business hours. It goes on the filing, so it has to be decided first — including whether it becomes public.
Before filingFile the articles
The filing that creates the entity. Everything after this depends on it being accepted, which is why the next waypoint waits.
The filingGet the EIN
Free and direct from the IRS. Applying before the entity is approved is the most common way this step has to be redone.
After approvalPut the first report in the diary
The recurring filing is what keeps the entity alive. Missing it is how an entity reaches administrative dissolution without anyone noticing.
Year one, onwardHow this is written
What the steps are, and are not
Procedure, not advice
What a state requires is a matter of record. Whether a structure suits your situation is a question for someone qualified to look at it.
Sourced to the filing office
Every step cites the office that publishes the requirement, with the date it was read.
Nothing was filed to write this
No claim rests on having formed an entity. Where something is only knowable by doing it, the page says so.
Affiliate links are disclosed
Some links earn a commission. It never changes what a requirement says, and it is stated wherever it applies.