Secretary of State to offer free online business certification

DENVER, Oct. 9 -- Colorado on Oct. 20 will become the first state in the country to offer all business certification services online.

Customers currently pay to receive certification, either by mailing the Colorado Secretary of State's Office or visiting it in person.  Effective Oct. 20,  online services will be free.

"I'm excited that we can offer this valuable service to our customers in Colorado and nationally," said Mike Hardin, director of business and licensing for the secretary of state's office.

Certificates of Good Standing already were available online, but the following certificates will also be available free on the secretary of state website:

• Certificate of Documents Filed: provides certified copies of all documents relating to an entity or record in the secretary of state's database.
• Certificate of Document Filed: provides a certified copy of an individual document filed in the secretary of state’s records.
• Certificate of Fact of Trade Name: certifies that a statement of trade name for a specific name was filed with the secretary of state’s office and its effective date.
• Certificate of Fact of Existence: certifies that a constituent-filed document for a non-reporting entity was filed and that no dissolution document has been filed for that entity.

Each certificate will contain a unique confirmation number that can be validated on our website. In addition, each record’s history can be displayed in a print-friendly version.

Once this system is launched, our office will no longer issue certificates or certified copies in person or by mail. The new online certificates will be accessible via the Secretary of State’s Business Organizations pages.

For more information, please contact our office at 303-894-2200 (option 2) or by email at business@sos.state.co.us.