The Washington business entity search is a free public lookup inside the Secretary of State’s Corporations and Charities Filing System (CCFS), the official portal at ccfs.sos.wa.gov. You search by business name or Unified Business Identifier (UBI) number and see an entity’s status, formation date, registered agent, and filing history at no cost.
Founders check name availability before filing. Investors, lenders, and vendors run due diligence on partners. Existing owners confirm they are in good standing. This guide shows you how to use CCFS correctly, read the results, and order official documents, with every fee verified against Washington sources in July 2026.
What Is the Washington Business Entity Search (CCFS)?
The Washington business entity search is the Secretary of State’s free CCFS lookup at ccfs.sos.wa.gov, and it covers every entity registered with the state. That includes LLCs, corporations, limited partnerships (LPs), limited liability partnerships (LLPs), professional LLCs (PLLCs), and nonprofits, both domestic and foreign. The Secretary of State’s Corporations and Charities Filing System is the only official search tool, per the Washington Secretary of State.
A limited liability company (LLC) and a corporation appear the same way in results: name, UBI, type, status, and agent. The search itself is free; fees apply only when you order copies or certificates.
What Is a Washington UBI Number?
A UBI is a nine-digit Unified Business Identifier assigned when a business registers with the state, formatted with two hyphens like 603-123-456, per the Washington Department of Revenue. One UBI ties an entity’s records together across the Department of Revenue (DOR), Employment Security Department, Department of Labor & Industries, and the Secretary of State, per the Washington DOR.
Holding a UBI proves the business registered. It does not prove the business holds an active license or sits in good standing. Those are separate checks. Washington statute even requires each annual report to list the entity’s UBI number, per RCW 23.95.255.
Is a Business Entity Search the Same as a Business License Search?
No. Washington splits business records across two agencies, and the CCFS entity search only covers one of them. The Secretary of State’s CCFS holds formation, status, and certificates. The DOR Business Licensing Service holds the state business license, endorsements, and sole proprietors. Check both records under the same UBI for a complete picture.
| System | Agency | Where | What it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCFS (Corporations and Charities Filing System) | Secretary of State | ccfs.sos.wa.gov | Entity formation, status, registered agent, certificates |
| Business Licensing Service (BLS) | Department of Revenue | dor.wa.gov | State business license, endorsements, sole proprietors |
DOR license application fees vary by the endorsements a business requests, per the Washington DOR. There is no single flat license price.
How Do I Look Up a Business in Washington?
Open ccfs.sos.wa.gov, use the “Corporation Search” panel, and search by business name or UBI number. For more filters, click “Advanced Search” to reach the “Advanced Business Search” screen, where you can filter by entity type, dates, and registered agent, per the live CCFS portal. Results show name, UBI, type, status, formation date, agent, and principal address.
Search name variations to catch every match. Try both “Corp” and “Corporation,” and both “LLC” and “Limited Liability Company,” since punctuation and abbreviations differ between filings. Click any result to open the entity’s detail page with its full filing history.
What Do the Entity Status Results Mean?
An entity’s status tells you whether it can legally operate and whether it is compliant. The table below defines the statuses confirmed on the live CCFS, per the Washington Secretary of State. For due diligence, treat anything other than Active as a flag that needs explanation before you sign, lend, or invest.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | Compliant and in good standing |
| Delinquent | Annual report overdue; cures by filing; precursor to administrative dissolution |
| Administratively Dissolved | Failed to file reports or maintain a registered agent |
| Dissolved / Terminated | Formal end of the entity’s legal existence |
| Inactive | No longer active; retains a record |
A Delinquent entity restores good standing by filing the overdue report and paying the fee. Left unresolved, it moves toward administrative dissolution.
How Do I Check LLC Name Availability in Washington?
Search CCFS for your desired name; Washington requires names to be distinguishable within the same entity type, so “ABC LLC” and “ABC Inc.” can legally coexist, per the Washington Secretary of State. The search is preliminary only. Final approval happens at filing. To hold a name first, file a name reservation for $30 (for-profit) that holds it 180 days, per RCW 23.95.310.
