How to Choose an Online Filing Platform

Starting January 2024, millions of businesses nationwide will be responsible to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report, in addition to the regulatory reports already required – like the FBAR, Annual Reports, etc. Just like taxes, filing these regulatory reports manually can become complex, laborious, and time-consuming. The good news is that online filing tech platforms, like FileForms, make the process easier for business owners and decision-makers.

Before signing up with one online filing platform over another, you should understand what makes the platform you choose worth its weight or not.

An Online Filing Platform Should Be Easy to Use

If someone purchases a new vehicle, but it takes an electrical engineering degree to figure out how to use the turn signal or shift into reverse, it’s obviously not easy to use. The same applies to an online filing platform.

The platform you choose should be intuitive and walk you through a complex process with bite-sized, easy-to-understand steps while explaining why each step is important. This is especially true when the online filing process becomes more difficult with increasingly complex entity structures.

An inherent feature of an online platform should be its ability to save you time. You could go as far as to say that one of the most important reasons for using online technology to file reports is to save precious time. Time is our most valuable and scarce resource; what’s your time worth?

An online platform’s technology foundation should also be reliable and helpful. Aspects like exceptional customer service, mobile app support, and AI-powered resources for quick questions are all imperative to your experience as a user. Explore the website and published features of the online filing platform, checking to ensure expectations meet reality.

Security is Key

When using an online filing platform to submit regulatory reports, a business’ beneficial ownership information, and other sensitive financial information are at stake. Prudent business owners want to make sure the information they input is safe and secure.

A business’s online filing platform must have the proper technology and safeguards in place to protect sensitive data. The platform should have critical aspects of security like:

• All data is encrypted in transit and at rest utilizing state-of-the-art encryption standards.
• Careful consideration given for any employee that has direct access to your data, should the need arise for support purposes, and an audit trail is maintained.
• Third-party vendors through which data is passed are carefully vetted for security practices and only include well-known service providers, such as AWS and Twilio.
• User authentication utilizes a modern “secure by default” passwordless approach that reduces attack vectors and ensures the account is safe.
• Backend functionality utilizes a “serverless” architecture that ensures that the industry’s best security teams patch any operating system-level vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
• Third-party software libraries are constantly monitored for emergent vulnerabilities and updated or replaced should the need arise.

Another feature to explore using an online filing platform is data storage. Wouldn’t it be a pain to source all the information for one report, just to have to find it again for another report later on?

Good news! There is technology to make business owners’ lives easier. Even better news, FileForms employs that technology.

Your Online Filing Platform Could Be a One-Stop-Shop

There’s nothing worse than signing up for a product or service expecting one thing, only to be let down because it didn’t meet or exceed those expectations. It’s like going to a restaurant and paying good money for a juicy steak for it only to be full of gristle and overcooked.

Just the same, business owners should have high expectations for an online filing platform. Mainly, they will want the platform to be comprehensive and multi-faceted. What are some of the different comprehensive features of an online filing platform that make it superior to others?

Its Ability to Handle More than One Report

Suppose an online filing platform can save information, as a superior platform should. In that case, the platform and its advisors should also be able to handle filing your annual reports and registered agent services. The name of the game is comprehensiveness.

Let’s say, for instance, a business decides to use an online filing platform after seeing the new Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting requirement from FinCEN. Why stop there? What about foreign bank accounts? Why not choose a platform with competent advisors that can also help you file a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR)?

White-Glove Customer Service

The point of a successful business is to make money and provide superior service to its customers. Business owners should focus on what they do best rather than spend hours determining how to implement a new piece of technology in response to new governmental reporting requirements. After all, what good is a new piece of technology if it’s not intuitive and can be utilized effectively by the team?

A superior online filing platform comes with trusted advisors to walk business owners through the process of implementing the technology. Beyond that, the better platforms will come with a team dedicated to making sure reports are filed accurately and timely. This is done in a way that the consumer has to put forth as little effort as possible.

Data Storage

As a consumer, any online product you purchase that makes one say, “Wow, they really thought of everything!” is a superior product. The same goes for an online filing platform.

For an online platform, the ability to store and recall data later for completing future forms is key. As a business researches the product of its choice, pay close attention to whether or not it houses a data storage feature. No one wants to enter the same information over and over again, year after year, report after report!

Education on New Regulations

They’re called “trusted advisors” for a reason, right? When choosing an online filing platform, the end user wants to feel educated – not only about the product itself but about the regulations surrounding the reports it files.

Who is a beneficial owner required to file a BOI Report? When must a business disclose its foreign accounts on an FBAR? These are essential questions, and a superior online filing platform will have educational content available to its users to answer them.

FileForms is Your Trusted Online Filing Platform and Partner

FileForms is the superior online filing platform business owners are looking for! FileForms checks all the boxes: easy to use, secure, and comprehensive. Also, check out our entire educational library of content meant to prepare you for filing regulatory reports with ease.

Instead of stressing over new reporting requirements in a constantly changing environment, trust FileForms to oversee and file your regulatory forms. FileForms will be your trusted partner for everything from the new BOI report to your annual reports each year. Get started today!