“In the time it takes to order a cup of coffee, you’ll now be able to submit your application to form a business in Connecticut,” Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Tuesday.
Merrill, who is in charge of the state’s commercial recording division, announced that businesses will now be able to file the necessary paperwork to form a limited liability company online in a matter of minutes. The new online business formation tool launched a few weeks ago and “we think it will save businesses time and taxpayers money,” Merrill said.
It’s unclear how much money will be saved with the new online system because it was developed as part of a multi-million dollar contract with PCC Technology of Windsor.
Before the soft launch of the new online system, a business would have to mail, fax, or walk in with their paper form. Now, all they have do is submit an application online, Merrill said.
Seth Klaskin, director of the business services division, said more than 600 LLC’s have formed using the new system.
He said it took some time to develop the technology because of they needed to develop an option to select a third party “agent” for service. That agent has 48 hours to respond to an email created by the system and can either accept or reject it.
Under state law, the state still only has five days to reject an application for a new business, but the new online tool actually makes it less likely to happen because the online system won’t allow a business to choose the name of another existing business.
“We developed it so you almost can’t have a filing rejected for a standard rejection reason,” Klaskin said.
Other common reasons an application is rejected is because a person failed to sign or date the document, which won’t happen with the new online system because it will flag it and not let a person submit the application without filing in that field.
Klaskin said the average wait time now for approval is around one day because they come in “almost perfect.”
He said they’re saving money because there are fewer staff needed with all the automation, but Merrill was unable to say how much money that will save her office.
The new online system is available to Connecticut residents at the moment, but will be available to out-of-state companies in the next month.
There are about 30,000 LLCs registered every year in the state.