LLC names must include “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” or “Limited Liability Company.” Corporations must include “Inc.,” “Corp.,” or “Incorporated.” You can screen candidate names fast with Commenda’s company name checker before you touch the state portal.
What’s the Difference Between a Business Name, a Trade Name (DBA), and a Trademark?
A business name registers your entity with the Secretary of State. A trade name, or DBA, is registered with the DOR on the Business License Application; it creates no separate legal entity and grants no exclusive rights, per the Washington DOR. A state trademark is the strongest of the three: Washington charges $55 per classification for a five-year term, per the Washington Secretary of State.
How Do I Run Due Diligence on a Washington Business?
CCFS discloses an entity’s registered agent name and address, governors or incorporators, principal office, filing history, and current status, per the Washington Secretary of State. It does not disclose ownership percentages, financials, or member identity beyond what filings show. That is the limit of the record.
Pair the CCFS record with a DOR business license lookup under the same UBI, since Washington’s two-system split means one search never tells the whole story. That cross-check catches an entity that formed with the Secretary of State but never obtained its state license.
How Do I Get a Certificate of Good Standing in Washington?
Order a Certificate of Existence, also called a Certificate of Good Standing, through CCFS for $20, delivered as a short-form express PDF by email, per the Washington Secretary of State fee schedule (accessed July 2026). It confirms the entity is registered and compliant, which lenders, banks, and other states require for foreign qualification.
The Certificate of Good Standing is not the Certificate of Formation or Incorporation. The formation certificate is your founding document; a $20 duplicate is available, and $180 is the fee to file formation, not a certificate fee.
| Item | Fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Good Standing / Existence | $20 | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Duplicate Certificate of Formation/Incorporation | $20 | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Certified copies | $10 + copy fees | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| LLC/corporation original filing | $180 + priority/delivery surcharge | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Annual report (for-profit) | $70 | WAC 434-112-085 |
| Annual report with delinquency fee | $95 | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Reinstatement | $140 + missed report fees | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Expedited service | $100 (about three working days) | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
| Same-day service | $150 | WA SOS fee schedule (July 2026) |
Standard queue times vary, so check the Secretary of State’s posted processing times rather than assume a fixed window.
How Do I Search for a Washington Nonprofit or Charity?
Nonprofits appear in CCFS as registered entities, and you search them exactly like an LLC or corporation. A charity that solicits donations may also need a separate registration under the state’s Charities Program, so donor due diligence checks both records, per the Washington Secretary of State. Verify the corporate record and the charitable solicitation registration before giving.
Nonprofit fees run lower than for-profit ones: a name reservation is $20, and the nonprofit annual report ranges from $20 to $60, per the Washington Secretary of State fee schedule (accessed July 2026).
When Does an Out-of-State Business Need to Register in Washington?
A foreign (out-of-state) entity doing business in Washington must register with the Secretary of State, after which it appears in CCFS. Under law changes effective June 11, 2026, a Washington-based remote worker alone no longer makes a foreign entity “doing business” in the state, per the Washington Secretary of State’s public notices. That single change removes a common trigger for mandatory registration.
The same June 11, 2026 update lets nonprofit corporations and LLPs file their Initial Report at formation with no additional fee, per the Washington Secretary of State’s public notices. If you are weighing entering the state, our Washington business registration guide walks through the full process.
How Commenda Helps With Washington Entity Compliance
A Washington entity search tells you today’s status; keeping that status Active is the ongoing job. Commenda’s entity management platform tracks annual report deadlines, registered agent details, and good standing across every state and country, so a Delinquent status never surprises you. If you are entering the state, our Washington business registration guide and Washington certificate of good standing guide cover the filings, and the compliance calendar keeps every deadline in one place.
Expanding beyond Washington? See our guides for California, Texas, and New York entity searches. Book a demo to get a free entity compliance health check across all your registrations.
